Posted on 10/03/2007 9:49:28 AM PDT by EBH
Elizabethtown, Pa. - ONE year ago today, a shooter entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., dismissed all but 10 girls, and fired at them execution-style, killing five before shooting himself.
Within hours, the Amish community forgave the killer and his family. News of the instant forgiveness stunned the outside world – almost as much as the incident itself did. Many pundits lauded the Amish, but others worried that hasty forgiveness was emotionally unhealthy...
...Members of the Amish community began offering words and hugs of forgiveness when the blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor...
...As the father of a slain daughter explained, "Our forgiveness was not our words, it was what we did." Members of the community visited the gunman's widow at her home with food and flowers and hugged members of his family. There were a few words, but it was primarily their hugs, gifts, and mere presence – acts of grace – that communicated Amish forgiveness. Of the 75 people at the killer's burial, about half were Amish, including parents who had buried their own children a day or so before. Amish people also contributed to a fund for the shooter's family.
For most people, a decision to forgive comes – if ever – at the end of a long emotional journey that may stretch over months if not years. The Amish invert the process. Their religious tradition predisposes them to forgive even before an injustice occurs.
Amish faith is grounded in the teachings of Jesus to love enemies, reject revenge, and leave vengeance in the hands of God. As a father who lost a daughter in the schoolhouse said, "Forgiveness means giving up the right to revenge."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
That’s a wise moderator.
Ping
The previous post of this story was pulled because some people were unable to stay on-topic. This is not a thread to air personal peeves or dislikes about the Amish. The topic of this thread is about foregiveness and the Amish approach to such. If you disagree with their approach, please express such and your reasons why. But if you decide to stray very far off topic, such posts will be yanked.
Thanks in advance, Sidebar Mod
There are valuable lessons here. Would that we all could learn them. I don’t believe I am strong enough to forgive someone hurting my child. I am humbled by those who are.
In all seriousness, his wisdom is absolute. So often we think we're smarter (myself included), or that circumstances dictate differently than to follow His teachings, but the words of Christ hold true, two millennia later. "Love your enemies." The Amish did it, and have reaped the benefits.
I agree. It is one thing to ‘talk about being Christian’ it is entirely another to BE Christian.
Forgiveness is one of the toughest things anyone can be called to do. Sure we’re to rebuke those who sin, but ultimately we are to forgive them too. To rebuke someone is to help bring that person to the Light, not to punish them. And as the Lord said, “forgive them for they no not what they do.”
There is much we can learn from this example set by the Amish, especially since the shooter (sinner) died too.
My Pastor did a 2 week sermon on anger not too long ago. It is one of my toughest issue’s to deal with, as my posting history will show. Vengeance is the Lord’s, we need to learn to deal with it.
Among the stories is the tale of one Amishman being pursued by a bounty hunter across a frozen lake. The ice cracked, the bounty hunter fell in. The Amishman pulled the bounty hunter from what would have surely been an icy death; and then was himself taken into custody...and executed for his faith.
With such stories told time after time it is not surprising that there is such a deep reservoir of forgiveness and grace.
Forgiveness and grace are largely misunderstood, but so very needed in order to survive.
Candidates also need lots of it, don’t they.
“I permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” — Booker T. Washington
At this point in my life, I don’t think I could do that.
"While forgiveness means not holding a grudge – `the acid of bitterness eats the container that holds it,' one farmer explained – the Amish are clear that it does not free the offender from punishment. Had the gunman survived, they would have wanted him locked up, not for revenge but to protect other children."
>Forgiveness is one of the toughest things anyone can be called to do.<
Sometimes it seems nearly impossible to forgive, but if one hands his inability to God, and ask Him to put the spirit of forgiveness into his heart, God will do it, believe me.
It is true that to hold a grudge hurts only he who holds it.
The Amish were simply being Christian. it is a Christian act to forgive. They "inverted" nothing. They simply applied Christ's teachings to the situation.
To harbor hatred opens the door to Satan's evil. It darkens the soul and moves you away from God grace.
I don't know why people think that it is some special act of the "Amish religion". It is supposed to be a Christian act. Those Amish were simply being Christian, and a good example to the rest of us who claim to be Christian.
In many ways, forgiveness is just as beneficial (or even moreso) to the one who forgives as it is to the target of the forgiveness. Yesterday, NPR had an interesting segment about a guy from out in Lancaster County who started a counseling service, and his point was that you cannot deal with the loss effectively as long as you hold rage against those who caused the loss. I tend to agree. The rage mostly eats at those who hold it.
On the plus side: carrying around hatred and rage is akin to lugging a fifty pound sack on your back 24/7, so that when you make a decision to forgive, you really do feel a profound sense of release. With some things, however, it takes a long time. Still, it comes with God’s grace.
The Amish know where their children are. They also know where the shooter is, for all eternity.
Justice is God's.
Let me see if I have this straight. Let’s say someone comes along, takes a little girl out of her bedroom at night, rapes her and throws her corpse in a ditch and if the mother can’t forgive the person who did it, SHE’S THE SINNER?? She’s bad? Like she needs the additional burden of guilt for not being able to forgive the monster the INSECT who hurt her child! God is cruel then. He lets someone rape your kid then blames you for not forgiving that person.
I guess I am going to hell. But I can’t forgive God for that.
In Hell, he would be reliving over and over what he did to his innocent victim, forever, but from her perspective.
God is not cruel. He's just. There is another life beyond this one. Read My Descent into Death by Howard Storm.
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