Forgiveness

The Why Factor

Could you forgive the person who killed your child or who raped or tortured you? Some crimes, some events are so awful, so cruel, it’s impossible to imagine ever being able to say to the wrongdoer, ‘I forgive you’.

Mike Williams hears the stories of those who have experienced unimaginable pain and suffering at the hands of others. And discovers what it feels like to turn anger and desire for revenge against the perpetrators into compassion and understanding for them. What does the act of forgiveness mean to the offender? The programme explores how learning to forgive can make us happier and healthier. But how in some cases, the atrocity is so enormous that forgiveness is a step too far.

Contributors: Madeleine Black, Counsellor based in Glasgow, Scotland Robert Enright, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin, USA Martin Palmer, Theologian and Historian of religion Sarah Heatley, mother of Nina and Jack Kemal Pervanic, survivor, Omarska concentration camp during the Bosnian war

Presenter: Mike Williams Producer: Sally Abrahams

(Photo: Family standing on cliff edge with hills in background. Credit: BBC Copyright (with permission from contributor)