Moral healing requires facing a community’s past sins directly

Evidence

I’m not asking white evangelicals to abandon their opposition to abortion (even though I believe many of those efforts are misdirected). But abortion should be considered in a larger context, and the path to healing lies in facing the past and dealing with it forthrightly. Repentance, in my experience, is good for the soul. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 176

Categorization

• APHORISMS: The closing line — repentance is good for the soul — offers actual lived advice but is embedded in a specific communal-reckoning argument.
• XREF: connects to: Recognizing another people’s wounds is a precondition of religious or moral vision — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and…, 371; Confession and repentance precede effective forgiveness petitions — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory: The…, 1629; Easy divine forgiveness undermines moral improvement and enables aggressive impulses — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1912 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Recognizing another people’s wounds is a precondition of religious or moral vision #expands (0.78) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 371
• Confession and repentance precede effective forgiveness petitions #expands (0.75) — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory, 1629
• Small restorative acts against vast harms serve as personal absolution for collective guilt #corroborates (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1318
• Easy divine forgiveness undermines moral improvement and enables aggressive impulses #expands (0.72) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1912