{"id":744,"date":"2011-05-23T18:21:34","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T22:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livingarguments.com\/?p=744"},"modified":"2011-05-23T18:21:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T22:21:34","slug":"the-power-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/?p=744","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the great joys of having a smart phone is access to news anytime I want it. \u00a0I pulled up the CNN app the other day and found an interesting article about Rev. Kelvin Croom and George Wallace<\/a>. \u00a0While I actually enjoy history, I must admit that my American History class in high school was somewhat lacking. \u00a0We didn’t get much past World War II, and it was an AP class. \u00a0I think I was one of the only people to score high enough to get college credit in the class. \u00a0As a result knowledge on the later lives of many of the more infamous figures of the Civil Rights movement requires me to take a trip to Wikipedia or stumble upon it by accident.<\/p>\n

Most people are familiar with Wallace’s inauguration address espousing the continuation of segregation forever. \u00a0Many are also familiar with his attempts to block integration of the University of Alabama and various primary schools. \u00a0Most don’t know the story of Wallace’s interaction with the African American community in later years. \u00a0In his third and fourth term as governor, Wallace made a concerted effort to reconcile with the African American community. \u00a0He offered apologies and appointed a significant number of African Americans to positions within the state of Alabama. \u00a0Wallace stated his motivation was a “born again” experience. \u00a0His critics stated he did it to gain more votes.<\/p>\n

I honestly can’t judge George Wallace’s motivations in his later terms in service. \u00a0My hope and prayer is that he was sincere in his change of stance. \u00a0What I can state is that I was uplifted by the CNN article<\/a> discussing Rev. Kelvin Croom’s interaction with George Wallace. \u00a0As a young man in 1978, he went with his father to talk with George Wallace about his previous stances. \u00a0Croom was there when Wallace made one of his apologies to leaders in the African American community, and he decided to forgive him.<\/p>\n

Having grown up in a predominantly African American church, I have been exposed to many people who could not forgive. \u00a0They were weighed down by the memories and pain of their pasts. \u00a0As a result, they could not move forward with their lives. \u00a0The spent so much time recounting past wrongs that they were unable to live in the wonderful future others sacrificed so they could have. \u00a0Rev. Croom’s attitude is what we should aspire too. \u00a0It has allowed him to be free of the past and be healed. \u00a0I recognize it is not easy, but more people should embrace foregiveness.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great joys of having a smart phone is access to news anytime I want it. \u00a0I pulled up the CNN app the other day and found an interesting article about Rev. Kelvin Croom and George Wallace. \u00a0While I actually enjoy history, I must admit that my American History class in high school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-arguments","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingarguments.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}