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Showing posts from February, 2020

Religion and Self-Forgiveness

Most of the world’s major religions value forgiveness. In Christianity, forgiveness is a commandment with a threat. The forgiveness commonly referred to in the Bible is forgiveness of others; however, recently, psychological scientists have studied self-forgiveness.  Self-forgiveness is the unique case in which people are both offenders and victims.   People are often in the case of failing to live up to their moral standards, which results in harm to themselves. They may have felt guilty for abusing drugs or acts they performed against another. They rehearse the events and cannot seem to let them go. In short, they do not seem able to forgive themselves even if they have been forgiven by others or, advised by clergy that God has forgiven them.  This issue of living with unforgiveness is not just a matter of religious beliefs or argument because studies show that forgiveness is related to general and mental health (e.g., see Worthington, 2020 ). Thus, self...