COMMUNAL DIMENSIONS OF FORGIVENESS: LEARNING FROM THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MATTHEW SHEPARD

Abstract

There are times when an event compels those of us who identify as pastoral theologians to reflect upon and to write about our perspectives. Such an event occurred 150 miles from where I teach, write, think and live. Yesterday morning on October 12, 1998 a young college student, 21 years of age, succumbed to the beating he received at the hands of two other young men. The apparent reason for the brutal attack was that Matthew Shepard's gay sexual orientation offended the young men. This tragedy not only affects Shepard's family and friends, but its impact is felt by all of us who value love and life more than hate and violence. The trauma reflects the dangers many experience-implicitly and explicitly-as we realize that there are those who would persecute us physically, verbally, spiritually, and emotionally, because of our love for human beings of the same gender. Shepard's beating and death challenges my complicity and my reluctance to write prematurely about my research in the area of forgiveness. The silence of my careful thought has changed to an urgent pastoral theological response, even if it is only in its initial stages of conceptual maturity. It is impossible to remain intellectually aloof as I hear the grief of Shepard's family and friends, as I listen to the fear of my gay clients and students, or as I attend to the pain in my own soul. To abide in silence when I read hate material on the web, or to not respond when church leaders persecute lesbians and gays, their loved ones, and their families, is an abomination. This article begins with the assumption that Shepard's death is a public trauma that invites communities of faith into an examination of forgiveness and its centrality in the Judeo-Christian tradition. For those who regard the loss of life as an injustice perpetrated not only against Shepard, but against all who support lesbians, gay men, bisexuals or transgendered persons, the questions become: What does forgiveness mean in response to such an injustice? What are the communal