Former hostage Terry Waite teaches forgiveness at Lipscomb University

The Tennessean reports on Terry Waite, who spoke in chapel and at a question-and-answer session recently at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.

Chained to a basement wall for five years, his only measure of time a mosque’s blaring calls to prayer, Terry Waite didn’t feel particularly close to God.

He’d been kidnapped in 1987, an Anglican envoy and hostage negotiator now himself in need of aid after associates of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah snatched him. His disappearance made daily international news for weeks, then occasionally for years, the irresistible story of a father, peacemaker and man of God whose life was shattered trying to save others.

…

That Waite could forgive his captors and return to Beirut is incredible, said Kevin Sanders, a Lipscomb student and soldier who fought in the Middle East. Sanders stood up during that Q-and-A with Waite, his voice shaking ever so slightly. “The people in the Middle East — to go back and look them in the eye and forgive them for what they did to you, I wanted to let you know that inspires me,” he told Waite.

Outside the room, Sanders said he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from combat, but Waite gave him a goal he’ll use in meditation.

Read the full story.

In 2013, Waite was named scholar-in-residence at Lipscomb University’s Institute for Conflict Management.