A true story reported by a white pastor in Leadership:

Do white evangelical theologians need to get close to the pain of the oppressed poor before they can and will produce a relevant NT theology of society, a kingdom of God theology that puts the oppressed poor first?  The following is a true story reported by a white pastor in Leadership, summer 2010, page 46:

Right after I spoke [on Zacchaeus], a woman from the Cowichan tribe told her story of being physically and sexually abused as a child in a nearby Residential School.  In fact, she only told the story of her pain so that she could tell the story of her joy: how Christ was redeeming and reclaiming and healing her in mind, body, and spirit.

But the room was heavy when she finished.  The white pastor got up, overcome with emotion, and said she was sorry.

"I'm not apologizing because I was involved in what happened to you," she said.  "I'm apologizing because I wasn't involved.  Because, even when I knew terrible things were happening in those schools, I still did nothing."

Then the pastor said, "If you are white and want to join me in apologizing, I simply as that you stand."  I stood.  All the white people stood.

We were completely unprepared for what happened next.  The First Nations [Indians] people began to weep.  Then their weeping turned to sobbing.  And then their sobbing turned to wailing.  It was piercing.  I felt the shame of all the wrongs my forebears had committed.  I felt the shame of all the ways I, though not involved personally, had been personally uninvolved.  Apathetic.  Not wanting to know and, once knowing, wishing they'd just "get over it."

The wailing continued, got deeper, got louder. 

When I could bear it no longer, an older First Nation woman---a chief of her tribe---came to the front, took the microphone, and said, "I do not want those of you who are standing to carry the weight of this.  I forgive you.  On behalf of my people, we forgive you."

Peace like a river swept over me, and I wept.