Bryan Maier - Forgiveness and Justice: A Christian Approach

Is there a relationship between forgiveness and cancer? Based upon his years of experience in working with cancer patients, Dr. Barry seeks to answer this very important question. His conclusions are based upon credible research, and have proven to be helpful to his patients and others. This book raises the discussion of forgiveness to a new and higher level. I recommend The Forgiveness Project to anyone struggling to find forgiveness.

Harold G. Koenig, MD

Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Associate Professor of Medicine

Director, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health

Duke University Medical Center

Durham, North Carolina

The Startling Discovery
of How to Overcome Cancer,
Find Health, and Achieve Peace

MICHAEL S. BARRY

The Forgiveness Project: The Startling Discovery of How to Overcome Cancer, Find Health, and Achieve Peace

Copyright 2011 by Michael S. Barry.

Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc., P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501.

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This ebook cannot be converted to other electronic formats, except for personal use, and in all cases copyright or other proprietary notices may not modified or obscured. This ebook is protected by the copyright laws of the United States and by international treaties.

The author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical or psychological services, and this book is not intended as a guide to diagnose or treat medical or psychological problems. If medical, psychological, or other expert assistance is required by the reader, please seek the services of your own physician or certified counselor.

This book is not endorsed by or affiliated with The Forgiveness Project, a Registered Charity Number 1103922 in the United Kingdom.

All royalties from this book are donated to Assistance in Healthcare, Inc., in Philadelphia, a not-for-profit organization devoted to meeting nonmedical financial needs of cancer patients and their families.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

To my beautiful children,
Sara and her husband, Jesse,
Becca and her husband, Josh;
to my delightful grandchildren,
Lilly, Molly, Jack, and Nolan;
and to my endlessly loving
and forgiving wife,
Kay.

Remember James 4:1315.
Its only a mist.
So seek the Lords will,
and then do it.

What we must have are those books
which come upon us like ill fortune,
and distress us deeply,
like the death of one we love better than ourselves....
A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

FRANZ KAFKA

R ICHARD J S TEPHENSON , founder and chairman of the board of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, is a visionary whose life has been dedicated to curing cancer. In those who follow his lead, he has instilled the belief that healing and hope require addressing the underlying causes of cancer, which include providing support for the patients psychological, spiritual, and emotional well-being. I want to thank Mr. Stephenson and his leadership team, including Roger Cary, John McNeil, Kane Dawson, and most recently Kristin Mullen, for their encouragement to pursue forgiveness education research and program development at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. I also want to respectfully remember Mary Brown Stephenson, Richard Stephensons mother, whose memory motivates and inspires our entire organization to win the fight against cancer every day.

The Reverend Luis Cortes, president of Esperanza, the largest Hispanic faith-based evangelical network in the United States, and board member at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia, encouraged me to write this book. Truth be known, he was the catalyst that started the ball rolling. God puts special people in our lives who subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) influence our decisions. I am very grateful that God put Luis in my life. The book you hold in your hands can be traced back to Luis and his passion to make the good news known to all.

Josh Bishop is one of my very smart and talented sons-in-law. Besides being a wonderful father to my grandson Jack, and a loving husband to my daughter Becca, Josh has helped me enormously on this book. When it comes to writing, the rule of thumb is write it first, and then write it right. I wrote it first. Josh wrote it right. Thank you, Josh. You are a better husband, father, and writer than I ever thought about being, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with you on this book.

Most importantly, I would like to thank my enemies, both real and perceived. You were not always wrong. You were not always right. But you were used by God to teach me what I will now attempt to share with others: the healing power of forgiveness. And I wish you well.

I S THERE A RELATIONSHIP between the insidious disease of cancer and the sinister, life-threatening emotion of hatred? Aside from hatreds obvious cancerlike forces, which destroy families, neighborhoods, and cities and affect geopolitical relationships around the world, I have wondered about its impact at the cellular level. Do hatred and anger affect us molecularly, making us vulnerable to diseaseincluding the Big C, cancer? This book presents a reasonable answer to the question, and it offers reasonable solutions. Further, it allows us to witness the unity of modern medicine and ancient wisdom, as well as the healing of body, mind, and spirit that results from this integration.

At Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia, the pastoral care department conducts educational forgiveness programs for patients who self-identify strong feelings of anger, hatred, and a need to forgive others, themselves, or, on occasion, God. The forgiveness program takes a minimum of three hours: one hour in the office going over the material, a one-hour homework assignment, and after engaging with the material, another hour with the department to process the patients experience. After four years of research, including countless forgiveness programs conducted with many of our patients, Ive reached this conclusion: