The Forgiveness Project
Arno Michaels (USA)
“Forgiveness is a sublime example of humanity that I explore at every opportunity, because it was the unconditional forgiveness I was given by people who I once claimed to hate that demonstrated the way from there to here.”
From the age of 17 Arno Michaels was deeply involved in the white power movement. He was a founding member of what became the largest racist skinhead organization in the world, a Reverend of self-declared Racial Holy War, and lead singer of the race-metal band Centurion, selling over 20,000 CDS to racists round the world. He now works with a group of former US gang members and white supremacists to produce Life After Hate, a monthly online magazine dedicated to basic human goodness, and has developed Kindness Not Weakness, a character development movement which addresses bullying and other destructive behaviour. In 2010 he published his memoir Life After Hate.
I grew up in an alcoholic household where emotional violence was the norm and as a kid who was told I could achieve anything, I reacted to that emotional violence by lashing out and hurting people. I started out as the bully on the school bus, and by the time I was in middle school I was committing serious acts of vandalism.
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