Religious Teachings and Values
Senior 1 · Religion and Ethics
Religious Teachings and Values
Lesson 3 of 5
18 min
Two friends in S1 stop speaking after one of them spreads a rumour. Two neighbours quarrel over the boundary of a banana plantation. Conflicts like these happen everywhere. After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwandans faced the hardest version of this question: how can people live together again after terrible wrongs? Christianity and Islam both teach forgiveness and reconciliation.
Forgiveness does not mean pretending the wrong did not happen, and it does not cancel the need for truth and justice.
After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda chose justice together with unity and reconciliation. The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) promoted unity. In the community courts called Gacaca, which began trials in 2002, many people who had taken part confessed, told the truth about what had happened and asked survivors for forgiveness. Programmes such as Ndi Umunyarwanda ("I am Rwandan") encourage citizens to see one another first as Rwandans. Local mediation committees called Abunzi help neighbours settle everyday disputes peacefully. Churches and mosques have supported this work through prayer, teaching and meetings between survivors and those who had wronged them.
Question: Using one text from each faith, explain why believers should forgive those who wrong them. (4 marks)
Model answer: Christians forgive because Jesus taught that God's forgiveness is linked to ours: "if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matthew 6:14) (2 marks). Muslims forgive because the Qur'an asks, "Yearn ye not that Allah may forgive you?" (Qur'an 24:22), so those who hope for God's forgiveness should forgive others (2 marks).
Tip
Exam technique. Examiners often ask for the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness can be given by one person, alone, in the heart. Reconciliation needs both sides: truth, repentance, forgiveness and rebuilt trust.
Define forgiveness and reconciliation.
Answer: forgiveness is letting go of anger and the wish for revenge against someone who has wronged you; reconciliation is restoring a broken relationship so that people can live together in peace again.
What did Jesus mean by "seventy times seven"?
Answer: that forgiveness should have no limit; believers should not count how many times they forgive.
According to Qur'an 42:40, what happens to the reward of the one who pardons?
Answer: "his wage is the affair of Allah": God himself rewards the person who forgives and puts things right.
Give two ways Rwanda has worked for reconciliation since 1994.
Answer (any two): the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission; the Gacaca community courts, where many confessed and asked forgiveness; Ndi Umunyarwanda; Abunzi mediation committees; the work of churches and mosques.
Does forgiveness mean there should be no justice? Explain.
Answer: no. Both faiths teach that God is just and that wrongs matter. Forgiveness removes hatred and the wish for revenge, but truth and justice still help to repair harm and protect others.
Remember
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