Hi, Bill Radke here. The story I connect with the most on this week's show is "Is Sorry Ever Enough." Three civil rights workers came to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964 to investigate the burning of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. The three men were murdered, and this week Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for their deaths. On our show, Mt. Zion's current pastor, Rev. William Young, talked about whether and how he can forgive Killen, and whether the trial was a kind of apology from the State of Mississippi. I was drawn to Rev. Young and his story because we hear so much in this country about being sorry, who's sorry, how sorry, and are they sorry enough? Young told me that whether Killen is sorry or not has nothing to do with forgiving him -- how many of us can say that? Imagine someone you can't stand. (A politician, perhaps?) Can you forgive that person? Do you want to? Now imagine trying to forgive a murderer who's touched your life. I'd like to hear your story. Have you struggled to apologize? Struggled to forgive? What did you learn? Maybe your story can inspire others. Please write to me at mail@weekendamerica.org, or post thoughts below.

Thanks - have a great weekend.
Bill

In listening to your stories on forgiveness this morning, I am reminded of one of the greatest lessons my mother ever taught me: It takes a great deal of bravery to ask for forgiveness but it takes even more to honestly grant it.

Why was that lesson so important to you, Erin?

The issue of forgiveness in a setting of racial persecution is alive and well for me. I was sent to a NC county to pastor a church of 60 elderly white persons. Much to my surprise I found the surrounding neighborhood filled with persons of color, particularly Hispanic Indian peoples. After 2 years I had a church of 125 Hispanic persons meeting seperately.
The rage of the white people was so great that they changed the locks on the doors of rooms in the church; insisted on having the Hispanics enter only by the back door, etc. Finally the church's hierarchy permitted the whites to evict the Hispanic people entirely. This ended not only their church but the after school program for 40 children. The year, you ask? 2003.
This was a sort of "spiritual holocaust" of 125 people who had no one else to care for them.
Now, 2 years later, the church remains as it was before -- empty all but 3 hours a week.
I left the denomination because of the apartheid practice. Now I ask myself:
when is forgiveness correct? Do we ask leaders of the Civil Rights movement to forgive the white people who set dogs upon them so that a destructive power system could remain in place? Should Nelson Mandela forgive the apartheid system?