The helicopters kept making circles in the air so that the cameramen could keep showing the dairy farms and country roads, the bonnets and wide-brimmed straw hats, the horse-drawn buggies and the one-room schoolhouse framed in yellow police tape.<\/p>\n\n
Soon the facts started going in circles as police recited a litany about 600 rounds of ammunition, a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol, a stun gun, explosives and, later, the killer\u2019s sick collection of chains, clamps, hardware and sexual aids. Witnesses said Charles Carl Roberts IV was angry with God, angry with himself, haunted by guilt, fed up with life and driven by a hellish grudge.<\/p>\n\n
Then journalists began asking questions that went in circles, the questions that nag clergy as well as state troopers. Why? Why the Amish? How could God let this happen? How can justice be done now that the killer is dead?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cLike everyone else, I could not believe what I was seeing on my television,\u201d said Johann Christoph Arnold, senior elder of the Bruderhof communes. While sharing many beliefs with the Amish and Mennonites, the Bruderhof (\u201cplace of the brothers\u201d) embrace some modern technology. Still, these movements share European roots in pacifism, simple living and an emphasis on the sanctity of human life.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Amish are our cousins so I know some of what they must be feeling,\u201d said Arnold, in his thick German accent. \u201cI know these parents are hurting, I know they are asking questions, but I know that they know the answer is forgiveness. \u2026 Tragedy and pain can soften our hearts until they break. But if we trust God this will help us to feel compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The gunman\u2019s stunned wife released a media statement that showed her understanding of her Amish neighbors and their beliefs. She knew she could appeal for prayers and forgiveness, even though outsiders might find her words hard to fathom.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cOur hearts are broken, our lives are shattered, and we grieve for the innocence and lives that were lost today,\u201d said Marie Roberts. \u201cAbove all, please, pray for the families who lost children and, please, pray, too, for our family and children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Some of the Amish went even further. One woman told the Los Angeles Times: \u201cI am very thankful that I was raised to believe you don\u2019t fight back. You should forgive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
To grasp the Amish point of view, it\u2019s crucial to understand that they truly believe God desires justice, but also shows mercy and \u201cthey believe that these are not contradictory things,\u201d said Arnold. \u201cThey know that God said, \u2018Vengeance is mine, I will repay.\u2019 The Amish certainly believe that this killer will not go without punishment, but they also believe that his punishment is in God\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
These are hard words in an age when many Americans hold one of two competing beliefs about eternity and God\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n\n
Millions of believers \u2014 lukewarm and fervent alike \u2014 assume that the really bad sinners are the people who commit the really bad sins, those spectacular sins tied to violence, drugs and sex. These really bad people are easy to condemn to hell.<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, many other people believe that all people are automatically going to heaven, no matter what they believe or what they do. According to this point of view, the massacre inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School will have no impact on the eternal destiny of Charles Carl Roberts IV.<\/p>\n\n
Once again, the Amish believe that God knows all and that God, and only God, can judge. What the Amish emphasize, stressed Arnold, is that forgiveness is the only way that humans can break a cycle of violence and sin.<\/p>\n\n
In this case, the gunman left suicide notes that showed that he was driven by guilt and a grudge that he would not surrender. It appears that Roberts could not forgive God and could not forgive himself.<\/p>\n\n
In the end, this killed him and through him this grudge killed others.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIf you hold a grudge, it will live on in your heart until it leads to violence of some kind,\u201d said Arnold. \u201cIf you do not forgive, then you cannot be healed. Forgiveness can heal the forgiver as well as the one who is forgiven. This is what the Amish believe. It will be hard and it will take time, but this is what they now must strive to live out for all the world to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The helicopters kept making circles in the air so that the cameramen could keep showing the dairy farms and country roads, the bonnets and wide-brimmed straw hats, the horse-drawn buggies and the one-room schoolhouse framed in yellow police tape. Soon the facts started going in circles as police recited a litany about 600 rounds of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,369,421,422,893],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amish","tag-forgiveness","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\n