Main board: Die Gnade der Amish - Amish Grace

^{Book cover of The Grace of the Amish, Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, David L.Weaver-Zercher, 2009 Weinheim.}

It all begins with a horrific crime. A man invades an Amish school and kills Amish girls between the ages of six and thirteen, and eventually himself.

The book tells us how the Amish dealt with the crime and the perpetrator. They publicly forgave the man, attended his funeral, and invited his widow to the funeral of her children. – Unusual? Not for the Amish. The authors show how important forgiveness is to the Amish, they show that the reaction to the massacre was the rule and not the exception. Thus, the book describes a culture that manages to break the spiral of violence with forgiveness.^[2]

The response to the crime and to the forgiving attitude of the Amish is tremendous:

The funeral director about the funeral of the offender:

«I was fortunate to be at the cemetery when the Amish families whose children had been killed came to the funeral and offered their forgiveness. I will never forget that, ever. I know that I witnessed a miracle.»^[3]

A family member of the perpetrator:

«About 35 or 40 Amish came to the funeral. They shook our hands and cried. They hugged Amy (the widow) and the children. There was no resentment or hard feelings, just forgiveness. It's just hard to believe that they were able to do that.»^[4]

The mourning Amish:

«This story of forgiveness makes me think of Matthew 5 and a light on a mountain.»^[5]

«This story of forgiveness has given more testimony of us throughout the world than anything we can ever do.»^[6]

«Our forgiveness is not about words, but about deeds. It is not what we said, but what we did. That was our forgiveness.»^[7]

^{[1] The Amish, who live primarily in the USA today, are a denomination with roots in the Anabaptist movement. They separated from the Mennonites in 1693.
[2] Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L.Weaver-Zercher, Amish Grace. How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. 2009 WILEY-VCH, Blurb.
The movie: Amish Grace, 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPxRLjHYxFk.
[3] Die Gnade , S.66.
[4] Die Gnade, S. 66.​​​​​​​
[5] Die Gnade der Amish, S. 72.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
[6] Die Gnade der Amish, S. 73.​​​​​​​
[7] Die Gnade der Amish, S.73.}