If you were Amish,do you think you could forgive some who killed your child?

Question

after the incident that happened last Monday at the Amish school in Penn. I don't think I could forgive that monster who came into their school and killed their kids. Could you?

Answer 1

I would NEVER forgive ANYONE who would kill my kids!!!!!!

Answer 2

I find the question interesting on much more than a philosophical level, because I have ancestral roots in Lancaster County, and my grandmother was a non-practicing Mennonite. I know a little about the Pietistic sects, of which the Amish are probably the most prominent.

Forgiveness brings healing to the heart, soul, and mind. I know this from personal experience, because I was able to forgive someone who all but killed me. I'll hasten to add, however, that that was an assault on ME, not my two children--although they were also affected by it (how could they not be?). I don't know if I'd have found it as easy to do if they, not I, had been the victims.

Forgiveness is at the center of Pietistic religious belief, and it was so marvelous to me to see that in action. I admire it, I applaud it, and I would hope to have that "same mind as was in Christ Jesus" myself--but I couldn't say for certain how I'd react in the same situation.

Just remember--the person you don't forgive still has power over you, and why should anybody allow someone to have that, especially when he or she has already had too much power over you already?

Forgive it, and leave it to God--He alone can judge with perfect justice.

Answer 3

Amish or no Amish , the pain of killing your child will stay a life time, but forgive them is something very simple and powerful not everybody can do it. I hope I'll never see that day. If I can forgive it might help me in the proses of healing don't you think ?

Answer 4

If you didn't forgive then you would not be living by the Amish lifestyle and belief system and therefore you would not be considered Amish, not a true Amish believer anyway. So, if you were truly Amish, yes you could forgive.

Answer 5

One thing about forgiving.

You have to be able to forgive someone who has harmed you, if ever you need to be forgiven for something you have done.

To God, sin is sin; there are no levels of it [according to my upbringing]. God will forgive and forget sin upon being asked to by the sinner.

But your question is about how can a parent forgive the murderer of a child.

I do not doubt that this is going to be a very difficult task for those Amish families.

Bad things happen, and it would be very difficult to work through the terrible pain and emerge obedient to God's law. To BELIEVE that God works for the good of those who love Him.

It is so difficult to endure such pain and loss, the overwhelming grief, and always, always the questions, Why? Why? It is almost impossible to accept the death of your own innocent child as a part of God's plan for your good. I can hardly get my mind around such a concept.

I think a lot about this man who murdered those girls. He was a pedophile, who had not molested a child for twenty years, according to a news report I heard. He was God's child, too. Can you even imagine the anguish he went through, striving to deny his own needs, because he knew not to molest children? People who smoke, or overeat, or curse, or have other bad habits, surely have had the experience of having lit a cigarette, and not remembered they intended to quit, or having again eaten so much their tummies hurt. What I am saying is, that our bodies crave things we know are not good, and sometimes we are not intellectually vigilant enough to deny cravings. Depending on the cravings, we hurt ourselves, or others. Think of those children's families, of course, but also think about the man's wife, and other family. He caused them anguish, too.

For myself, I try to forgive and forget. But I have to tell you, sometimes I have had to accept that there is no justice; some who have hurt me have never been disciplined, and I have waited decades. My belief is that I cannot control such things; I can only control myself. And so I do the best I can, and when I see that I have fallen short, I try to make amends, and I beg forgiveness. But sometimes only God is in a forgiving mode.

Answer 6

I think that no one with a normal mind can forgive that "monster" (I like how you used that word), I mean, why would someone kill innocent people to fulfill a grudge?

Answer 7

I really don't think I would be able to... The only way I would forgive them is if they killed me

Answer 8

Not a chance in hell i would forgive......i will kill anyone who DARES lay a finger on my children........I don't see why he had to kill children he should have gone out and killed all the scum out on the streets,the drug dealers the rapists etc, not innocent children he was the lowest of the low............

Answer 9

chances are that if you were amish, you were raised amish from childhood. therefore you were raised with the belief to forgive....therefore i would say yes

Answer 10

If I were of ANY faith (I'm of Christian faith, BTW), I would NEVER forgive ANYONE who killed my child!!!! Hell, anybody who would've killed MY child (I don't have ANY children; I'm just saying), I would have killed the person who did it!!!!!!!!

Answer 11

if you don't forgive, the killer will have power over you ad infinitum. i believe the deceased girls are in a better place.