Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy

by David Weaver-Zercher, Steven M. Nolt, Donald B. Kraybill, et al.

Book Overview

On Monday morning, October 2, 2006, a gunman entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts prepared to shoot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task. The oldest hostage, a thirteen-year-old,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787997617
• ISBN13: 9780787997618
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 237 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Seventy times seven

This book is a grace note in an age of religiously fuelled hate crimes and suicide bombings. It is not only about how the Old Order Amish found it within themselves to forgive the killer of their young girls, it is also one of the best books on religion and ethics that I have ever read. If the reader learns one thing from the Nickel Mines school shooting, it is this: "the Amish commitment to forgive is not a small patch tacked onto their fabric of faithfulness. Rather, their commitment to forgive is intricately woven into their lives and their communities." The Amish take the Lord's Prayer to heart. If they themselves wish to be forgiven, they must forgive. "Amish Grace" gives an account of Charles Carl Roberts IV and the instruments of cruelty and death that he brought to the small Nickel Mines schoolhouse on October 2, 2006. But as the authors put it, the biggest surprise "was not the intrusion of evil but the Amish response." How and why the Amish forgave the killer in their midst is the main focus of this book. One of the contrasts I couldn't help drawing from this story was the Amish response to the murder of their children, versus the way John Walsh, dedicated host of "America's Most Wanted" reacted to the murder of his six-year-old son, Adam. Since that horrible day in 1981, Walsh has devoted himself to bringing criminals to justice, and has been instrumental in rescuing abducted children. In 2006 President Bush signed a new bill into law that changed how Americans protect their children against sexual predators such as Charles Carl Roberts IV. The law is called "The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act." If John Walsh had been Amish, would any of these good and necessary deeds have been accomplished? On a more personal level, were the stricken Amish parents better able than Mr. Walsh to live with their grief because they forgave their children's killer? In the course of writing this book, the authors develop answers to questions such as the above, from the Amish and non-Amish point-of-view. They don't preach. They don't resort to sociological mumbo-jumbo. They tell the stories of good people, who are also fallible human beings. They conclude that "Amish-style forgiveness can't be strip-mined from southern Lancaster County and transported wholesale to other settings. Rather, the lessons of grace that the rest of us take from Nickel Mines must be extracted with care and applied to other circumstances with humility." This is a thoughtful, well-written book.

A Five Star Book

This book is extaordinary, one of the most worthwhile I've read in the past five years. For starters, it is well written. Its prose is crisp, fresh and readable---even rewarding to read out loud. The next thing to note is the authors' comprehensive knowledge of their subject, which includes not only the events of the Nickel Mines disaster but also the hearts of the Amish people. Their empathy for and rapport with the Amish community are what make this book possible. Though they are social scientists with impressive credentials, they obviously care for the Amish people and have earned their trust. When they quote, one can be confident that their quotes are valid examples of attitudes within the Amish community. What is perhaps most important is that they have used a teachable moment, albeit a tragic one, to write a probing inquiry into the nature of forgiveness, To their credit they come up with no easy answers, although they do clarify what forgiveness is not. For one thing, it is not easy. It does not mean that the victim forgets or that the perpetrator cannot be punished. It is not the same as reconciliation, which only takes place if the perpetrator repents. A large question that lurks in the background is how the Amish do it when other Christian groups preach it but seldom practice it. One obvious answer is that the Amish habitualy think forgiveness, refer to it in all of their church services, and teach it to their children from the ground up. In their close-knit communities, doing so may well be a necessary survival tool The question that follows in our therapeutic society is, "How can forgiveness be healthy when it requires suppression of feelings, feelings that we normally think should be ventilated?" And then, "Can what works for the Amish really be applied outside the Amish community?" I am not sure, but as a clinician I am impressed by the evidence that ventilation may not be as essential a therapeutic technique as I had thought. Of course, the notion of forgivenes also raises other big questions. Are some crimes or sins too heinous to forgive? Does forgiveness simply enable the perpetrator to continue his destructive pattern? These questions and other are addressed by the authors, who always use the Amish as their point of reference. They never stoop to simplistic answers. At the same time, they suggest that the simple approach of the Amish has alot to teach all of us.

Surprised me with its excellence

I love reading, and read voraciously. However, every once in a while, a book comes along that surprises me with its excellence. Amish Grace is one of those books. In the aftermath of the October 2, 2006, massacre at the Nickel Mines School, much was made about the quick response the Amish made in forgiving the shooter. However, there were also many questions asked, and many dubious conclusions drawn from their forgiveness. As such, three experts on the Amish community talked with the Amish themselves, and sought to gain a true understanding of the Amish, their faith, and their forgiveness. Overall, I found this to be a wonderful book. The authors do a great job of giving an in-depth explanation of Amish forgiveness in the context of their lives and theology (which are not truly separable). It gave me a much more deep understanding of the Amish than I had gained from many other books. Having been raised with the Anabaptist faith ever at my elbow (Mennonite, in my case), I never had a true feeling of otherness from the Amish that many people seem to feel, but now I more truly understand that feeling than I ever had before. But, don't get me wrong, this is not a dispassionate, academic book. The tragedy that occurred that day echoes and reechoes throughout the book, and the Amish forgiveness is shown to have come from deeper within them than some people seem to think. Overall, I found this to be a wonderful book. It helped me to understand the Amish intellectually, and it helped me to look at myself and my faith more deeply. I give this book my highest recommendations.

A profound book on grace and forgiveness for everyone

This book achieves what most books don't. It combines a rich well of scholarly research on the part of three academicians without sacrificing the soul of what occurred at Nickel Mines during and after the event. In addition to being well researched the book has a poetically lyrical and haunting quality that honors, reflects, and conveys the hearts, souls, and minds of the Amish community. One of the most difficult things a writer can achieve is to step out of the way and allow the pictures and voices tell the story without the writer's ego coming into play. This is what was achieved in this book. I haven't been grasped by anything this powerful in a long time. It challenges me to try to live with intentionality each day and continue to struggle with what forgiveness looks like in the ordinary moments and encounters of my life.

Forgiveness is essential

Without forgiveness we can never heal our heart and those of others in times of grief. This book witnesses that Anabaptist lesson which all people of faith should emulate. As I read this I cried again, just as during those most sad days, for all humanity, tears of faith, joy and sadness the essence of which is to privately pray and publicly forgive. I thank the Anabaptists for reminding us what grace is and the authors for sharing this most important lesson with all of us.