Lancaster Amish have powerful weapons of mass forgiveness

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October 9, 2006

BY RUSS EANES The Tribune-Democrat Mon Oct 09, 2006, 10:52 AM EDT

Maybe it is time we learned something from the Amish.

Like many others, I cried tears of grief and anger last week when I first heard the news accounts of the attack on the Amish school in Lancaster County.

As a parent of school-age children, I feel piercing anguish and even fear every time there is a school shooting. This one, though, was worse. What kind of a sick person would go into a one-room schoolhouse with the intention of harming these particularly defenseless children?

The response of the Amish, however, is slowly garnering more attention than the crime itself. Instead of seeking revenge, or even “justice,” they are burying their children and speaking about forgiveness.

They support the families of the victims, all the while taking up an offering for the family of the murderer. They are actually practicing and preaching the Christianity that they so quietly demonstrate with their lives.

Were it not so deeply moving, it might even be scandalous. I am challenged.

In my heart, I am wondering if they are not giving a message to America at a time when we are so polarized and gripped by an ethos of violence. I begin to dream of an attitude of forgiveness actually gripping our whole nation. In my dreams, I wonder if, as a nation, we did not miss the mark after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

What might have happened if we had done something a bit more like the Amish?

Consider what has happened instead. Our efforts at vengeance have not been very successful. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose; Afghanistan, after a hopeful start at democracy, is slipping again into violence and anarchy, with the Taliban regaining influence.

The U.S. is hopelessly mired in a war in Iraq that has cost thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and hundreds of billions in dollars, with no end in sight.

What might have happened if, instead of plotting revenge, we plotted how to forgive? I recall the outpouring of goodwill five years ago from people around the world toward Americans. Stunned, we all joined the people in New York and Virginia in their grief. Horns were honked less often, and people were kinder and more gracious toward each other on the streets, even stopping and talking with strangers.

What if our religious and political leaders (many of whom claim Christian faith) had urged our nation to offer forgiveness?

What if, in our collections for the victims of 9/11, we had included condolences and financial assistance for the families of the hijackers?

What if, instead of vengeance, we had spoken of grace and forgiveness?

I believe now that such a response would have done much more to “shock and awe” our enemies than all the bombs and cruise missiles dropped in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe our enemies might have had their hearts moved?

Maybe at least they would have realized that terrorist attacks don’t produce what they are intended to create: Terror.

Perhaps this may seem foolish, but it is being noted that the expressions of forgiveness are already having a healing effect upon the survivors in the Amish community of Nickel Mines.

This nation could use some of that healing. As a pastor, I dream of a world where we find that the weapons of mass forgiveness are more powerful than the weapons of mass destruction.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m learning from the Amish.

Russ Eanes is Mennonite pastor in Johnstown.

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