{"id":49412,"date":"2025-04-16T03:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=49412"},"modified":"2025-05-29T05:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:31:18","slug":"the-amish-and-radical-decisional-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/the-amish-and-radical-decisional-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amish and Radical, Decisional Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A controversial image, but I think it makes the radical love point quite well.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The infamous Nickel Mines massacre of Amish schoolchildren\u2013and the community\u2019s supernal forgiveness towards the killer and his family\u2013is familiar to Latter-day Saints through President Faust\u2019s 2007 address <\/span>\u201cThe Healing Power of Forgiveness.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 For those of you who do not remember the talk, President Faust\u2019s discussion is worth citing at length, but feel free to skip ahead if you have already read it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the beautiful hills of Pennsylvania, a devout group of Christian people live a simple life without automobiles, electricity, or modern machinery. They work hard and live quiet, peaceful lives separate from the world. Most of their food comes from their own farms. The women sew and knit and weave their clothing, which is modest and plain. They are known as the Amish people.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A 32-year-old milk truck driver lived with his family in their Nickel Mines community. He was not Amish, but his pickup route took him to many Amish dairy farms, where he became known as the quiet milkman. Last October he suddenly lost all reason and control. In his tormented mind he blamed God for the death of his first child and some unsubstantiated memories. He stormed into the Amish school without any provocation, released the boys and adults, and tied up the 10 girls. He shot the girls, killing five and wounding five. Then he took his own life.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This shocking violence caused great anguish among the Amish but no anger. There was hurt but no hate. Their forgiveness was immediate. Collectively they began to reach out to the milkman\u2019s suffering family. As the milkman\u2019s family gathered in his home the day after the shootings, an Amish neighbor came over, wrapped his arms around the father of the dead gunman, and said, \u201cWe will forgive you.\u201dAmish leaders visited the milkman\u2019s wife and children to extend their sympathy, their forgiveness, their help, and their love. About half of the mourners at the milkman\u2019s funeral were Amish. In turn, the Amish invited the milkman\u2019s family to attend the funeral services of the girls who had been killed. A remarkable peace settled on the Amish as their faith sustained them during this crisis.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One local resident very eloquently summed up the aftermath of this tragedy when he said, \u201cWe were all speaking the same language, and not just English, but a language of caring, a language of community, [and] a language of service. And, yes, a language of forgiveness.\u201d It was an amazing outpouring of their complete faith in the Lord\u2019s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount: \u201cDo good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The family of the milkman who killed the five girls released the following statement to the public:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTo our Amish friends, neighbors, and local community:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOur family wants each of you to know that we are overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace, and mercy that you\u2019ve extended to us. Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. The prayers, flowers, cards, and gifts you\u2019ve given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cPlease know that our hearts have been broken by all that has happened. We are filled with sorrow for all of our Amish neighbors whom we have loved and continue to love. We know that there are many hard days ahead for all the families who lost loved ones, and so we will continue to put our hope and trust in the God of all comfort, as we all seek to rebuild our lives.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

How could the whole Amish group manifest such an expression of forgiveness? It was because of their faith in God and trust in His word, which is part of their inner beings. They see themselves as disciples of Christ and want to follow His example.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Hearing of this tragedy, many people sent money to the Amish to pay for the health care of the five surviving girls and for the burial expenses of the five who were killed. As a further demonstration of their discipleship, the Amish decided to share some of the money with the widow of the milkman and her three children because they too were victims of this terrible tragedy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I recently read a book on the event (<\/span>Amish Grace<\/span><\/i>, there was also a movie that evidently did quite well, but for the life of me I can\u2019t figure out where it\u2019s streaming). The President Faust summary is tear-jerking enough, but it actually omits a lot of other tear-wringing details: one of the girls offered to be shot first to give the others a chance to escape, another one heard a voice from heaven telling her to run, and the family of the milkman were contacted by Amish neighbors hours after the shooting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The book was analytical as well as moving.\u00a0 In it, they discuss the Amish theology and culture of forgiveness, give other examples to show that it was not a one-off, and address common rejoinders to the Amish\u2019s response. In terms of their history and theology, the Amish are raised from the time they are children with stories of martyrs who died rather than raise a hand in anger against their assailants during the Anabaptist persecutions. For example, Dirk Willems was a very famous early believer who escaped jail across a frozen pond with a guard in hot pursuit. When the pursuer fell through the ice, Willems had a seeming God-given opportunity to escape, but turned back and rescued his guard, which then re-arrested him and burned him at the stake while he was praising God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, we Latter-day Saints did not take that route, and I\u2019m not saying that we should. But I do think it is possible to exhibit the kind of radical forgiveness of the Amish without subscribing to extreme pacifism like they do. \u00a0(As a sidebar, it\u2019s amusing to me when people accuse us of attempting to assassinate Governor Boggs. Not the idea that we may have been involved in the assassination attempt, who knows, but rather the idea that trying to assassinate a man who ordered us exterminated is a problem).<\/span><\/p>\n

But back to the Amish. Given this strong sense of pacifism and extreme forgiveness, their response to the Nickel Mine shooting, while aberrant to our highly cynical world, was not unexpected for those who knew the community. Indeed, they had exercised acts of extreme, <\/span>decisional forgiveness<\/span><\/i> (a technical term I was unaware of before reading this book) many times in the past. Just a few examples from the book.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n