Forgiving a War Commander. Forging Community.

What happens when a mass killer asks for forgiveness? In Sierra Leone’s Fambul Tok (Family Talk) former combatants gather with victims around a bonfire to share their truth, seek forgiveness, and restore community. In this interview with Libby Hoffman, we follow the powerful journey of Mohammed Savage and others who went from committing atrocities to becoming advocates for peace. From traditional ceremonies to modern classrooms in Chicago and St. Louis, this grassroots model of healing is transforming lives. It’s not just about forgiveness—it’s about rebuilding trust, honoring culture, and showing what’s possible when communities lead their own healing.

#LibbyHoffman #CatalystforPeace #FambulTok #Forgiveness #PoliticalForgiveness #CommunityLeadership #RestorativeJustice #Reconciliation

Libby Hoffman

Libby Hoffman is the founder and president of Catalyst for Peace and author of the award-winning book, The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out. She creates space for those most impacted by violence and war to lead in building the peace and restoring social wholeness. She co-founded the Fambul Tok (Family Talk) program in Sierra Leone and has accompanied its growth from post-war community reconciliation to national policy framework, as chronicled in her books and the award-winning documentary Fambul Tok, which she produced in 2011. A former political science professor at Principia College, Libby has degrees from Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Williams College.

Where to Find Libby Hoffman

Website: libbyhoffman.com

Book: The Answers Are There: Building Peace From The Inside Out

Documentary: Fambul Tok

Catalyst for Peace: catalystforpeace.org

About Eileen Borris

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who has pioneered the concept of political forgiveness on the individual, community and national level. She has addressed the United Nations and has worked for over 30 years to build peace in areas of conflict around the world, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. Eileen is the author of Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness and the creator of Healing the Divide, a program that trains leaders and other individuals interested in applying the principles of political forgiveness to transform their lives and create social change.

Be Part of Eileen’s Community

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness newsletter

LinkedIn: Dr. Eileen Borris

Eileen’s book: Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness

 

00:00 Introduction to Political Forgiveness

00:41 Meet Libby Hoffman: Catalyst for Peace

02:24 The Origins of Fambul Tok

03:15 Challenges and Triumphs of Reconciliation

06:16 The Power of Community Healing

10:08 Bonfire and Cleansing Ceremonies

14:35 Stories of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

28:13 Applying Fambul Tok Principles Globally

33:43 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Power of Acknowledgment and Community

The Fourth of July is a time when Americans come together, not only to celebrate the birth of our nation, but to reflect on the values it represents and the gratitude and appreciation for our freedom. It is a time to build a better community, even in the midst of conflict and brokenness, and to strive for a more inclusive society. Luckily for us, there are communities around the world that have been able to come together after being torn apart by conflict and war, which teach us how to do the same, and how the role of forgiveness has played a powerful part in the healing process.

Receiving the Truth With Mercy

In my most recent interview, I spoke with a wonderful woman, Libby Hoffman, whose work focuses on repairing “fireproof containers of community” to hold the work that people need in their communities, recognizing that “handling the heat” is a good thing. She was inspired by the words of Anglican Bishop MacLeod Baker Ochola who said:

“Once the truth is known, it is very bitter for you to swallow. Truth is very deadly; it can kill. But how can you handle it? It is only through mercy. Mercy can let you hold it. If you want to carry live fire in your hands, you will throw it away because it will burn. But if you hold it in something good, that does not conduct heat, you can take the fire. So, it is the same with this, truth revealed — you can receive it with mercy.”

Bishop Baker Ochola’s words helped guide Libby in her work in Sierra Leone and with the post-war reconciliation program, Fambul Tok (Family Talk). Libby is the founder and president of Catalyst for Peace, and facilitated the growth of Fambul Tok into a national policy framework.

Forgiveness is deeply ingrained in the fabric of Sierra Leonean culture and was a powerful force in helping Sierra Leoneans heal from their civil war. This was illustrated in the powerful story of Captain Savage. Mohammed Savage was one of the most notorious commanders in the civil war. Many people say if the special court had indicted 14 people instead of 13, he would have been the next one. Savage was from Kono, the diamond district in Sierra Leone, where a majority of his command had taken place. He was so notorious for his gruesome killings that a pond, which turned into a mass grave, was named the Savage Pit. This pit was the place where decapitated heads and bodies of people he had killed were buried. In that community was another notorious leader who had killed and beheaded 17 members of his own family, Tamba Joe.

The Search for Tamba Joe

When Fambul Tok visited that community, there was considerable discussion about whether even to have a bonfire, the heart of the ceremony rooted in local culture and tradition. However, it was ultimately decided that the community would never be able to move on unless they could discuss what had happened. So, people spent months searching for Tamba Joe, hoping to find him and bring him back so he could apologize. The community wanted to let Tamba Joe know that he would be welcomed back to testify at the ceremony. Yet no one could find him. Was he out of the country? Was he dead? No one knew. And when there finally was a Fambul Tok ceremony, his sisters, including one named Naomi Joe, were there to speak on his behalf. When the father of many of the victims stood up to talk about what happened to his children, the sisters came forward to apologize for Tamba Joe. The father, who was testifying, forgave the sisters, which initiated a healing process and led to an agreement to work together.

After the ceremony, Naomi Joe and her sisters desperately wanted Tamba Joe to come home. People searched all around the country, and eventually Naomi Joe strongly sensed that Tamba Joe was no longer alive. Then someone asked her if Tamba Joe were found, would she have a message she would like to give him? Yes, Naomi Joe replied. Here’s what she said:

“What I have to tell you — don’t be afraid. Anything can happen to us. And everything has an end. There is time for crying. There is time for death. There is time for happiness. I believe with our apology at the bonfire for the role that you played, we have been forgiven. So, wherever you are, you should not be afraid to come home. But if you are not ready to come, at least let there be some communication between us. Now I have taken the responsibility to work together as a family. We have lost enough of our relatives in the war. Our mother is now dead. Our father is now dead. Our cousins died. Even our children died in this war — a lot of them. Please come home so that we can do some cleansing and sacrifices to all who have died. That is all I have to say.”

Tamba Joe never appeared, but the message meant for him found its way to Mohammed Savage. It was the first time Savage had seen such a message from people who had suffered during the war, a message that conveyed the villagers’ willingness to accept him back into the community. And for whatever reason, Savage felt the message was speaking directly to him. Savage needed people to understand his plight, that he had a conscience which kept him in a dark place, and he, too, was suffering in very private ways. He wanted to be free, yet he knew fingers were pointing at him. He knew he had to come clean.

The Apology of Mohammed Savage

Savage realized that if he could admit what he had done, he could then help to heal the communities where he had caused so much harm. Due to issues concerning the special court, it took 18 months before Savage was able to attend a special bonfire just for him, where he came face to face with many of the people he had harmed, acknowledged what he had done, and, in an astonishing moment, apologized.

In her book, Fambul Tok, Libby Hoffman relates how the villagers of his community accepted Savage’s apology, including the Paramount Chief, who at one time never wanted to see Savage, then changed his mind, saying, “I’ve begun to see him as a human being.” With time, Savage returned to the community, engaging in constructive ways. He became a member of the Fambul Tok staff and began to work with ex-combatants using his story to help them come to terms with the harm they inflicted on others and ensure there would be no repeats. His story illustrates beautifully how individuals touched by the power of forgiveness can be transformed and become agents of societal change. This is how individuals, through their journey of forgiveness, create social change and become forces of political forgiveness.

The Importance of Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement plays a pivotal role in the Fambul Tok process, just as it does in the process of political forgiveness: There needs to be an acknowledgment of the crimes committed by the perpetrators of the harm caused. Survivors also need to acknowledge the pain and suffering shared by survivors and perpetrators — as individuals and in communities — and to understand that those who harm, in many cases, are themselves victims of significant harm. There is the trauma of oppression for both sides. This is very difficult to see, especially with groups who have a history of violence toward one another.

What becomes harder for people to acknowledge is that there is decency in the perpetrator’s community, and therefore, not every person is collectively responsible. More difficult is the acknowledgement of humanity in each other: understanding that anyone is just as capable of causing harm as the other, if they were living under the same circumstances. This becomes part of the healing work that needs to be done for forgiveness to be transformative. People will need to be held accountable for their actions and then come together to make decisions on how to repair the community. Only then can new relationships be formed and forgiveness offered.

The Fireproof Container of Community

What can we learn from the Fambul Tok process that can be applied to community healing in the United States? It’s the strength of the community and the power of forgiveness. It was the people who decided to work together, committed to having the hard conversations, acknowledging the truth of the atrocities together in front of the community, and recognizing that the healing community could be a strong enough container to hold even the heat of egregious actions, such as those of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Not dealing with the past was paralyzing those communities and holding them back. The power of community created the space that supports tough, hard conversations, such as Fambul Tok. It is a commitment to move forward together and act! It is this power of communities coming together with their energies and resources that is a lesson we can all learn from.

To learn more about Fambul Tok and Libby Hoffman’s work, enjoy the Political Forgiveness episode, “Forgiving a War Commander. Forging Community.” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Forgiveness Heals Post-Election Violence, Kenya, 2008

Twenty-five women said “enough.” While politicians pointed fingers and communities burned, these women rolled up their sleeves, and rebuilt their world — one water pipe, one factory, one peace treaty at a time. Mary Noble, co-founder of Feminenza, was the woman who orchestrated this transformation. She learned forgiveness in the most personal way possible: when her husband left her for another woman. That betrayal, that pain, that moment of choosing grace over revenge, became the foundation for healing an entire nation. Fair warning: You’re going to want to share this episode with everyone you know.

Mary Noble

Mary Noble is the co-founder and CEO of Feminenza, a nonprofit organization, which had its beginnings in 2000 with a gathering of some 400 women from all corners of the world working toward a greater mutuality between genders. Feminenza promotes the long-term development of women as peacemakers, their roles in leadership and society, and their partnership with men to establish a more humane and peaceful world. Mary creates and leads training programs in forgiveness.

#Forgiveness #PoliticalForgiveness #PersonalGrowth #Healing Relationships #HealingNations

Where to Find Mary Noble

Email: forgiveness@feminenza.org

Feminenza: https://feminenza.org

Upcoming workshop: The Seven Pillars of Forgiveness

Forgiveness PoliticalForgiveness Feminenza MaryNoble WomenPeacemakers Kenya PostElectionViolence PeaceBuilding ConflictResolution

About Eileen Borris

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who has pioneered the concept of political forgiveness on the individual, community and national level. She has addressed the United Nations and has worked for over 30 years to build peace in areas of conflict around the world, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. Eileen is the author of Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness and the creator of Healing the Divide, a program that trains leaders and other individuals interested in applying the principles of political forgiveness to transform their lives and create social change.

Be Part of Eileen’s Community

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness newsletter: https://www.drborris.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dreileenborris

Eileen’s book: Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness

 

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

01:19 Mary Noble’s Personal Journey to Forgiveness

02:53 The Role of Forgiveness in Society

05:49 Forgiveness in Conflict Zones: The Kenya Experience

08:54 Empowering Women for Community Healing

17:21 Workshops and Training Programs

20:21 Personal Stories of Transformation

28:26 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Forgiving Our Enemies and Our Exes

Forgiveness can enter our lives in strange ways. For Mary Noble she was consumed with anger and pain when one day her husband announced that he was leaving her for another woman. Mary, founder and CEO of Feminenza, a nonprofit organization where Mary gives training programs in forgiveness, did not always support the belief in forgiveness. She was in shock over the end of her marriage — didn’t even see it coming. And for six months she was filled with anguish.

In the upcoming “Political Forgiveness: Voices of Peace” episode I interviewed Mary, who shared a dream that her husband came back, and in the dream Mary knew they were going through all the difficulties they had put each other through yet again. When Mary woke up, she realized that she needed to move on.

Forgiving Our Exes

During the course of that day the word forgiveness “landed” in Mary. In her heart of hearts, she wanted her life back. She wanted to be free of her anger, to forgive her ex and his lover. At that moment of truly wanting to let go, she felt something inside of her — as though a miracle had happened, a moment of grace where the anger totally dissipated replaced by feelings of joy. Mary realized this was not about her ex, it was about her inner healing. She recognized that there was something greater going on and, in that moment, she experienced the power of grace. An interior renovation took place where she was able to totally let go of her pain. In her sincere desire to let go of her anger and resentment Mary was able to experience grace, and all of a sudden the anger was gone. That is the miracle of forgiveness and it can happen to anyone.

Forgiving Our Enemies

This experience was so powerful that it stayed with Mary and 20 years later, as she was developing programs for Feminenza, the issue of forgiveness kept coming up. This inspired Mary to engage in a two-year study of forgiveness, asking herself questions such as, “Why should we forgive?” and “What about the perpetrator.” She realized that as a society, as a human race, the lack of forgiveness is enshrined in what we consider the right way to go: you know, vendettas, tit for tat, sweet revenge — the things we believe are okay to do. All of this affects our ability as a human race to evolve, to become better human beings. Then a Congolese pastor who worked at the United Nations sat down with Mary and pulled out pictures of mutilated bodies. Mary asked what was she looking at and he replied, you are looking at the result of the civil war in the Congo and the lack of forgiveness. Generation after generation, leader after leader, each one comes into power and massacres everyone who was there before. Then the pastor said, “I think, Mary, forgiveness is the only way out of this.”

So how do we heal what has been passed down from generation to generation? Forgiveness is about the art of healing. This is what Mary was doing — creating a certain ecology in her workshops that is so warm and loving that it provided the space and the opportunity for people to release at least some of what they were holding on to.

Peeling the Layers

When we are willing to engage in a forgiveness process and are willing to do the work, it is like peeling the layers of an onion. We begin to deal with our anger, our fear, our guilt. We give ourselves permission to mourn. And then we can begin to release pain and sorrow and in that releasing we begin to remove blocks to the ability to love. That’s the profoundness of forgiveness. We don’t necessarily think about it in that way, but there are many levels of forgiveness from the pragmatic, letting go of pain and suffering, to the sublime, knowing grace and the face of God.

Through the work of forgiveness, we develop the ability to connect with our humanity. That interconnectedness can become very powerful — that what I see in you is what I also know is in me, because we are all part of the human condition. As we go deeper into the forgiveness process, we begin to understand what it really means to love: I can see you in your entirety. The deeper we begin to recognize what it means to be human and get in touch with our own humanity, the more we peel off those layers, the more we are also learning about what real love is. And if we can get to a place of being able to love someone — even though they may have harmed us deeply — that is the highest form of love we will ever really know.

Forgiveness: When to Raise the Heat?

This frank exchange asks: How do we hold space for grief, for truth, and for those not ready to reconcile? Eileen and Julia Roig explore the tension between raising the heat to disrupt complacency and calming it to build connection. From grassroots organizers in northern New York confronting ICE raids to Republican leaders standing up for farmers in the age of tariffs, we need to incentivize courage, says Julia and make harassment backfire.

Julia Roig is the founder and chief network weaver of the Horizon Project, where she focuses on strengthening connective tissue between social justice, bridge building and democracy. She has more than 30 years of experience working with democratic change and conflict transformation around the world.

Where to Find Julia Roig

LinkedIn: @Julia Roig

The Horizons Project

Vista newsletter

https://horizonsproject.us

Mentioned in the Episode

Resource kit for responding to threats of violence and harrassment

Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence

Loretta J. Ross TED Talk

Don’t call people out — call them in

Loretta J. Ross book

“Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel”

About Eileen

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who has pioneered the concept of political forgiveness on the individual, community and national level. She has addressed the United Nations and has worked for over 30 years to build peace in areas of conflict around the world, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. Eileen is the author of Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness and the creator of Healing the Divide, a program that trains leaders and other individuals interested in applying the principles of political forgiveness to transform their lives and create social change.

Be Part of Eileen’s Community

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to Political Forgiveness newsletter:

https://www.drborris.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dreileenborris

Eileen’s book: Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness

Time Codes

00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome

00:41 Guest Introduction: Julia Rogue

01:13 Julia’s Background and the Horizon Project

03:04 Connecting Communities for Change

05:21 Frameworks for Societal Healing

08:29 Challenges and Resistance in Dialogue

09:58 The Role of Historic Memory

15:02 Building Solidarity Networks

25:14 Rotary Forgiveness Training Program

28:54 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

The Heat of Resistance Meets the Cool of Dialogue

Within groups in the peacebuilding community there are differing opinions as to what needs to happen and how to deal with the current authoritarian resurgence. Do we need to heat things up, resist and cry out for social justice or do we need to cool things down and work towards bringing people together in a healing capacity. People are taking different approaches as to what needs to happen.

Shaking Things up With Resistance

In my most recent podcast, Julia Roig spoke of these tensions in the peacebuilding field where some groups want to heat things up through resistance, while others want to cool things down through such means as focused dialogue. We witnessed Senator Cory Booker heating things up in his 25-hour, record-breaking speech with the intention of disrupting business as usual in the United States Senate. There were also Republican leaders standing up for farmers on the receiving end of the tariff policies in rural America. We are now beginning to see a movement within the Democratic Party as leaders shift from trying to find common ground with Republicans to standing their own ground and articulating their own vision. The barn-burning speech recently given by Democratic Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is an example of that, as he urged Democrats to stop listening to the over cautious “do-nothing political types,” when Americans need to take urgent action and fight everywhere and all at once.

Rallies have been taking place throughout the 50 states, which include civil rights organizations, labor unions, Federal workers, veterans, and LGBTQIA+ advocates, to name a few. People from all walks of life are having a change of heart and want to be part of a different future for our country — we need to create on-ramps for their acceptance and welcome them into the broadest possible movement. As Reverend C.T. Vivian, aide to Dr. Martin Luther King said: “When you ask people to give up hate, then you need to be there for them when they do.” Government is meant to work for all of us.

So where does a process of political forgiveness fit within all of this, and how do we work through tension and conflict to offer viable pathways for acknowledgement, healing, and reconciliation? Given the political climate we’re living through with the dismantling of our democracy, it’s more important than ever to find ways to come together. How can change and accountability be pursued without alienating each other? How we deal with the pain and harm done to all of us will determine our future together, raising the potential of bringing us closer together with greater clarity and profound healing.

An Historical Accounting

Raising the heat is not about initiating violence. It is about shaking people out of complacency. It is about getting people to recognize harm done and to acknowledge the role all of us are playing. This builds tension between those who want to raise the heat and those who want to cool things off and bring people together. But what about a framework that can do both? It begins with a resistance movement to heat things up so we come out of denial. Only then can we heal anger and hate on the path to forgiveness and societal change. We have seen resistance in civil rights movements that grabs people’s attention. In a justice-seeking framework such as a truth and reconciliation commission, we’ve seen there needs to be an historical account of what has taken place, an acknowledgment of crimes and injustices committed, and which continue to happen, before there can be reconciliation or an agreement of non-repetition.

“When you ask people to give up hate, then you need to be there for them when they do.”  — Reverend C.T. Vivian, aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In a political forgiveness process groups must agree to stop the harm before coming together. In order to do that, there may be a need for resistance as a first step. In a political forgiveness process stories need to be told that provide historical context and a sharing of lived experiences before moving toward forgiveness. There needs to be recognition of the injustice that took place and perhaps acknowledgment of the existential nature which created the conditions for people to do horrific things to one another. People will need to be held accountable for actions taken and then come together in making decisions as to how to repair the community. Only then can new relationships can be formed and forgiveness offered.

Not everyone will be ready to do this kind of work — to share the historical framework that shaped who they are — which not only requires sharing the psychological landscape from which they came, but also being willing to go deep within themselves emotionally, grieving the losses and what they wish could have been, in order to make peace with the past. Deep healing takes time; this work cannot be rushed. Empathy for someone else can’t be given if we can’t get in touch with our own pain. Only after we become aware of our humanness can we understand the humanity of the “other.” It is only then that we will be able to find each other across differences, hear the diversity of lived experiences, and find a way of moving forward together.

SOURCES

Heather Cox Richardson, April 29, 2025, Substack

The Practice of Forgiveness With Dr. Loren Toussaint

Does time really heal all wounds? In this engaging podcast episode, host Eileen Borris talks with health psychologist Loren Toussaint about the multifaceted nature of forgiveness. They discuss how forgiveness is an intentional process akin to developing healthy habits, debunking the myth that time heals all wounds. The conversation delves into how forgiveness can be practiced daily to improve mental health and social relationships.

Eileen and Loren also explore the role of spirituality in forgiveness and the applicability of forgiveness principles in building cohesive communities. The episode aims to elevate understanding and practice of forgiveness in both personal and political spheres as a means to foster social change.

Dr. Loren Toussaint is a professor of psychology at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. His research examines and encourages “everyday forgiveness” to build resilience and minimize stress in families, schools, healthcare, workplaces, and communities. Everyday forgiveness is taught through the Forgiveness Foundation which is an education and outreach organization emphasizing the role of forgiveness in building resilience and encouraging personal growth. Dr. Toussaint and colleagues recently published a compendium of research titled: Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health.

Where to Find Dr. Toussaint

Facebook: @loren.toussaint

Twitter: @LorenToussaint

LinkedIn: Loren Toussaint

Email: touslo01@luther.edu

forgivenessfoundation.org

luther.edu/faculty/loren-toussaint

 

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who has pioneered the concept of political forgiveness on the individual, community and national level. She has addressed the United Nations and has worked for over 30 years to build peace in areas of conflict around the world, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. Eileen is the author of Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness and the creator of Healing the Divide, a program that trains leaders and other individuals interested in applying the principles of political forgiveness to transform their lives and create social change.

Be Part of Eileen’s Community

Subscribe to the Political Forgiveness newsletter at drborris.com or on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to the Political Forgiveness podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Book: Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness

 

00:00 Introduction to Political Forgiveness

00:45 Meet Loren Toussaint: Expert on Forgiveness

01:20 Defining Forgiveness: Beyond Letting Go

04:58 The Intentionality of Forgiveness

07:16 Forgiveness as a Daily Practice

12:33 Building Forgiving Communities

21:22 Spiritual Foundations of Forgiveness

31:45 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Forgiveness and Social Change

Humanity finds itself at a crossroads. Will we let our anger and fear guide us, or will we take a breath and recognize there’s a better way to handle the emotional turmoil so many of us are experiencing. We do have the tools within ourselves to see a larger picture of what’s really happening within our world and make changes to have a healing effect, not a divisive one.

All of us have flaws. All of us are afraid and feel that we have been treated unfairly. That is part of the human condition—but acting out anger to hurt others doesn’t have to be our default. Anger does serve a purpose. Either something within ourselves or outside ourselves needs to change and therefore we need to take responsibility for our lives and our world. But responsibility doesn’t imply being hateful and uncaring. It doesn’t mean denying the pain and suffering people are feeling and unwillingness to understand the experiences of others for fear that something is being taken away from us. We’re all in this world together, and the choices we make bring either comfort to one another or pain and suffering. This is why building skills of forgiveness in our personal lives becomes critical.

Political philosopher Hannah Arendt in her book The Human Condition writes, “Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would be confined to a single deed.” The beauty of forgiveness, as noted by Arendt, is that forgiveness interrupts otherwise automatic processes. Forgiveness allows people to break away from violence and helps to create new relationships. The willingness for us to forgive is what holds us together—not only in our private lives but also in the public sphere—for forgiveness is as vital in our deepest personal bonds as in our collective experience in the public realm. Poet and philosopher David Whyte speaks of forgiveness as assuming a larger identity than the person who was first hurt.

What does forgiveness do as a political tool? It becomes the healing mechanism for actions we cannot reverse. Although forgiveness is seen by many as an act of compassion in response to something done to us, Arendt believes that forgiveness is an activity of politics. Understanding that certain actions cannot be undone, forgiveness is the only mechanism which can release us from the past.

“The power to forgive, like the power to enter into new social covenants, is an essential power for social change,” says Arendt. Holding on to the overpowering undertow of revenge, hostility, and resentment can tie up a society its own past. We can condemn the actions while continuing to talk to those who perpetrated the actions. This kind of power is what builds and maintains societies. It is liken to the power attributed to God in which he/she must reconcile the ‘conflicting truths’ of hatred for the sin and love for the sinner. Any power that affects reconciliation is a very significant power. What political task is more difficult than to build social relationships between humans who have a history of offenses against each other?

In The Politics of Peace, Brian Frost speaks of forgiveness in the following terms:

The power to combine justice and love in an act of forgiveness is an awesome power, supremely in the God of Abraham and the God of Jesus. But, as we have seen, if for Jesus, too, the divine power to forgive was unique, it was not exclusive. Humans now must share that power towards each other. To refuse to forgive is to refuse to repair a broken relationship. To forgive is to save that relationship. In the “divine comedy” that plays out its course down to the end of the historical tragedies of humanity, forgiveness is the way of divine victory (my italics).

Frost continues to say that in terms of the Hebrew-Christian view of the world, “broken human beings are more valuable than the laws that they break or that break them. Most valuable of all is an act which restores law’s authority while also healing the human brokenness. Forgiveness is that act.”

Sacred traditions have a deep understanding of human psychology and tell us that the development of the ego is not the final state of human evolution. Sacred traditions originate with people revered as highly developed, whose wisdom and insight far surpass that of ordinary mortals. Thus, the idea that humans can grow beyond ego to divine self-transcendence is crucial to our understanding of forgiveness. If ego is that state of consciousness which seeks to dominate, conquer, and control, then the cure for violence and hatred is expanding consciousness beyond ego. True happiness can only be found through a sense of wholeness and harmony with others and the environment. Our thought system, because of the psychological dynamics it sets up, creates feelings and illusions of separation. The consequence is that we cannot experience our wholeness. This thought system is transformed not through repression or regression, but through transcendence of the illusion of separate selfhood. The process which makes transcendence possible is one which helps us grow in our wholeness, owning our disowned selves, and healing our guilt and fear. It is the process of forgiveness.

The ageless wisdom gives us insight into the evolution of consciousness. This evolution is based on the recognition of the divine nature of humanity. It is also closely tied in with the recognition of our natural goodness and our ability to know unconditional love. Humanity is at a turning point and to face the present challenges we need to grow psychologically and spiritually. Perhaps in humanity’s struggle and the realization that violence and condemnation are creating more pain and suffering we will learn to make different choices. Sometimes our greatest advances may come from our seemingly greatest mistakes. With free will, we will realize that it is not out of coercion or fixed determination but of the power of love that our best choices will be made.

Special Podcast Preview! Season 1

Inspiring Forgiveness Stories and Expert Guests

I’m so excited about the interviews I’ve been doing for Season 1 of my new podcast, Political Forgiveness: Voices of Peace, that I can’t wait to share them with you. So here’s an exclusive preview of some of my upcoming guests — experts in the field, sharing their knowledge and insight, speaking to the power of forgiveness in the healing of individuals, our communities, and our nation. Humanity is at a turning point, and to face the present challenges requires psychological and spiritual growth through forgiveness.

“A lot of people talk about forgiveness theory, and I’m turning theory into practice.” — Dr. Eileen Borris

 

Meet Your Host

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who’s worked in war-torn nations like Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Ethiopia to build forgiveness and reconciliation. She’s also the author of Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness. Eileen has spoken to members of the UN and develops pioneering programs around political forgiveness.


Listen to Episode One Now! Dr. Fred Luskin

Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, Dr. Luskin is the author of several best-selling books on forgiveness. He teaches mindfulness and happiness to business executives from around the world and has been interviewed hundreds of times in worldwide media.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or most podcast apps.

LISTEN NOW!


Coming Soon!

New episodes drop on the second Wednesday of every month.

Dr. Loren Toussaint

A professor of psychology at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Dr. Toussaint is a researcher examining virtues, especially forgiveness, and how they are related to health and well-being. He directs the Laboratory for the Investigation of Mind, Body, and Spirit at Luther College.

Father Leonel Narváez

Father Narváez is a priest and sociologist with the Consolata Missionaries and has participated in peace negotiations in East Africa and the Amazon. He founded the Foundation for Reconciliation based in Bogota, Colombia, where he developed the ESPERE methodology based in forgiveness and reconciliation.

Mary Noble

Mary Noble is the co-founder and CEO of Feminenza, a nonprofit organization, which had its beginnings in 2000 with a gathering of some 400 women from all corners of the world. Feminenza works towards a greater mutuality between genders to establish a more humane and peaceful world. Mary gives training programs in forgiveness. And her work in teaching about forgiveness is extraordinary.

Libby Hoffman

Libby Hoffman is the founder and president of Catalyst for Peace and co-founder of Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone. Her award-winning book The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out chronicles the journey of Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone from post-war community reconciliation to national policy framework. She also produced the award-winning documentary, Fambul Tok.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Amb. Chowdhury has been a career diplomat and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations. He held many positions of leadership within the UN and UNICEF. As president of the Security Council he was instrumental in many groundbreaking resolutions on women, peace and security, including the adoption of the landmark program on the Culture of Peace by the UN General Assembly.

Julia Roig

An organizer at heart, Julia Roig is the founder and Chief Network Weaver of the Horizons Project. She focuses on building broader alliances for pro-democracy movements and weaves narrative engagement across differences. She is a renowned public speaker, facilitator, trainer, and author, able to connect deeply with different constituencies within civil society, social movements, governments, and corporations.


Book Time With Eileen Now

Personal Forgiveness Coaching

Want to go deeper with a personal forgiveness issue? Eileen is available for remote, one-on-one personal consulting, and to help you let go of your emotional pain. LEARN MORE

Forgiveness Consulting

The process of forgiving creates openness, authenticity and teamwork. Contact Eileen today to work with your organization to manage a transition, encourage a culture of forgiveness or more. LEARN MORE

Inspirational Speaker

Your civic group or conference audience can enjoy an informative and engaging conversation with Eileen as they ask questions during her keynote in the style of a “living room conversation” format. LEARN MORE

The Power of Forgiveness With Dr. Fred Luskin

How do you move beyond grievance to become an active creator in your own life? Dr. Eileen Borris interviews Dr. Fred Luskin to break down common myths around forgiveness. They discuss how an Amish community forgave a shooter who murdered five schoolchildren. If you weren’t born into a culture of forgiveness like the Amish, Fred talks about the building blocks of forgiveness to get you started. It is possible to step out of victimhood and open to the beauty, preciousness, and gratitude of this life.

Dr. Fred Luskin is the director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects. He’s also the author of the bestselling books, Forgive for Good and Forgive for Love. Forgive for Good is the best-selling self-help book published on the topic of forgiveness. Fred has been interviewed hundreds of times in worldwide media, including the New York Times, O Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, and he has been featured on the Today Show and CBS Morning News. Learn more at fredluskin.com.

Dr. Eileen Borris is a clinical and political psychologist who has pioneered the concept of political forgiveness on the individual, community, and national level. She has addressed the United Nations and has worked for over 30 years to build peace in areas of conflict around the world, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. Eileen is the creator of Healing the Divide, a program that trains leaders and other individuals interested in applying the principles of political forgiveness to transform their lives and create social change.

Subscribe to the Political Forgiveness newsletter at drborris.com or on LinkedIn.

Subscribe to the Political Forgiveness podcast on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Facebook: @DrEileenBorris

Book: Finding Forgiveness: A 7 Step Program for Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness

Timecodes

00:00 Introduction to Political Forgiveness

00:43 Meet Dr. Fred Luskin

01:40 The Culture of Grievance

09:20 Understanding Forgiveness

11:06 The Role of Victimhood and Anger

13:29 Forgiveness in Communities

15:26 Daily Practice of Forgiveness

17:32 Forgiveness in Relationships

26:52 The Teachability of Forgiveness

29:40 Conclusion and Resources