Update 10/6/07 - See page 2
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USA Today carried an article yesterday with this introduction:
After the shooting deaths of five Amish girls a year ago today in Nickel Mines, Pa., the Amish community offered forgiveness for the shooter and his family. USA TODAY talked with Steve Nolt, who co-wrote the new book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (Jossey Bass, $24.95), about what America could learn from the Amish.
In this interview, Steve Nolt explained:
The Amish believe in a real sense that God's forgiveness of them is dependent on their extending forgiveness to other people. . . their understanding of forgiveness is that it is a long process, that it is difficult, that it is painful, that replacing bitter feelings toward someone is something that takes time, and they would say that happens only through God's grace. But they begin with expressing their intention to forgive, with the faith that the emotional forgiveness will follow over months and years. They don't begin with trying to blame someone or something.
Me: Very challenging indeed. This is an interview well worth reading.
Update 10/6/07:
In a related article Chuck Colson add the interesting fact that
". . . the Amish celebrate communion only twice a year, but they go through a month-long season of preparation. During that season of preparation, the Amish take seriously the admonition that if anyone holds a grudge against his brother, he is not to partake in the communion until he has put things right. A council meeting two weeks prior to communion is a time of admonishment, then there is a season of fasting, and sometimes the communion service is even delayed for weeks if there is more widespread disharmony among the community.