Learning from the Amish

I lived among the Lancaster, PA, Amish in the 1980s. When I say "lived among," I was not a member of the Amish community, but a member of the greater Lancaster community. As such, I did not take visiting friends & relatives to stare at the Amish, I did not gawk at the Amish who made their way into town, and I may have driven more carefully than some when traveling roads through Amish farms. I still have contact with Amish when I visit their Thursday, Friday, Saturday farmers' market nearby. Notice I did not say Sunday.

The television and radio is full of commentators with SHOCKING NEWS. The SHOCKING NEWS is that the families of the girls slain by the man in PA have forgiven the shooter. This is not SHOCKING to anyone who knows the Amish. What is SHOCKING is that we find forgiveness so SHOCKING. There is not much more Biblical than forgiveness.

What is equally SHOCKING is that all the Lancaster area Amish have not already sold their farms and moved elsewhere like many of their families have done. Smaller, less visible Amish communities have sprouted up in other states, in states and places I will not mention, to honor the privacy of people the rest of us could learn a lot from.

If you are interested in donating financially to the families of those affected by the PA tragedy, please visit

mds.mennonite.net OR mcc.org

Or send your check payable to MCC or MDS at the following addresses with the words "Amish School Recovery Fund" in the memo line. The community will probably tear down the school house.

Mennonite Central Committee, 21 S. 12th St., P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501
Mennonite Disaster Service, 1018 Main St., Akron, PA 17501