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In Reply to: Does the punishment outlive the Offense? posted by Acheick on January 20, 2003 at 13:05:24:
I can relate to the story about your son.
I have a daughter who is in prison for a very serious crime that she was a passive accomplice to. She too has turned her life around (in prison).
Of course most "family" crimes need to be forgiven if they happened long ago. Almost any of us, if we had found ourselves in a position of leadership, would have done our utmost to prove our "zeal" including some pretty bad abuses.
There were some people though that were not just zealous. I remember some who actually took pleasure in being as mean and oppressive as possible. These were not just misguided, they were reveling in oppression. In such cases I would think that at least a general apology would help others to forgive. Such an apology would be good for the person too. The first step of cleansing their hearts from the guilt.
