JUDGMENT versus understanding

[Oscar Carter]

Passing judgment, perhaps, is the single most egregious human act that limits the best of relations we can have with one another. If we were to respect, and in fact honor the choices of others, perhaps we could get to a place of understanding. Consider the extreme example that follows:

If one were to take the life of another, for whatever reason, and those who would choose such action as being intrinsically or morally wrong, as many do in the case of abortion, were to choose UNDERSTANDING instead, and the supposed perpetrator were open to understanding his or her action does not work for one or another, perhaps he or she would change their way and accept the consequences for their action.

President Obama reinforced the idea of reaching “common ground” last month in his commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame. And as well, India.Arie sings, “You’re only human. Let’s break free of this gravity of judgment and fly high on the wings of forgiveness;” Desmond Tutu writes, “In a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future;” Eldridge Clever writes, The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less,” and Pumla Gobodo-Madikzela, PhD., psychology professor and author of A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness writes, “An act of forgiveness sets the victim apart from the perpetrator, who failed to act humanly towards the victim at the time he committed his crime.”

blog comments powered by Disqus

[Oscar Carter]

"I cannot understand you," It is just like saying, "I have my heart closed to you,"

"Often the one who possesses malice is quite innocent, for his heart is reflecting the malice projected from another heart."

Hazrat Inayat Khan