In a quick read, Mike Friesen describes the scientific underpinnings of why some are so easy to forgive and why others are so challenged by it.

I remember a Sunday School teacher threatening my class with a verse when I was a little boy, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” I remember him teaching that if you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven and you will be eternally separated from God. Forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity. It is at the heart of all soul work and social justice (because it is the product of the social injustice). I frankly get scared by some of the Christian teachers who teach you to will yourself to forgiveness. You just need to manage/control/forget what you feel, what you think. And, while this may be true of your mother eating one of your Sweedish Fish, it’s not true of someone who has say been abused or raped.

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