In Response To Tragedy, "Mennonites Preach, And Practice, Forgiveness". How Many Of Us Can Emulate That?
Mennonites preach, and practice, forgiveness
The Lord's Prayer stands close to the center of the spiritual lives of many Mennonites and Amish. They take seriously such phrases as, “Thy will be done,” and, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive the sins of those who sin against us.”
So it comes as no surprise to scholar Donald Kraybill to hear of Mennonites' gracious attitude after an Alabama truck driver crossed an Interstate 65 median on March 26 in Hart County, killing himself and 10 Mennonites in their van, including an infant.
Kraybill has seen this attitude in practice before.
He is one of the authors of “Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy,” about the remarkable outpouring of forgiveness displayed by the Amish living around Nickel Mines, Pa., in 2006 after a gunman killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five others before killing himself.
Nor was that an isolated incident. In cases with a more direct parallel to the I-65 tragedy, the authors found previous cases of Amish parents quickly extending forgiveness to drivers who had struck and killed their children.
While authorities are still investigating the cause of the I-65 accident, grieving Mennonites have expressed their sympathies with the trucker's relatives, saying they would like to meet with them.
“It's so sad that people are so quick to blame,” said Melvin Kauffman, who lost several relatives in the tragedy. “I see (the crash) as a divine act.”
Such believers have “just an enormously deep and abiding confidence in the providence of God, that God doesn't make mistakes and that things like this happen according to his plan,” said Kraybill. “They believe that we don’t know why they happen, but we have confidence that there may be a deeper reason or a hidden or mysterious reason that God permitted.”
And that view was echoed time and again by Mennonites gathering in Marrowbone, in Cumberland County, for the funeral of nine of the victims.
“The fiber of life is being torn, and it is painful. (But) we realize that on the other side, God is weaving a much more beautiful tapestry,” said Johnny Miller, an Ohio-based preacher, in one of the eulogies.
Mennonites and Amish share roots as “Anabaptists,” who formed the most persecuted wing of the 16th century Protestant Reformation because of their renunciations of state churches and infant baptisms — radical ideas at the time.
While they diverge on the uses of motor vehicles and on other points, conservative Mennonites and Amish share commitments to strong community bonds, pacifism and strict church discipline.
A key value is that of submission — to one another and the will of God, which they believe ordains all things.
That means, as members said repeatedly, that the I-65 collision was no accident but God's timing.
And it means they must value the injunction to forgive in the Lord's Prayer, Kraybill said. He noted that after teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer, Jesus told them that those who don't forgive will not have their own sins forgiven.
“There's a strong sense that, in the end, God is the arbiter of justice and is merciful, but people are accountable to God,” Kraybill said. “We can more easily forgive because God is the one that handles justice.”
That, too, was echoed in comments from members such as Joel Byers — one of the first Mennonites to arrive on the accident scene.
“It could make me bitter,” he said, but that's “going to ruin my life.” The alternative is to “look at that scene and say, ‘God, you know best.’ ”
Many religious people have failed to find solace in such a belief.
An alternative view was summarized by Rabbi Harold Kushner in the 1983 book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” in which the author wrestles with his son's slow, excruciating death.
“I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die,” he wrote.
The Rev. William Sloan Coffin, one of the leading 20th century Protestant liberal church leaders, said after his own son's death: “My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
For Anabaptists, their consolation comes from habits cultivated not only through their lifetimes but inspired by their movement's history of martyrdom and suffering.
Time and again, I heard grieving Mennonites tell me and others that they're coping “by God's grace.”
“These values incorporate a willingness to place tragedy in God's hands without demanding divine explanation for injustice,” wrote Kraybill and his fellow authors, Steven Nolt and David Weaver-Zercher. “They also include a desire to imitate Jesus, who loved those who harmed him.”
Peter Smith is the religion writer for The Courier-Journal. This column is adapted from his Faith & Works blog at www.courier-journal.com/faithblog. He can be reached at (502) 582-4469.
The Lord's Prayer stands close to the center of the spiritual lives of many Mennonites and Amish. They take seriously such phrases as, “Thy will be done,” and, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive the sins of those who sin against us.”
So it comes as no surprise to scholar Donald Kraybill to hear of Mennonites' gracious attitude after an Alabama truck driver crossed an Interstate 65 median on March 26 in Hart County, killing himself and 10 Mennonites in their van, including an infant.
Kraybill has seen this attitude in practice before.
He is one of the authors of “Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy,” about the remarkable outpouring of forgiveness displayed by the Amish living around Nickel Mines, Pa., in 2006 after a gunman killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five others before killing himself.
Nor was that an isolated incident. In cases with a more direct parallel to the I-65 tragedy, the authors found previous cases of Amish parents quickly extending forgiveness to drivers who had struck and killed their children.
While authorities are still investigating the cause of the I-65 accident, grieving Mennonites have expressed their sympathies with the trucker's relatives, saying they would like to meet with them.
“It's so sad that people are so quick to blame,” said Melvin Kauffman, who lost several relatives in the tragedy. “I see (the crash) as a divine act.”
Such believers have “just an enormously deep and abiding confidence in the providence of God, that God doesn't make mistakes and that things like this happen according to his plan,” said Kraybill. “They believe that we don’t know why they happen, but we have confidence that there may be a deeper reason or a hidden or mysterious reason that God permitted.”
And that view was echoed time and again by Mennonites gathering in Marrowbone, in Cumberland County, for the funeral of nine of the victims.
“The fiber of life is being torn, and it is painful. (But) we realize that on the other side, God is weaving a much more beautiful tapestry,” said Johnny Miller, an Ohio-based preacher, in one of the eulogies.
Mennonites and Amish share roots as “Anabaptists,” who formed the most persecuted wing of the 16th century Protestant Reformation because of their renunciations of state churches and infant baptisms — radical ideas at the time.
While they diverge on the uses of motor vehicles and on other points, conservative Mennonites and Amish share commitments to strong community bonds, pacifism and strict church discipline.
A key value is that of submission — to one another and the will of God, which they believe ordains all things.
That means, as members said repeatedly, that the I-65 collision was no accident but God's timing.
And it means they must value the injunction to forgive in the Lord's Prayer, Kraybill said. He noted that after teaching his disciples the Lord's Prayer, Jesus told them that those who don't forgive will not have their own sins forgiven.
“There's a strong sense that, in the end, God is the arbiter of justice and is merciful, but people are accountable to God,” Kraybill said. “We can more easily forgive because God is the one that handles justice.”
That, too, was echoed in comments from members such as Joel Byers — one of the first Mennonites to arrive on the accident scene.
“It could make me bitter,” he said, but that's “going to ruin my life.” The alternative is to “look at that scene and say, ‘God, you know best.’ ”
Many religious people have failed to find solace in such a belief.
An alternative view was summarized by Rabbi Harold Kushner in the 1983 book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” in which the author wrestles with his son's slow, excruciating death.
“I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die,” he wrote.
The Rev. William Sloan Coffin, one of the leading 20th century Protestant liberal church leaders, said after his own son's death: “My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
For Anabaptists, their consolation comes from habits cultivated not only through their lifetimes but inspired by their movement's history of martyrdom and suffering.
Time and again, I heard grieving Mennonites tell me and others that they're coping “by God's grace.”
“These values incorporate a willingness to place tragedy in God's hands without demanding divine explanation for injustice,” wrote Kraybill and his fellow authors, Steven Nolt and David Weaver-Zercher. “They also include a desire to imitate Jesus, who loved those who harmed him.”
Peter Smith is the religion writer for The Courier-Journal. This column is adapted from his Faith & Works blog at www.courier-journal.com/faithblog. He can be reached at (502) 582-4469.
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