To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine

NZ-raised canon emeritus of Coventry Cathedral and Quaker chaplain to the University of Sussex, Paul Oestreicher, writes about guilt and forgiveness in the Guardian, using both WW2 and the modern day ‘War on Terror’ as his points of reference. “The demonisation of ‘the other’ is both the cause and motor of war: in turn, war legitimises barbarity on a grand scale … Now in the global war on terror no holds are barred. The murderer and the torturer are back on the official payroll – both theirs and ours.”