How the righteous suffer
The country is focusing more attention on the unique community of the Amish that, before this week, seemed like one of the least likeliest places crime would ever strike.
Newsweek has this reflection on the people and their tradition that also make them among the strongest people to absorb the grief and turn it into faithfulness.
The Amish, says Donald Kraybill, a scholar of Anabaptism at Pennsylvania’s Elizabethtown College, have a unique capacity to absorb hatred and violence. “The tradition of suffering for the sake of righteousness is embedded in the Amish religious tradition,†he says.
That’s hard enough to do when you’re not tested by vicious brutality against children in your community. But for such an innocent group of people to have already invited the wife of the killer to attend the funeral, in a sort of mutual ceremony of grieving and healing, is probably beyond the comprehension of most modern folks, especially so soon. But…
Like the Desert Fathers, the Amish believe in living as much as possible like Jesus, and forgiveness and humility are part of that undertaking.
People like to use the term ‘walking the talk’ to refer to living what you believe. This Christian witness of that Amish community takes that to a new level. It’s the immediate, stunning answer to the ubiquitous question ‘WWJD?’
