Forgiveness for Wellness

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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 53^rd 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 53^rd 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. 1^st 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  56^th Street Suite 805, New York, NY 10036 [www.alivemindmedia.com]

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.

            www.globalnetworkproductions.com

            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