Yesterday champion boxer Danny Green sparred on air with perennial radio jock, Bob Maumill, over comments Maumill had made on air about Rolf Harris. Maumill had suggested that maybe listeners needed to forgive Harris. Green also wrote on Facebook about it and received around 70, 000 likes.
But, was Green correct, or was Maumill actually closer to the real meaning of forgiveness?
The word “forgiveness” is laden with meaning and misunderstanding.

For my money the late Nelson Mandela got it right and perhaps Green can learn from his life experience. When he says “Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it is such a powerful weapon.”

The clear message is that we are expected to forgive anyone who has hurt us because it is the right thing to do.

Many misconstrue forgiveness as somehow condoning the original behavior, as if saying that it is all right. Mandela does not condone the original behaviour; but he forgives.

We can never condone child abuse of any kind. By forgiving, we are not condoning; for me this is clear.

There are other ways to deal with forgiveness which include drawing on spiritual and religious beliefs.

Henry Nouwen writes about forgiveness with clarity and grace. “Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all of us love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour unceasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”

Or, perhaps, Green and his seventy thousand followers could watch the movie ‘Philomena’!