A Lesson from the Amish

The forgiveness extended by the Amish community to the Roberts family [Roberts was the killer] was noted around the world.  The Amish did not wish such publicity for doing what Jesus taught and want to make sure that glory is given to God for that witness.  Many from Nickel Mines have pointed out that forgiveness is a journey, that you need help from your community of faith and from God, and sometimes even from counselors, to make and hold on to a decision to not become a hostage to hostility.  It is understood that hostility destroys community. ... For the full text of the statement preceding the first anniversary of the killing of Amish children by a deranged person, see http://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/statement.pdf .

The Amish gave us a profound lesson.  Hostility destroys community.  And as we all know, the lesson is not just about the reaction of victims to killings.  There are examples which each of us can imagine.  

See this:  

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday [August 14, 2007] in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday. …  

Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and [U. S. Major General Benjamin] Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called "night letters," telling them "to leave because they are infidels."  

"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will -- almost genocide when you consider the fact the target they attacked and the fact that these Yazidis, out in a very remote part of Nineveh province, where there is very little security and really no security required to this point," Mixon said. ... http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/15/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_topstories  

Killings like this on a larger scale become genocide, and there have been several of those in the last hundred fifty years.   

Where does a solution lie?  The Amish have taught us a profound lesson, but that neither makes them safe nor makes us wise.  The solution might have been mentioned in a past essay about diversity leading to separate communities.  In other words, the Amish of Pennsylvania, the Yazidi of Ninevah province, and others need to erect walls or, if not that, to find productive land far from others where they can sustain themselves without the need for tourists or merchants.  And since it would seem impossible to find unoccupied productive land, the answer would lie in floating communities.  

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.  

1.   The statement “hostility destroys community” applies to Montebello how?

(a)  There is a strong antipathy to criminals.

(b)  There are political factions which do not cooperate for the community’s benefit.  

2.   By faith, the Amish always will be vulnerable to violence from the outside.  What can they do?

(a)   Nothing.  Their faith, community, and counselors will sustain them.

(b)  Build a wall or get as far away from “civilization” as possible.    

October 18, 2007