I thought the Brandt Jean case, this was one man dealing with a terrible thing in the way he thought best. It did bother me that people politicized this. Or made it about racial relations. It was not. It was about this one case. It did nothing for any other situation. I felt the way it was used was disrespectful to Brandt Jean.

I think our culture still does not get what forgiveness is. It is not saying it ok, it is not letting them off the hook, it is not releasing them of responsibility. It certainly does not mean to forget and put yourself in a situation where they can hurt you again.

It means letting go of your own anger, as you said at the beginning. It letting go of the resentment and hurt. It is deciding to not be a prisoner anymore.

It did blow my mind to hear people criticizing Brant Jean, and talking about forgiveness as though it was a bad thing.

It does not matter if the person repents or not. It does not matter what they do. Forgiveness is setting yourself free. Forgiveness is about you, not about them.

What benefit has anyone ever gotten out of hating, anger, hurting, resentment, strife and all the other negative emotions that follow when you are hurt? What good is revenge? I have gotten revenge before and it did not make me feel better.

Our culture does not know what forgiveness means. That is my take on it.