Critical Thinking/Discussion Questions - Reverend Bill Harris

  1. Reverend Harris speaks about forgiveness and the difficulty of forgiving in light of such evil. He referred to a mother who had her child tortured and killed. He questioned, “How could you ask her to forgive someone? …It seems to me like it will be almost too much to ask of a human being, forgiveness in a situation like that.” Do you agree with his statement? Why or why not? How would you compare this to modern day events, in the United States of America or other countries?

 

  1. Bill experienced such horrors that it was difficult for him to recover. “You don’t have the vocabulary for it. And you have experienced something so horrible that in a way makes everything that you’ve experienced up until that time kind of meaningless.” He quoted French writer Albert Camus, “If there’s one child that unjustly suffers in the world, it causes God’s justice to be called into question.” Do you agree with this statement? If so, how does this relate to the Holocaust?

 

  1. Bill described coming upon a German soldier who had been shot by the inmates. Is it understandable that the Jewish prisoners would want to seek revenge against the prison guards? Was it right? Why or why not?