Nelson Johnson talks about his faith journey and the power of forgiveness as part of a new video and book study series on Christian character. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*
April 3, 2007 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

Forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap.

Two men who know firsthand about the cost have a lesson to teach: Forgiveness is a painful but necessary step on the way to the "good life" that God wants for each of us.

South African Methodist Bishop Peter Storey describes "amazing moments of forgiveness" that occurred at post-apartheid meetings beginning in 1996. Video grab.

"Living the Good Life Together" includes six studies that explore the key features of Christian character. In addition to forgiveness, the video and book series has lessons on attentiveness, intimacy, discernment, hospitality and integrity. Each study is designed to last 12 weeks.

The lesson on forgiveness presents dramatic stories and recollections from Johnson and Storey during two times in history when asking for forgiveness took a long time and a lot of courage. The perpetrators were men who had kidnapped, tortured and killed people.

Seeking forgiveness in South Africa

Beginning in the 1980s, the policy of apartheid in South Africa was bringing racial tension to the boiling point.

Storey described "amazing moments of forgiveness" that occurred during meetings of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which began in 1996 out of a political compromise to offer amnesty in exchange for truth to those who had committed the injustices of apartheid.

One blind woman, for example, heard her son's killer testify before the commission and confess to the crime. Gently, a commission member asked her, "Mama, what do you want to do?" and she replied, "I want to see the man." Led to him, she tenderly reached out and felt the contours of his face. "I have two things to tell you," she told him. "You need to know I am a Christian and I forgive you. But there is one thing you are going to need to do for me. You have taken my son, now you must be my son."

"The man fainted and fell to the floor," Storey said in the DVD. "Forgiveness is a very painful thing to receive. It is free, but it is not cheap."

Storey concludes by saying, "If a whole nation can seriously move in the direction of confessing its past, struggling with truth and reaching out in forgiveness, then surely to God, we can as individuals make space in our lives for those options."

A massacre in North Carolina

Johnson grew up in Halifax County, N.C., in a family that was "conscious of racial injustices."

He was further steeled for a life of working for social justice by an incident in 1960 when he was a teen.

"I was elected student government president of my high school. A friend and I went to the state student council which was on the other side of the state," he said.

The two young African-Americans were traveling by bus and, when better seats opened up, moved toward the front. "People started to ball up paper and throw it at us," he recalled. "A man stood up with a trench coat that he held up in one hand to block the view. With the other hand he just hit me on my head with his fist. The other people just looked out of the window as if nothing had happened."

In 1974, Johnson joined the Worker Viewpoint Organization, which later became the Communist Workers Party. On Nov. 3, 1979, a march and labor conference planned by a group of black workers in Greensboro, N.C., turned into the Greensboro Massacre when the Ku Klux Klan attacked and killed five of the workers.

"I was wounded along with 10 other people, and five dear friends were killed," said Johnson, who was charged with inciting a riot and jailed with a $100,000 bond. Meanwhile, the white men charged with murder were jailed on bonds of $50,000 or less.

The Christian faith entered his journey beginning in 1984 after Johnson had reached a "point of poverty" during which his hopes and dreams fell apart.

"I was groping for meaning, then I heard a sermon one Sunday on the Prodigal Son," he said. "I really started to discover Christ Jesus, and it was the beginning of my journey into faith."

Years later, Roland Wayne Wood, one of the self-proclaimed Nazis who participated in the Greensboro Massacre, contacted Johnson from a nursing home and asked to meet with the widow of the man he had killed. She and her son agreed.

Wood told them he knew God had forgiven him but that he could not forgive himself. "We joined hands in that room and we prayed together, and I asked him to accept his own forgiveness," Johnson recalled. "It was a moment of grace. In that room the wall came down and the glory of God was experienced."

Getting out of your comfort zone

The series is unique because participants are challenged to not only learn the Bible lesson based on Jesus' invitation to "come and see" (John 1:39), but to live it based on his commission to "go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37).

Forgiveness is one of six features of Christian character examined in a developing study series on “Living the Good Life Together.”

The Revs. Susan Pendleton Jones, director of special programs at Duke University, and L. Gregory Jones, dean and professor of theology at Duke, are the authors of the "Forgiveness: Letting Go" lessons.

Gregory Jones says Christians talk a lot about forgiveness, but often struggle to live up to the words. He notes that to "go and do" involves risk, change and challenges.

"We hope you will move out of your comfort zone," said Susan Jones.

Early reviews of "Living the Good Life" are enthusiastic. An adult Sunday school class at First United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, Tenn., has finished the study on forgiveness, and co-leader Darrell Hale said it has had a profound impact on the group.

"The 'come and see' phase was easy. That's a lot like other Sunday school lessons we have done. The 'go and do' was out of our box - out of our comfort zone," said Hale, describing how the class has since toured a child advocacy facility and other nonprofit organizations and become more involved in community missions.

"The video was so inspiring we spread each lesson over two weeks. We have a very easy talking group anyway, but I couldn't get them to hush so we could wrap up at the end of Sunday school," he said.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

related video

Nelson Johnson: "The same God that loves me loves my enemy."

Nelson Johnson: "I hope for more generosity, more justice ... for humankind."

Bishop Peter Storey: "Cost of forgiveness reverts back to a cross."

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Resources

Forgiveness: A Bible Study

United Methodist Publishing House