This week I talk with family friend Penny Bragg. Penny and her husband Clint have a marriage that is now based on humility and forgiveness. They own/run Inverse Ministries (a link to their website can be found here).
Ultimately, Penny and Clint consider their marriage story to be a story about God's relationship with them. Their life's work can be summed up in their mission statement:
Our mission is to reconcile broken relationships across the nation and abroad; reclaiming the territory of marriage and family for God.
While Penny and Clint have a strong faith in God, I think that what makes an apology good and authentic can apply to everyone, even if you have a non-Christian faith system, are agnostic, or atheist.
During our conversation, Penny mentions a historical moment when people in power within the United States have apologized and the impact it made on those communities. This led me to do some research in which I found a Smithsonian article about five times the U.S. has officially apologized. I've summarized those incidents below:
In 1983 the U.S. Army issued an apology for their involvement in hiding Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, nicknamed "the Butcher of Lyon."
In 1998 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which offered every Japanese-American interned in the camps during the war a formal apology and $20,000 in compensation.
In 1993 Congress issued a joint resolution which formally apologized to the people of Hawaii for the U.S. government's involvement in a coup staged against the Hawaiian queen in 1893.
In 1997 President Clinton formally apologized for the Tuskegee Experiment. (I had no idea what this was. How on earth have we let things like this happen?!)
In 2008 the House of Representatives issued a formal apology for Jim Crow and slavery laws. This resolution was put forward by Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn).
This political part of our conversation didn't make the podcast, but I was inspired by Penny who said, "Can you imagine the revolution that would happen if our country experienced a wave of apology?"
Setting political views aside, I think we can all agree that this country is hurting. I passionately believe that we can start a healing process through our everyday interactions. By approaching our relationships with a sense of humility and acknowledging our mistakes, we will build trust, compassion, and empathy within our communities.
This week's music is "Vocalise" by Rachmaninoff.
Huge thanks to Penny who was willing to share her wisdom with us all!
