The Amish forgave the man who killed five of their children, but the story's not over

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

Five years ago, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., and shot 10 girls -- mortally wounding five -- before killing himself. This quiet, rural community in Lancaster County suddenly became a place of unprecedented contrasts -- violence amidst peaceful people, hordes of satellite trucks in a place that favors simplicity.

Most striking, in a world of deep division and blame-mongering, was the nearly immediate forgiveness the Amish community expressed to the Roberts family. This was not forgiveness offered in a prepared statement, delivered by lawyers or news crews, but forgiveness offered in person, from one human being to another.

What the Amish consider to be "standard Christian forgiveness" can teach all of us -- in our own personal and political conflicts -- that forgiveness is a way of life learned and lived in community.

Over the past five years, the survivors of the Nickel Mines tragedy have had to wrestle with the impact that Oct. 2, 2006, has had on their lives and their understanding of the world. Four of the five wounded girls have physically recovered; the fifth suffers from permanent disabilities due to brain trauma. The entire community continues to wrestle with the emotional and mental terror of the day.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11275/1178823-109.stm#ixzz1ZcaSDeJq

Anabaptist movement thrives in North America

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

From horse-and-buggy Mennonites in Mexico to Amish in Arkansas, a new study reveals the variety of Anabaptist culture in North America.

"The biggest surprise was that there was a Mennonite group in the Bahamas," said Donald Kraybill, senior fellow at Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, who did the research.

But that plain-dressing group isn't lounging on the beach in bonnets and suspenders.

"They're doing evangelical mission work and have two congregations. But they also have an industrial training school and are teaching occupational skills to native people there," he said.

Dr. Kraybill, who published his findings in the new "Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites and Mennonites" from Johns Hopkins University Press, found Anabaptist groups in 17 of the 23 North American nations. It is the first study of all Anabaptist groups. Anabaptists descend from Swiss and German radicals of the Protestant Reformation who insisted on adult baptism, rejected state control of the church and practiced nonresistance despite brutal persecution.

The study found 809,845 Anabaptist adults. Children would raise the total to an estimated 1.3 million. More than two-thirds -- 578,195 -- live in the United States, with the next largest group of 144,000 in Canada.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10339/1108416-84.stm#ixzz17Emqrcc7