Forgiving God

The horrors of the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. A happy young couple expecting their first child found shot to death. Jeanne Bishop and Dr. John Boyle have witnessed firsthand the aftermath of evil. As a young soldier in the U.S. Army in World War II, Boyle helped liberate Dachau. The abominations he saw there led him to ministry in the church and a career as a pastoral counselor. His years of counseling brought him close to people seeking to forgive or be forgiven. Jeanne Bishop’s sister and brother-in-law and their unborn child were brutally murdered by an intruder in their home in 1990. Bishop’s work against the death penalty and for gun violence prevention in the wake of the murders has brought her face to face with survivors in various stages of the struggle to forgive. Both Boyle and Bishop have encountered this question: can our outrage over inhuman acts be directed not just at the offender, but at God, too, for seeming to permit evil? Do we need to forgive God?