Religion and Politics

A Scholar of Forgiveness Explains What Makes a Good Public Apology for Sexual Misconduct

Vox’s Tara Isabella Burton interviews L. Gregory Jones, the dean of Duke Divinity School and a scholar on forgiveness. On the nature of forgiveness in the #MeToo era, Jones said, “The challenge is that the best examples of repentance don’t require a public outcry and exposure, but wanting to clear one’s conscience on their own.” He adds, “In countries like the US or South Africa where you have multiple faiths, you nonetheless have a sense – and this is kind of the power that Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu exhibited in South Africa, or Abraham Lincoln had in the US – that the future involves some kind of healing of the past, and forgiveness, and in the process of doing that, you need some kind of ritual or liturgy to make that possible.”

Read at Vox

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