The Context of Forgiveness

With the massacre at Virginia Tech and the chilling execution-style murder of four Delaware State students, it is not surprising that many Americans have almost forgotten an equally horrifying event that took place one year ago yesterday. A demented gunman, Charles Roberts, took a school-room full of Amish girls hostage in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Before he killed himself, Roberts had murdered five girls in cold blood. But as shocking as this senseless act of violence was, it was what followed that sent the real shock waves through the nation. Within hours of the shooting, several members of the Amish community visited Mrs. Roberts and her family, to express their sorrow over her loss and to say they did not hold anything against them. Another Amish man visited the killer’s father. A Roberts family spokesperson said, “He stood there for an hour, and he held [Mr. Roberts] in his arms and said, ‘We forgive you.’” Four days later at the killer’s burial, some 70 people in attendance were Amish. And when funds began pouring in for victims after the shooting, the Nickel Mines community established a fund for the shooter’s wife and children. Reactions to the news of this forgiveness ran the gamut from awestruck to disgust. Detractors like Jeff Jacoby opined in the Boston Globe, “I cannot see how the world is made a better place by assuring someone who would do terrible things that he will be readily forgiven afterward.” But what Jacoby and others missed was the broader context of the forgiveness. It was not a cheap forgiveness that denied the pain and wrong of what had happened. From amazing grief through amazing faith came amazing grace. In a new book titled Amish Grace, three experts on the Amish explain, “Our actions are rarely random. We all embrace patterns of behavior and habits of mind that shape what we do in a given situation.” As the authors note, there are “habits of forgiveness” in the Amish culture, Christian habits that come into clear focus. For instance, the Amish celebrate communion only twice a year, but they go through a month-long season of preparation. During that season of preparation, the Amish take seriously the admonition that if anyone holds a grudge against his brother, he is not to partake in the communion until he has put things right. A council meeting two weeks prior to communion is a time of admonishment, then there is a season of fasting, and sometimes the communion service is even delayed for weeks if there is more widespread disharmony among the community. There is much more we could say about the wave of forgiveness that startled the world last October. Get the book Amish Grace, and read about it. You can even order it from our website, BreakPoint.org. But the question is, how are we working in our own communities to build cultures of grace? Do we teach our children to forgive? Are we actively working to restore offenders and to reach out in aid to victims? And are we overcoming the evil in the world by good, as we are commanded to? The Amish have given us a great lesson in the way to defeat hatred and alienation. It is the Christian worldview—the only one that makes such a magnificent response to such a horrible tragedy possible.  

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For Further Reading and Information

Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (Jossey-Bass, 2007). Donald B. Kraybill, “Why the Amish Forgive So Quickly,” Christian Science Monitor, 2 October 2007. David Weaver-Zercher, “Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy,” History News Network, George Mason University, 1 October 2007. Jeff Jacoby, “Undeserved Forgiveness,” Boston Globe, 8 October 2006. Mark Scolforo, “Amish Quietly Mark Massacre Anniversary,” Associated Press, 2 October 2007. Kate Naseef, “How Can the Amish Forgive What Seems Unforgivable?” USA Today, 1 October 2007. “Our View: World Could Learn a Lot from the Amish about Compassion,” Midland Daily News, 2 October 2007. Catherine Claire, “Nickel Mines: ‘And Great Grace Was upon Them All’,” The Point, 2 October 2007. Kristine Steakley, “Journey of Forgiveness,” The Point, 13 September 2007. Catherine Claire, “What Is Forgiveness?” The Point, 24 April 2007. Catherine Claire, “Widow Offers Forgiveness in Turkey,” The Point, 4 May 2007. Regis Nicoll, “Where Was God on Monday?” The Point, 18 April 2007. BreakPoint Commentary No. 061011, “And the Darkness Has Not Overcome It: The Amish Shine Their Light.” BreakPoint Commentary No. 070418, “Death, Where Is Thy Sting?: The Virginia Tech Massacre.” Mark Earley, “Shattered Shalom,” Prison Fellowship.

10/3/07