Mark is married to Jo and is a 23 year old youth and schools worker based in South Cave (near Hull). Mark spent 4 years as a youth worker in Peterborough whilst studying for a degree in youth work & ministry with Oasis.
Today’s post in my lent blogs is a blog I promised a while ago.
Back in November I finally got around to buying a book called Amish Grace which was recommended by one of my lecturers at uni and although I started the book with excitement I slacked a little with it and eventually finished it last week.
The book focuses on the Amish who were effected by the Nickel Mines Shooting which happened in 2006 and the way in which the Amish reacted to a gunman entering a school, killing 5 pupils and then himself.
Their reaction was not one of revenge or anger but one of forgiveness and they shocked America with this forgiveness and caused all sorts of questions to be asked about their reaction…was it right to forgive such violence?
I’m not going to focus on an overview of the book or write a review but share the biggest challenge the book faced me with…that of forgiveness.
Whilst we encourage people to forgive in Christianity and many psychologists would agree that forgiveness has a benefit for the individual who forgives because it’s about moving on, forgiveness is seen very differently by the amish.
The Amish think of forgiveness as to give up your right for revenge and so whilst they acknowledge that there are consequences of sin (seems a light term to use in the context of shooting people) they believe that it is not their place to carry out those consequences and that that responsibility lies with the state (in some situations a benefit of the separation of church and state!). The core belief they focus on with regards to forgiveness is the Lord’s prayer where Jesus says ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’. The interpretation of this glanced over verse is that unless we forgive others we cannot be forgiven.
As a result of this strong conviction the Amish have to forgive others they take forgiveness very seriously and as a very active thing. In the situation of the shooting some of the Amish went to the home of the gunman to offer his wife and kids support as they dealt with the loss of a husband and father, as I read that I felt that there was something humbling about these people.
I like the Amish, I think their pacifism and forgiveness emphasis is absolutely spot on and very challenging to modern day Christians who spend a lot of time getting hung up on things that happen and a lack of ‘justice’ rather than moving on. I can’t quite picture how active-forgiveness works in a day-to-day context but even now (about a month after reading that section) I’m still chewing it over and feeling challenged by it.
