Almost five years ago, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., and shot 10 girls – mortally wounding five – before killing himself. This quiet, rural community in Lancaster County suddenly became a place of unprecedented contrasts: violence amid peaceful people, hordes of satellite trucks in a place that favors simplicity.
Most striking, in a world of deep division and blame-offering, was the nearly immediate forgiveness the Amish community expressed to the Roberts family. This was not forgiveness offered in a prepared statement, delivered by lawyers or news crews, but forgiveness offered in person, from one human being to another.
What the Amish consider to be “standard Christian forgiveness” can teach all of us, in our own personal and political conflicts, that forgiveness is a way of life learned and lived in community.