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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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Amish
Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven
M. Nolt and David L. Weaver-Zercher |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Foregiveness The
shooting of children in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006 received national
attention for at least three reasons: the violence in which five grade school
children died and five others were injured; the tranquil setting in which it
took place; and the way in which the local community and the families of
those shot, forgave the shooter and comforted his family. Three teachers with
experience and knowledge of the Amish communities of Pennsylvania collaborated
to explain what happened to the rest and wrote Amish
Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. They do an excellent job at
explaining the differences among forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation. They
tackle questions that many outsiders have about reconciling shunning with
forgiving a murderer. We each choose how to live, and Amish
Grace presents a way of living that’s unfamiliar to most Americans. Here’s
an excerpt, from the end of Chapter 5, “The
Reactions,” pp. 61-64: Using Amish Forgiveness Despite
a few warning lights, responses to the grace extended at Nickel Mines were
overwhelmingly positive, so much so that pundits lined up behind the Amish to
score points for their own causes. Soon both the shooting and the Amish
response became raw material for making arguments about issues of national,
even international, significance. As
they have after other school shootings in the United States, arguments about
gun control and America's culture of violence emerged quickly. "Why does
a tormented, suicidal adult, such as the one who shot ten Amish school girls
... have ready access to a semi‑automatic pistol, a shotgun, 600 rounds
of ammunition and a high-voltage stun gun?" asked an editorial from
Scripps News. Of course, anti-gun-control advocates saw the school shooting
quite differently. "This shooting ... and every school shooting in the
past ten years all had one thing in common," remarked Alan M. Gottlieb,
chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
"They all happened in so-called `gun-free school zones,'
where students and adult staff are essentially helpless," that is,
unable to use guns to defend themselves. Arguments
for and against gun control drew more on the shooting than on the
forgiveness that flowed in its wake. But the idea of forgiveness packed great
ideological wallop as well, particularly for people who saw acts of retribution they could not
support. The biggest target in this regard was the Bush administration and
its war on terror. The Amish response to Charles Roberts was a
"blueprint" for how President Bush should have responded after
September 11, wrote Doug Soderstrom on the Axis of Logic Web site. If only
President Bush had been the "follower of the Lord Jesus Christ" he
claimed to be, "the world may have been spared the unfathomable travesty
of a 'nation of believers' driven insane by an uncontrollable urge to kill in
the name of an all-loving God." Diana Butler Bass, writing on
the Faithful America blog, expressed similar sentiments: "What if the
Amish were in charge of the war on terror? What if, on the evening of Sept.
12, 2001, we had gone to Osama bin Laden's house (metaphorically, of course,
since we didn't know where he lived!) and offered him forgiveness? What if we
had invited the families of the hijackers to the funerals of the victims of
9/11?" Acknowledging that it was too late for that, Butler Bass
concluded with what she called a modest proposal: Americans should ask the
Amish to assume leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.
"After all," she said, "actively practicing forgiveness"
is far better than living in perpetual fear. Other commentators were not
quite willing to hand over national security to the Amish, but they still
thought the Nickel Mines Amish deserved better grades than Washington
politicians in their handling of a crisis. "You respect people who are
true to their words," wrote George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel. While
the Amish "are committed to their beliefs," the Republican
congressional leadership "is committed to saving its posterior."
From there Diaz proceeded to flay House Speaker Dennis Hastert and others for
their handling of scandals in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
Writing just weeks before the 2006 midterm elections, Diaz quoted an Amish
man who, in an interview with CNN, said, "In forgiveness there is
healing." Diaz respected the man's simple assertion but added that it
"would be nice if somebody [in Washington] accepted accountability"
for all the inside-the-beltway shenanigans. "Then, and only then, can
forgiveness and healing truly begin." The Religious Right likewise
became a target of these Amish-inspired reflections and so did the Religious
Left. "The so-called Christian Right should look closely at the Amish
lifestyle for lessons in what is wrong with their approach to faith and
politics," wrote Stephen Crockett of Democratic Talk Radio. Unlike James
Dobson and his ilk, the Amish "do not seek to impose their values on
others by law or force," and "hate has no power or legitimacy among
them." David Virtue, writing for "The Voice for Global Orthodox
Anglicanism," found a different lesson in the aftermath of Nickel Mines.
Recalling the bravery of the Amish schoolgirls and the courage of those who
offered forgiveness, he observed that their response grew out of "raw
naked faith," not out of the "pathetic liberal gospel"
advanced by the U.S. Episcopal Church's hierarchy. He then invoked the name
of liberal clergyman John Shelby Spong, asking his readers if they would
"stand up and die" for the theological beliefs held by Spong in the
way the Amish girls had stood up for their faith. It may be stretching things to
say that the Amish schoolgirls died defending their faith, although they and their surviving
community members clearly demonstrated their faith in their responses
to Roberts and his family. Thus it's not surprising that the most consistent
and wide-reaching discussion after the shooting focused not on politics per
se but on the nature of the Christian life. To be sure, many political issues
gun control, school violence, the war on terror, capital punishment, penal
reform, and violence against women, among others were debated along the way,
but the most prominent questions were these: What does it mean to live a
truly Christian life? Have the Amish set a standard for other Christians to
aspire to? At least for some observers,
the answer to the second question was yes. Sister Joan Chittister, writing
for the National Catholic Reporter, suggested that "it was the
Christianity we all profess but which [the Amish] practiced that left us
stunned." The Nickel Mines Amish, Chittister concluded, astounded the
twenty-first-century world the way the earliest Christians astounded the
Roman world: simply by being "Christian." Theologically speaking, this
may be the case. For centuries Christian theologians have cited the
centrality of forgiveness to the Christian faith, not only as something Jesus
modeled but also as something he commanded his followers to do. Nonetheless,
it's important to recognize that the Amish are, and always have been, quite
unlike most people who call themselves Christians. From a sociological
standpoint, they are not simply Christians; they are Amish Christians.
As Amish Christians, they share a basic set of beliefs with other Christians,
but they come to their faith with a unique history, culture, and theology. To
really understand the grace offered at Nickel Mines, we must explore the
history, the spirituality, and the culture of the people who extended it. After
reading Amish
Grace, you’ll never again think of forgiveness in the same way you do now.
Steve
Hopkins, January 22, 2008 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the February 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Amish Grace.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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