To be disgusted about schools 1 minute silence

[PugnRoll]

Extremely sensitive I know at this time....11am today the UK had a minutes silence in respect of the victims of Mondays attack, my dcs school included which I totally 100% support...what I don't support though was the schools stance on including the terrorist in their moment of silence, to pray & forgive him as it's" what God would have done" AIBU to be bloody disgusted, dcs know what he did was an evil & an abhorrent act something that wouldnt ever be forgiven.

AIBU to Think what the fuck were the teachers thinking?

Your child is in the right place if you're disgusted.

Miss Eliza - that was the poor girl's father. He had something to forgive, sadly, and that was his choice.

What are the children forgiving this bomber for? Do they have a concept of forgiveness that is separate to reslusing and feeling the severity of the crime? Or will it translate as "big crime - no matter, we forgive (what did we don't know)

Also, true forgiveness is in your heart, it's not something you can be told to feel. Encouraged to consider, maybe. You also have to know exactly what you are forgiving and why. Otherwise it's meaningless.

Intriguing (for this thread) development this morning, with papers reporting the bomber phoned his mother shortly before detonation, asking her to forgive him.

Repentance? Or 'I know what I'm doing, you don't understand' kind of lip service?

How do we know that's true, Maid? We'd only have his mother's word for it.

For sure, just chatting.

So all of you who say that you understand and value this forgiveness, would you forgive the mass murderer if it was your child who was murdered? Easy to be magnanimous and forgive when it s not your children.

Its a RC school, forgiveness is the heart of the religion.

"So all of you who say that you understand and value this forgiveness, would you forgive the mass murderer if it was your child who was murdered? Easy to be magnanimous and forgive when it s not your children."
No I wouldn't. Which is one of the reasons that the parents of murdered children should not have anything to do with the sentencing of the murderer.

And forgiveness is not the same as excusing....

what I don't support though was the schools stance on including the terrorist in their moment of silence, to pray & forgive him

I'm an atheist, so don't do praying or forgiving in that God way, but I don't think you should be disgusted. What the terrorist did was awful, inhuman, and wrong by any moral or ethical standard.

But if you are "disgusted" and return hate with hate, you are participating in his hatred. Let it go with compassion for what an awful state his mind was in and how terrible it is for a human being potentially so full of life & the possibility of doing great creative things - to be corrupted into such narrow inhuman hatred.

Don't add to the hatred. Be glad that you are not so hate-filled and life-destroying, and encourage living life openly & with compassion & fellow-feeling for those around you.

And forgiveness is not the same as excusing...

This. Just be the bigger better more human person, in the face of inhuman, life-denying fanaticism.

Have you heard of Gordon Wilson?

"In an interview with the BBC, Wilson described with anguish his last conversation with his daughter and his feelings toward her killers: "She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say." To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, "But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night." As historian Jonathan Bardon recounts, "No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact."

Christian school will do christian things. Depending on local interpretations of theology that will include praying for the perpetrator.

Given that its a Catholic school they will be well versed in praying for forgiveness for those who have harmed children.....

And forgiveness is not the same as excusing...

Absolutely this.

I have no religious beliefs. But I very much believe in loving and not hating.

The opposite of school children forgiving bombers is school children feeling hateful about it.

I agree with NimbleJumper and think that spreading hatred is just what terrorists are aiming for.
I doubt OP knows the exact wording - it is so easy for a report to not get it exact.

Thank you for that Bertrand.

Anthony Walker was murdered by racists in 2005. This is what his mother Gee said in 2015:

“Retaliation only intensifies hate, anger and bitterness. We’ve got to break the chain of hate. Someone has to do it.

“As my Anthony would say, ‘Mum, someone has to show them’.”

Nobody's explained yet what the children are to forgive this person for?

All the examples are of people who have had a loved one lost - and they have chosen to forgive for something that has directly been done to them (having a loved one taken away).

Were they told they had to forgive?

Also there is middle ground. You don't have to hate to not feel forgiveness.

What is the point or benefit in a group of school children (unconnected to Manchester) 'forgiving' (whatever that actually means) a mass murderer?

That they learn not to hate anyone? That hating would do them no good?

*Intriguing (for this thread) development this morning, with papers reporting the bomber phoned his mother shortly before detonation, asking her to forgive him.

Repentance? Or 'I know what I'm doing, you don't understand' kind of lip service?*

Cetrainly not repentance - if it had been that he wouldn't have gone through with it. What it implies to me is that he knew what he was doing was wrong but he did it anyway. And that is not something which should be easily forgiven. Try to understand the reasons behind it, yes. Avoid festering hatred because its bad for you. But forgive? If the people who were injured and who have lost loved ones find it a helpful concept, fine. But it really is meaningless to tell a bunch of kids to 'forgive' this.

During the minutes silence I prayed for the bomber as well as the victims. This individual was going to meet his maker after committing a truly evil act. Hating him or others like him isn't going to solve anything but praying for forgiveness might end these horrible times that we live in.

Forgiveness from God (the sort of forgiveness that you need in order to get into heaven) can only come after repentance and is usually followed by penance.

What the school was doing was asking humans to forgive - there doesn't need to be repentance in this case of peer-to-peer forgiveness - we have to forgive whether the transgressor repents or not. That's the RC doctrine. And it's for our own good and psychological healing and peace.

Pandora/ then why not say that instead of asking children to "forgive"? What you says makes more sense than just a wooly "forgiveness" (still, nobody has answered what are these children specifically forgiving him for!)