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The Toxic Relationship Between Religion and Forgiveness
When turning the other cheek means looking the other way
“But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” ~ Matthew 5:39
“Turning the other cheek is for people who want to look the other way.” ~ The Suspect, Michael Robotham
It is sometime in the early 2000’s. I couldn’t tell you exactly when, or what month, or even what kind of day it was. I vaguely recall heat on the dashboard as I drove to my mother’s house, so perhaps summer, but memory is, as said by Carolyn Jess Cooke, too complex, too tentacled, to boil down to a linear narrative.
I arrive at my mother’s house, stand on the front porch and knock on the door. She is not expecting me and this shows in her hesitation as she unfastens the lock and tries to hide the surprise on her face. I’m not sure what I say at this point, only that I probably ask to speak to him — the boyfriend who beat me ten years earlier as she watched, and did nothing.
He comes to the door, stands in the archway of the stone house and his presence does not seem to loom as large as it has in my mind all these years but still, I am unnerved. I clear my throat; inhale a shallow breath as words begin to tumble from…
