I recently had a private conversation with an acquaintance following an LDS priesthood lesson in which I, as a class member, had made a controversial statement.  This acquaintance had stayed after class to question me further about my statement, because the subject of my comment was a matter of great importance in his life.  I’ll write more about this conversation in the latter part of this essay.  My comment in class had been that in all of scripture, there is no support for the idea that we are expected to forgive people who have wronged us if they haven’t repented and sought to be forgiven.  In fact, I added, the Bible and Book of Mormon contain the opposite message:  We do harm to forgive unrepentant sinners, and the Lord has expressly instructed us to do otherwise.