I cannot even begin to fathom . just . no words . I don ' t blame your father for reacting the way he did , and I don ' t blame you for grappling with how to forgive him either . As far as forgiveness goes , it depends of the person . Some people might not be able to forgive it , some would . You have to figure it out for yourself . For me personally , if your brother showed remorse for the awful things he did , not losing his games and tv and tries to make it up to Dan , then yes , I would be able to forgive him . He ' s really young and kids do stupid shit . He probably was sincerely joking , but it was just some really shitty judgment on his part . Hopefully this will be a learning experience for him and won ' t ever do anything like that again .