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FORGIVENESS FOR WELLNESS:
A NEGLECTED SCIENCE AND ART
RE-DISCOVERED
Seminar on a
forgotten factor in reducing disease risk
and achieving
optimum health and wholeness
Presenter:
Hedrick J. Edwards,
DHSc., MA, MSPH
Health Summit Convention
Sponsored by
Caribbean
Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventist
Health
Ministries Department
St. Johns, Antigua
and Barbuda
August 17-23, 2014
SEMINAR
OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this ten-hour seminar, participants who
attended and actively involved themselves in the learning opportunities
provided will have sufficient exposure to the philosophical, theoretical,
technical and practical aspects of the art and science of forgiveness to be
able to do the following:
·
Describe the role of violations and grievances
in the causation of human disorders individually, socially and globally.
·
Explain how unresolved crisis, including moral
crisis, impair the immune system and lead to disease
·
Identify specific health conditions associated
with chronic anger, vengeance and the unforgiving disposition
·
Trace pathways and processes in
psycho-immunology in relation to wellness
·
Define what forgiveness is and what it is not
·
Employ several models to clarify forgiveness and
wellness concepts
·
Methodically integrate the principles of
forgiveness and reconciliation in real life situations
UNIT ONE:
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
FORGIVENESS - A NEGLECTED
SCIENCE AND ART REDISCOVERED
“One of God’s better jokes on us was to give us the power to
remember the past and leave us with no power to undo it. . . There is no delete
key for reality. And it comforts us little to know that not even God can undo
what has been done. . . If we could only chose to forget the cruelest moments,
we could, as time goes on, free ourselves from the pain. But the wrong sticks
like a nettle in our memory.
The only way to remove the nettle is with a surgical
procedure called forgiveness. It is not as though were the remedy of choice
among other options, less effective but still useful. It is the only
remedy” (Lewis Smedes).
FORGIVING, WHEN YOU COME
DOWN TO IT, IS AN ART, A PRACTICAL ART AND SCIENCE, MAYBE THE MOST NEGLECTED OF
ALL THE HEALING ARTS. IT IS THE ART AND SCIENCE OF HEALING INNER WOUNDS
INFLICTED BY OTHER PEOPLE’S WRONGS - AND BY OUR OWN WRONGS. (L. Smedes, adapted).
A. THE
NECESSITY - BOTH PERSONAL AND GLOBAL
1.
Documentary 1:
Forgiveness Stories of Our time [50 minutes]
2. The
Case Against forgiveness
3.
The Case for Forgiveness
B. PERCEPTIONS
FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES
UNIT TWO: THE
PROBLEM
A. TEN REASONS WHY WELLNESS
IS INCOMPLETE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS
1.
The Nature of Violations and Grievances - Normal Abnormalities of the
Human Condition
2. Every person has had a grievance story –
Violator, Violated or Both
3. Self-righteous Defensiveness or Denial: A
Pathological Reaction
4. Hatred or Bitterness: Another Systemic
Pathological Reaction
5. The Immune System Challenged
6. Intensive Personal Impact of Unresolved
Grievance: Systemic Stress-induce Disorders
7. Extensive Social Impact of
Grievances – on Family, At Workplace, In Church, In Community, etc.
8. Some Scientific Correlates of Health and
Forgiveness
9. Alternatives to Forgiveness Generally
Complicate the Effect of Grievances
·
Repression of Grievance. Does Damage within
before showing signs without
·
Denial of Grievance. Living a lie. Neither Mind
nor Body Lies – they Cringe or Crack
·
Proactive Revenge to Prevent Anticipated
Violation. The complications
·
Reactive Revenge to Cure Experienced Violation.
Complexities of Retributive
·
Severe Sanctions: Incarceration for Violations -
Execution/capital Punishment
·
“Vengeance is mine”. Two reasons why God
reserved it for himself alone.
10. Forgiveness Deficits Contributes to more
Deaths than Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Cancer combined
B.
DOCUMENTARY 2: A GLOBAL GREIVANCE STORY [Peter
Jennings]
“Out of the mouth of babes” – Trauma! Anger! Hate! Prejudice! Fallacy!
Understanding! Forgiveness?
1. Group
Discussion: Complexities of Forgiving. Consequences of Vengeance – short tem
and long term.
2. Written Assignment.
State insights and understandings on forgiveness you derive from the
documentary.
C. TWO LEARNING MODELS
1. Ways of Relating: Centrality of the Zone of
Respect
2. Wellness Trajectory Options: Ending,
Descending, Transitioning, Ascending, Transcending
UNIT THREE:
THEORIES, CONCEPTS AND CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS
A. THE
INTER-DIMENSIONAL MODEL
1. Context
for a Forgiveness Paradigm
2.
At what Point or Points can Forgiveness be Located in
this Paradigm?
B. OTHER
IMPORTANT FORGIVENESS THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
1.
General Theological Concepts: Sin, Guilt, the Ethics of
Forgiveness
2. Ancient
Biblical Wisdom and Modern Scientific Observations Converge
3.
Forgiveness in Sabbath Rest, the Sabbatical Year, and
the Jubilee Year
4. The
Argument of Jesus: Role of Truth in Bondage and Freedom
5.
Critical
Crisis Theory and Post Traumatic Embittered Disorder (PTED)
6. Psycho-immunology and Some Mechanisms of Disorders
of Psyche, Pneuma, and Soma
7.
Other
Wellness Findings and Clinical Manifestation
C. DOCUMENTARY 3: A PERSONAL GIEIVANCE STORY – KARLA FAYE TUCKER
1.
Group Discussion:
2. Written
Assignment: Your analysis of and Reactions to the main scenes of the Documentary.
D. LEARNING
MODEL: BREAKING THE PATHOLOGY WITH GRACE INTERVENTION
1.
The Pathology cycle
2. Definition
of Grace
3.
The Many Forms of Grace
UNIT FOUR: PRINCIPLE AND DYNAMICS OF FORGIVENESS
A. PRINCIPLES
OF FORGIVING AND BEING FORGIVEN
1. Forgiving
is a Law of Life and a Way of Life – a Lifestyle
2.
Forgiving is Primarily for One’s own Good
3. On
its Highest Level Forgiveness is a Conditional Trust, not an Unconditional Gift
4. Some
Nice Things Forgiving is Not
5. Other
Principles and Examples
B. PRACTICING
THE SCIENCE AND ART OF FORGIVING
1. The
Ideal: How God Forgives
2.
Prepare for the Long Haul: Forgive as Often as You have
been Forgiven
3.
Forgiveness Discipline can be Learned. “If you can see
it you can be it”
4. Owning
Our Pain and grief
5. Taking
Our Time
UNIT FIVE: PATHWAYS TOWARD RECONCILATION
A. THE
MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: A GIFT
B. MODEL
PATHWAYS OF GRACE AND RECONCILIATION
1. The
South African Model: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
2. The
German-Jewish Model
3. The
Rwanda Model
4. The
Paul- Onesimus Model
C. WHAT
THESE MODELS TEACH ABOUT CREATING PATHWAYS OF GRACE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
·
When you forgive you set a prisoner free and
discover that you yourself are the prisoner freed
·
Chronic guilt, anger, and bitterness are
disorders that predisposes one to serious health risks
·
Forgiveness is based upon a choice to break the
chains of anger, hurt and vengeance
·
Forgiveness is the only remedy for healing
wounds inflicted by others and by ourselves
·
Forgiving someone else, yourself, or accepting
forgiveness sometimes require time and patience
·
Forgiving is a way of life, a lifestyle that can
be cultivated – not a single event or action
·
A wholistic health care system is enhanced by
integrating Forgiveness Therapy in its routine procedures
·
The forgiven and forgiving person has a solid
foundation on which to build a wellness lifestyle
·
Society will be healthier if families and
churches designate April 1 as Forgiveness and Reconciliation Day.
USEFUL REFERANCES AND RESOURCE MATERIAL
Books:
Fred Luskin. Forgive for Good.
A Proven Prescription for Health and
Happiness
Published by HarperCollins Inc. 10
East 53rd Street , New York , NY
10022
[http://www.harpercollins.com]
Lewis B. Smedes. Forgive and Forget.
Healing The Hurts We Don’t Deserve.
Published
by HarperCollins Inc. 10East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
[http://www.harpercollins.com}
Lewis B. Smedes. The Art of Forgiving.
When You Need to Forgive and Don’t Know How
Published
by Moorings. A Division of Ballantine Publishing Group. Random House, Inc.
Nashville, Tennessee
Robet D. Enright. Forgiveness is a Choice.
A
Step by Step Process for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope.
Published
by APA Life Tools. 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002
[www.apa.org]
Grace Ketterman and David
Hazard. When you can’t say “I FORGIVE YOU”
Breaking the
Bonds of Anger and Hate
Published by NavPress, P.O. Box
35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935
DVD Documentaries
As We Forgive.
This is an account of the struggles
and triumphs of the people of Rwanda in their effort to come to grips with and
find healing from the horrors of tribal genocide and irrational hate.
Distributed through Sound
Enterprises, Inc. 1325 W. 1st Ave, Suite 205, Spokane, WA 99201.
[www.asweforgivemovie.com]
The
Power of Forgiveness.
Featuring Nobel Laureate Elie
Wiesel, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Moore and Marianne Williamson
Producer and Director: Martin
Doblmeier.
[www.firstruefeatures.com]
Forgiveness
Stories of OurTime
Focuses on four individuals
who have lived through unimaginably painful events and their struggle to
forgive
Distributed by Lorder HT Digital, 56
W 56th Street Suite 805 ,
New York , NY 10036
The
Power of Forgiveness. The Story of Karla Faye Tucker
Distributed by Vision Video,
Box 540, Worcester, PA 19490
[www.visionvideo.com]
Healing America’s Wounds
A Call to Repentance and
Reconciliation
Global Network Productions, Inc.
1-800-862-6247
Invectus (The story of Nelson Mandela and the method
he used to triumph over the abuses of Apartheid)
Distributed
by Warner Home Videos, 400 Warner Street, Burbank, CA91522
Invictus.com warnervideos.com www.nelsonmandela.org