FORGIVENESS......MEDIA

First of all, I hope the families affected by the Nickel Mines school shooting will find peace and strength to face their day in spite of the tragedy that has be-fallen them. As the Grandfather of two little girls I dread imagining the pain of their loss and I commend the gestures of compassion and forgiveness by the Amish to the Roberts family. The example the Amish have shown should make us all pause. So let's, and consider this while we do.
While the Amish reaching out to the Roberts family was beautiful and profoundly generous, the media's fixation on forgiveness started by that gesture is suspect. How much sense does it make for WGAL's news anchor to sign off , less than thirty six hours after the tragedy with " tonight in Nickel Mines we have forgivness" When it is common knowledge people who lose loved ones tragically go through a process of which foregivness is a part, but any psychologist worth their salt will tell you next day foregivness is rushing it a bit.
I'm sick of the intellectual dishonesty of media proclamations like your " Amish gift to world -power of foregivness" 12-13-06. How can your editorial page support Amish style " love your enemy" When, if Roberts were still alive it would support the death penalty for him?
As a former Amishman I;m aware of the need by the non-Amish community to project things onto the Amish that aren't real. I'm afraid all the media hype over foregivness is one of those things. The Amish are human and just like it would be for us, coming to terms with horrific loss will be, for the most part a long lonely journey of the soul.
The Grandfather who was interveiwed in the wee hours of the morning wasn't looking for an opportunity to tell the world that he had forgiven. Remember, it was the interveiwer who asked the question. Have you forgiven? As if she were at a sporting event querying a contestant who was facing the biggest challenge of their life. What was he supposed to say? Yea, I'd like to go over there tonight and run my pitch fork through them all! He was a devastated man looking for company and the reporter used him.
The media is projecting a fantasy concept of faith that is more about what the nonAmish community wants to hear than what is real for the Amish.


The Scribbler's suggestion to recognize the service of Conscientious Objectors on Memorial Day 5/27, is intellectually dishonest. Conscientious Objectors believe the taking of human life is wrong under any circumstance. Memorial Day is about honoring the sacrifice of our war dead, which inherently implies they died in a worthy cause. To suggest that these two are mutually compatible is demeaning to both.
Saying Conscientious Objectors served in non-military functions so others could fight, neuters the principle they embrace. It's also true that our nation benefited from their alternate service. But I suggest we honor the intent of their principle, instead of pretending we can absorb it into our common values without ruining it.



I'm heartened to see some fundamentalist Christian leaders are repudiating the narrow, sharp edged agenda, around abortion and homo-sexuality that has dominated political discourse in recent years.
Jim Wallis, the author of "God's politics" and Rick Warren the author of "A Purpose Driven Life" are two notable examples. Both men steadfastly adhere to Christian morals but refuse to let their faith be hijacked for political convenience. And so, bring a much needed breath of fresh air to our dialogue.
I'm familiar with a dark side of fundamentalist Christianity when it isn't tempered with compassion and reason. As a child I watched my older brother dramatically withdraw from our family, in large part because of an encounter he had with a neighbor, who managed to persuade him of the inferiority of our family's faith and way of life. ( How, "four centuries ago." )
The irony is, we were Amish. The same people who are currently revered world wide for how they dealt with a horrible tragedy in one of their schools. And yet, it is very likely my thirteen year old brother was told that if he doesn't reject and Dis-associate from most of what my family was and did, he would burn in hell for all eternity.
It would be nice to see the local fundamentalist evangelical community show some leadership and speak up for common sense and decency.



Herman Bontrager was quoted Intell 5/24 "Church honors Amish" saying "For them it was never in question because, they don't know how not to forgive" in reference to the Amish response to the Nickel Mines school shooting. It's disheartening to see their own representative make such a harmful mischaracterization of Amish faith.
What isn't in question for the Amish is what their faith calls them to. There's a powerful illustration in the Martyrs Mirror (one of their religious texts) by which the Amish measure their commitment to the scriptural commandment to "love your enemy" It's the account of an Anabaptist believer sacrificing his freedom and ultimately his life, to rescue his assailant from the ice covered river he had fallen into.
But, to suggest that the Amish are exempt from the full range of human experience in response to tragedy is lunacy. Amish submission to the commandment "love your enemy" and generations of cultivated passivity in the face of provocation, is what determined their response to the Nickel Mines tragedy, not some quasi human ability to forgive. More importantly, the Amish themselves aren't so naive about their own humanity that they would want to be seen as different from the rest of us.
It would enrich us all to become familiar with the values adherents of the Amish faith aspire to uphold. It's a disgrace to project onto those adherents a magical utopia that exists only in our imaginations.



I saw Oprah interviewed an Amish couple from Ohio on her show 3 23 07. It was charming to see her whooping it up with my people. She managed to high-light one of the greatest strengths the Amish have which is their commitment to simplicity. But she also walked smack into what most portrayals of the Amish do, which is to glorify them in such a way, that non-amish people find it hard to associate with, or relate to them as fellow human beings.
Oprah's audience may find it hard to imagine a society with no divorce. ( which isn't factually accurate of the Amish.) But if the show would have high-lighted how Amish couples get along and explored the issues of their everyday lives, the result would have revealed our common experience instead of fictitiously perpetuating the idea that they are not like us.
As a shunned Amishman it is crucial for me in dealing with my estrangement to hold dear our universal humanity. No matter who we are, or how flawed and imperfect our connections, our success as human beings depends on how we respond to the idea that we are all in this together.
Because of their custom of having large families, the amish population is growing rapidly. Consequently issues arising from our co-existence will become more pronounced. When common ground is needed, the distorted perception created by irresponsible media will hamper a solution.
The pendulum of public opinion swings easily from above to below. Seeing the Amish as fellow human beings and not some caricature with which we entertain ourselves is profoundly important for the stability and well-being of our community.





Here's a letter to the editor by my ex-wife

Oh dear, "Amish in the City'' hasn't even aired yet, and already the "experts'' are pointing out its mistakes. I'm not any better, as I found some mistakes, too.
Why do people think Amish dolls have no facial features? All little Amish girls play with dolls and they all have faces, just like everyone else's. And a lot of quilts made for young girls today are not in the traditional colors.
Tourists are the ones who buy those. The same goes for the faceless dolls.
Ms. Greenleaf, who wrote the article about the program for the New Era, "might'' be familiar with Lancaster County Amish, but she obviously knows nothing about those who live west of Pennsylvania.
The girls' hair and dress are typical of most Ohio and Indiana Amish. Plus all the Amish men I know have buttons on their shirts, no matter where they live.
I am curious though about Randy's suspenders, as some places in Indiana, teenagers do not wear suspenders. (And I'm guessing there's quite a few Amish Randys in Indiana. A common name in one area might be unheard of in another. And after all, this is the 21st Century.
My last complaint is the word rumspringa and its definition. The media is mistaken about the meaning of rumspringa. The media's version of rumspringa is acting rebelliousness, and testing out the ways of the world to see if one wants to remain Amish. This idea is wrong.
Rumspringa is what all Amish do when they turn 16. They go away without their parents, mostly on weekends, to supper gangs and singing crowds. It's when youth get to know each other, start dating and possibly meet their future spouses.
It is an organized part of the Amish life that is looked forward to and encouraged by all. Usually it starts at age 16 and ends with marriage.
The teenagers who dress plain and go away with horse and buggies are rumspringa just as well as the ones who dress like a local high school student, drive a car and binge drink. Rumspringa is not frowned upon. It's the way some people act while in rumspringa that is not approved.
Trying to be factual about the Amish is difficult. There are thousands of Amish in the U.S. and they live in numerous states and settlements. What is common in some groups would be unheard of in others.
Leah Zook