Vietnam veterans haunted by guilt-ridden memories of the past. In one remarkable story, a pilot who organized a napalm bombing in Viet nam in 1972, an incident publicized by a widely seen photograph of a young girl running in flames, meets her years later at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. She forgave him, and they continue a healing friendship. Drawing from present-day experiences, Ar nold posits that punishment does not bring closure to the sufferer, that only forgiveness brings closure. Al though forgiveness is not the same thing as removing responsibility, and punishment can be accompanied by forgiveness, Ar nold stresses the need for finding peace through forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a gift.
The only answer to ra cism and bigotry is seeing that we are all capable of bigoted behavior and all in need of forgiveness, and that we are all fallible human beings, hiding behind self-justification. In a tale of the Black Forest town swept in 1844 by a wave of confession that started with the confession of one repentant man, Arnold illustrates the cleansing, unburdening, and breaking from old ways that comes with acknowledging our faults to another. Jamal only shows that not everyone is ready for the ra dical and still po litically incorrect Christian message of forgiveness. For it is a profoundly Christian and yet also profoundly counter-cultural message that Arnold urges when he says we must forgive even acts most people would consider un forgivable. If any event could be considered unforgivable, it was Christ's own betrayal and death.