I highly recommend Kamara Marsh’s great column, “Developing a forgiving heart,” from the Dec. 6 Alpena News.

However, I was planning to write about the same topic today.

Well, since she didn’t write about forgiveness from a faith perspective, and this is called Everyday Faith, I will add my thoughts.

So let’s begin by talking about science.

In 1978, Dr. Robert Enright began studying justice and moral development. He followed the normal academic route. He was frequently published, received grants, esteem, and tenure as a professor at a major university.

But, one day, he stopped and thought, “Who am I actually helping in this world?”

No one but himself and the editors of the ivory tower publications that no one reads.

In 1985, he became interested in forgiveness.

Surprisingly, he found no previous scientific research on the subject. Nothing. No published data. He asked a friend at another university. After a lengthy search, they found nothing.

He decided to pursue three questions: What is forgiveness? How does one forgive? What happens when you do forgive?

How did his university peers react?

The pushback was savage. He was told he was ruining his career. Students of his were told to flee, as his pursuit would sabotage their careers, also.

It became clear that the secular university system did not want to investigate an idea that had religious roots. It was deemed an inappropriate topic in the study of mental health.

Not a churchgoer himself, Enright was surprised by that reaction, but he kept going.

Today, he is considered “the unquestioned pioneer in the scientific study of forgiveness” and has authored more than 120 publications, including seven books. He founded the International Forgiveness Institute.

He has received numerous major awards, including the highest honor the University of Wisconsin-Madison gives: the Hilldale Award for “excellence in teaching, research, and service.” In 2022, he received the APF Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology, the American Psychological Association’s highest award.

Dr. Enright considers the most important result of his studies to be the impact it has made on his journey toward faith in Jesus. Forgiveness is foundational to the Christian faith, and his religious faith has now informed and expanded his understanding of forgiveness.

He teaches that forgiveness is a moral virtue, like patience, kindness, justice.

It contains three parts:

You’ve been treated unjustly.

You are motivated to deliberately get rid of the resentment toward a specific person.

You try to show goodness to the one who caused the hurt.

It does not require excusing the wrong.

It is not the same as reconciliation. It takes two to reconcile.

It does not mean letting someone walk all over you. Instead, we allow forgiveness to come alongside justice.

That “virtue of mercy” allows us to see that the person who hurt us is also made in the image of God, but wounded themselves.

Virtues take time and practice. There is no instant fix, but we can name the wrong that was done and also turn in a different direction.

Today, there are thousands of researchers studying the power of forgiveness.

One study took a group of incest survivors and assigned half of them to a control group which pursued normal therapy. The other half were taken individually through a series of steps working toward forgiving their abusers.

After a year, the control group, who went through counseling only, were still clinically depressed.

The forgiveness group, however, showed significant changes: their anxiety was down, they had gone from clinical depression to non-depressed status, and their self-esteem had greatly improved.

Another study looked at men in a cardiac unit in a hospital who were chosen because of deep wounds and injustices from which they had suffered. Investigations showed that, when the men got angry, the blood vessels around their heart began to narrow.

Counselors took half the men through the steps of forgiveness, and the other half proceeded as usual.

Four months after the program, the patients were reassessed. Researchers were able to show that the physical hearts of the successful forgivers were significantly healthier, and arteries were more open. The researchers were actually able to save lives, a clear cause-and-effect relationship between learning to forgive and practical improvements in the health of the body.

Anger unresolved leads to a corrosive effect on the heart, figuratively and literally.

It’s even worked in drug rehabilitation, prison, and hospice situations.

Dr. Enright’s book, “Forgiveness is a Choice,” walks people through the steps of forgiveness.

He says, “Forgiveness is for giving.”

It’s meant to be given away.

Jesus has shown love to us regardless of our rejection of Him and in spite of our hurtful actions toward Him and others. From His demonstration of mercy and kindness, we can do the same.

This Christmas, begin the journey of giving the gift of forgiveness.

Phil Cook can be reached at 3upquarks@protonmail.com.