I was up in Amish country about 6 weeks ago which makes the recent news about the killing of five Amish girls in their school all the more real to me. It is absolutely tragic.
Coming out of this horrible situation, is a truly inspiring story about Amish faith and forgiveness (emphasis mine):
[The Amish] accept these tragedies as the will of God, an approach to life they call yieldedness, Mr. Shachtman said. He said this helped explain why the Amish interviewed after the shooting in Nickel Mines, Pa., sounded more resigned than angry. They are pacifists, and some spoke of the need to forgive the killer.In one sign of their approach to tragedy, Amish residents started a charity fund yesterday not only to help the victims’ families but also to help the gunman’s widow.
“This is imitation of Christ at its most naked,” Mr. Shachtman said. “If anybody is going to turn the other cheek in our society, it’s going to be the Amish.”
He continued, “I don’t want to denigrate anybody else who says they’re imitating Christ, but the Amish walk the walk as much as they talk the talk.”
Here's more:
The Amish are raising money for the family of the man who murdered their own children. Yesterday on NBC News, I saw an Amish midwife who had helped birth several of the girls murdered by the killer say that they were planning to take food over to his family's house. She said -- and I paraphrase closely -- "This is possible if you have Christ in your heart."
MSNBC has a series of videos showing their coverage of this tragedy. In one of them, a reporter repeats what the Amish asked her to say:
"Tell the world we are thankful for their prayers, but also to remember to pray for the gunaman's family."
I can't express as a Christian how much this touches and humbles me...
Please pray for the families who have lost loved ones, for the five girls who remain hospitalized, and, as the Amish remind us, for the family and loved ones of the gunman.
(Hattip: The Point)
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