GroshLink

Last night I had the opportunity to preview The Power of Forgiveness at Elizabethtown College. Wow! Still processing through my response, particularly as to how I would introduce the concept of evil and critique self-help/positive thinking, when I schedule a discussion of this quite provoking piece after it shows on PBS this fall.

The evening began with some jokes to warm-up the audience, Don Kraybill declared E-town a major city due to it's hosting one of the 25 prescreenings of the film and Martin Doblmeier commented that his mom knew he was successful when Oprah expressed interest in the piece.   Through 7 short stories of personal and collective forgiveness, Doblmeier intends to make the point that forgiveness in itself runs counter to our culture and there is not conformity of thought by those who think about forgiveness. Some highlights of the material presented included:

1. U. of Wisconsin Madison's Bob Enright's educational material which seeks to plant forgiveness beginning in primary education and workings way up through Irish schooling, a long-term approach hard to imagine in the U.S., but after the film we learned there was interest in Milwaukee!