In Awe of the Amish

Incredible Forgiveness - Ann Curry, NBC anchor

Today, with tears in his eyes, a minister described to me seeing an Amish mother embalming her 13-year-old daughter Marian, who was shot in the forehead at the school.

She was carefully and lovingly dressing her girl in white, even putting the cotton in her nose.

All around the family watched, crying softly, even the little children, who listened as their grandfather told them not to hate the gunman who did this.

"Forgive," he was instructing them... "forgive, as God forgives us..."

Reverend Rob Schenck, called it the most powerful moment in all his 25 years as a minister.

This forgiveness seems especially incredible, coming on the same day the coroner is being reported to have counted almost 20 bullet wounds in the body of a 7-year-old girl.

An Amish woman told me perhaps the good that might come of this tragedy is . . .

"We can tell people about Christ and actually show you in our walk that we forgive, not just say it, but in our walk of life. You know you have to live it, you can't just say it. "

I realize I did not know what forgiveness was until now.

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On Amish Forgiveness
by Larry Lilly - Bearean Baptist Pastor - Friday October 6, 2006

Most of us have been moved to the depths of human grief at the brutal murder of five Amish girls while they were in the little one room school house in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. I wept when I heard and read about. Nickel Mines is about 20 miles from my home town and I have driven through the area many times. In those days I usually had a few religious out of context names for the horse and buggies that held me up as I tried to drive like a maniac. (Joyce's words).

One headline proclaimed that the Amish community was taking up money for the family of Charles Carl Roberts, the murderer of the children. The article stated that the community was going to great lengths to let his survivors know they wanted the wife and children to continue living in the community and they had no hard feelings toward them. And furthermore, they had forgiven Charles Roberts.

The Amish are descendents of the Anabaptists, as are more modern Baptists. The Anabaptist were not the 'radical wing' of the Reformation but antedated the Reformation by at least fourteen hundred years. It struck me that the fundamental difference between the Old Order Amish and my style of Baptist is not the 1850 clothes, or the quaint customs such as horse and buggy, no electricity or other modern conveniences, but something far deeper than outward appearance.

The difference is expressed in an ABC News piece by Charles Gibson. He quotes Mid wife Rhita Rhoads who was present for the birth of two of the five murdered girls:

"If you have Jesus in your heart and He has forgiven you, how can you not forgive other people?"

Anybody want to take on the question?

I assure you that over long years I have heard every reason on earth for refusing to forgive those who trespass against us. (Is murdering five children of your group a mere trespass)?

I for one believe that a revival of true forgiveness in our Christian groups would spark a revival of faith such as the world has never seen.

All Christians give lip service to the command of Jesus to forgive. When we begin to practice this forgiveness from the heart, the world will stop for at least a few minutes in wide eyed wonder proclaiming, "We have never seen it like this before."

So, how are you doing in the area of forgiving those who have trespassed against you? Most of the slights committed against us are trivial in comparison to the Lancaster County slaughter. Could it be that these 'strange' people have a better grip on the teaching of Jesus than we religious sophisticates?