A bright witness to hope
October 22, 2006
This past week, our Text class went over some powerful sections from Chapter 25. The “Rock of Salvation” section (T-25.VII) presented an idea I found particularly striking: We have to decide whether we think God’s Love is sane or the world of sin is sane. In everyday terms, we have to decide whether it makes more sense to unconditionally love and forgive as God would have us do, or attack in order to keep ourselves safe in this dog-eat-dog world. Whatever our stated spiritual beliefs, virtually all of us live in a way that reflects the latter view. After all, if we don’t fend off the dogs, we’ll get eaten alive, right?
The section says that we learn that God’s Love is sane by fulfilling our special function—our particular role in the Holy Spirit’s plan of forgiveness, in which we forgive “the holy ones especially entrusted to [our] care” (T-31.VII.8:3). This will demonstrate the sanity of God’s Love in such a powerful way that we cannot possibly miss it. As I contemplated this, I said to myself, “Boy, we really need such demonstrations.” And this led me to think of the Amish.
Most of us are familiar with the story by now. On October 2 at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, a man named Charles Carl Roberts took ten young girls hostage, tied them up, shot them, and then killed himself. Five of the girls were killed, the others seriously wounded. But it’s what happened afterward that has amazed the world. The Amish responded with love and forgiveness. A grieving grandfather standing next to the body of one of the girls told his young relatives, “We must not think evil of this man.” A woman who came to the schoolhouse to pray for the families said, “We forgive the way Christ forgives us.” Members of the Amish community comforted the shooter’s family. One man went to the shooter’s father, “held that man in his arms, and he said, ‘We will forgive you.’” Though the Amish don’t normally take charity, they even set up a charitable fund to help the shooter’s family (as well as the families of the girls who were shot).
I think this incident has moved so many people because, whether we realize it or not, we’re all looking for reasons to believe that extending love and forgiveness is a truly sane way to live in this world, not just an idealistic pipe dream. And this incident is such a perfect “extreme example,” as the Course would put it—the unimaginable horror of children shot in cold blood meets the forgiveness of a people committed to loving as Jesus loved, and forgiveness carries the day. If they can forgive in this circumstance, can’t we forgive “in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive” (T-6.I.6:7)?
Rod Dreher, in an October 6 column for the Dallas Morning News, eloquently expresses the power of the Amish demonstration:
Sometimes, faith helps ordinary men and women do the humanly impossible: to forgive, to love, to heal and to redeem. It makes no sense. It is the most sensible thing in the world. The Amish have turned this occasion of spectacular evil into a bright witness to hope. Despite everything, a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
“It makes no sense. It is the most sensible thing in the world.” It makes no sense if this cruel world with its “eye for an eye” justice is sane; it is the most sensible thing in the world if faith in God’s unconditional Love is sane. Which will we choose? Thanks to the “bright witness to hope” provided by the Amish, that choice just got a little easier.
Return to top | Send Reader Feedback | View Reader Feedback | Printer friendly version
Dear friend: We offer the materials on this website to you in the hope that they can serve you well on your journey home. Your continuing donations support the work of the Circle of Atonement. Thank you.
Click here to make a Donation.
This material is copyrighted by the Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed are the personal interpretation and understanding of the author(s).
Please report problems to the webmaster.
