FORGIVENESS

On October 2 , 2006 Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old local milk-truck driver, stormed into the Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania , U.S. and shot dead 4 girl students before killing himself.

What followed was an awe-inspiring response from the Amish Parents whose children were murdered and the Amish comunity has confounded not only America and the world.

The Amish parents (of the children who were massacred) sent words of forgiveness to the family of the killer who had executed their children.
This is what has stunned not only America but the world, especially at a time when hate, revenge, vengeance, violence, and sheer malice against one another in the name of religion reverberate and fill our newspapers.

A refusal to meet violence with violence, but to greet violence with forgiveness.

How can one forgive such a heinous crime? Can this really be true? Yes, in deed, and there is much more to this notable, religious act practised so ingenuously, insistently, and intentionally by the Amish community of Nickel Mines.

The forgiveness which the Amish have practised both at the individual and community level springs from the example of Jesus, the cornerstone of Amish faith... the Amish take the life and teachings of Jesus seriously.