Forgiveness is a very complicated word. Everybody has their own opinions and feeling about it. Everybody’s views are different; some people think someone should be forgiven while other people disagree with it. As long as man walks Earth, forgiveness will always be debatable.
Who deserves and doesn’t deserve forgiveness? Well, misdemeanors I believe are forgivable. Someone who has stolen, lied, cheated, etc. is in my eyes forgivable. These are things that will not completely ruin somebody’s life. Everybody gets to live life once and everyone should enjoy it while they are here. But, if someone comes along and ends your life or the life of someone you love, then I believe that’s where the line needs to be drawn. Murder is one of the major things that can never be forgivable because they are aware of the sick thing they are doing. In his essay response to The Sunflower, Dennis Prager agrees with my thoughts on murder. He states the beliefs of Judaism that “murder is unforgiveable” and “people can never forgive murder, since the one person who can forgive is gone, forever” (226). My second unforgivable deed is rape. The word rape alone makes me angry. Rapists shouldn’t even be allowed to ask for forgiveness because the raped are affected for the rest of their lives. Not only the people who are raped are affected, but they family may also be affected from it.
Even though I don’t think murderers of rapists should not be forgiven, it can be debated. Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower shows a great point of an example where forgiveness is debatable. He was a Holocaust survivor who, while in a concentration camp was asked for forgiveness from a dying Nazi soldier. The soldier told a story of how he killed a family. After he told this story he asked Simon for forgiveness. Even though the soldier was dying, there are some things that Simon can’t do for him. Simon even realizes he can’t help him when he says in his book “But surely you must know there are requests that one cannot and dare not grant” (71). Simon couldn’t make up his mind on whether or not to forgive the dying soldier. Yes the soldier killed people, but what needs to be considered is that he had to kill or he would be killed. He had no choice because of the Nazi party. After taking all of the considerations, was it possible to forgive the dying SS soldier? My opinion is that I could not forgive the soldier. Yes, I do feel bad for him because he had no choice, but how could someone live their life knowing that they have murdered multiple people including children. I would never be able to live with myself if I had done those things. Simons friend Josek believes that he should not forgive him by saying “You had no right to forgive him, you could not forgive him, and it is quite right not to accept his things” (75). But, Simon is entitled to his own opinion. The end of Simon’s book is just a big debate. He includes people’s opinion on the dying soldier situation. And after reading them, about half the people think that he should have forgiven the soldier; and on the other hand, about half the people think that the dying soldier did not deserve forgiveness.
I was always raised that you can forgive, but you cannot forget. My cousin Emily from Canada is 13 years old and she decided to come down and stay with my family for my graduation party. After the party passed and she left to return to Canada I recounted my graduation money and realized that I was missing 300 dollars. We came to the conclusion that it had to of been her that took the money because she had been the only other person besides my mom and my dad that had been in the house. My dad decided to call her mom to see if she might have known anything about it, and with shock, she saw that Emily had 300 American dollars in her purse. Her excuse was that she was given the money from my grandpa. My grandpa did not show up to my party so that excuse didn’t work. She then admitted that she had taken it after all and apologized. She then asked if I could forgive her. It took me about five minutes to think it over and give her an answer, but I forgave her. She is still young and has a lot to learn. I did not want her to feel like I didn’t love her. So even though I forgave her, it doesn’t mean that I won’t forget what she did. I will always remember to hide my personal belongings whenever she comes down, and my dad decided that it would be best if she didn’t stay with us when she comes down anymore.
The best way to describe forgiveness is to say, “Do you think they should be forgiven.’’It’s not up to what everyone else thinks, it’s up to the individual. What needs to come to mind though is whether or not what they did is unforgivable.