Christianity Practiced
October 5, 2006 at 1:42 am | Posted in Amish, Mormon, Religion | 4 CommentsIt was one of the saddest and most tragic incidents to occur in America, a troubled man takes little girls hostage in an Amish school to do bad things to them. With the police coming, he started shooting, killing five girls and taking his own life. What is the reaction from the Amish? They forgive him and say they should not think evil of him.
A grieving grandfather told young relatives not to hate the gunman who killed five girls in an Amish schoolhouse massacre, a pastor said on Wednesday.
“As we were standing next to the body of this 13-year-old girl, the grandfather was tutoring the young boys, he was making a point, just saying to the family, ‘We must not think evil of this man,’ ” the Rev. Robert Schenck told CNN.
“It was one of the most touching things I have seen in 25 years of Christian ministry.”
I think this was one of the most Christian acts that I’ve seen in a long time here in America. I wonder if this is the practical example of what the Lord said to “love your enemies. do good to them that harm you.” I wonder this in the context of Mormons and how we react to those who wish us harm. We have the example in Alma 14 where the prophet of the Lord, Alma, did not stop the killing of innocent people, who were being thrown in the fire.
Is this Amish grandfather an example of what the Lord meant when he said, “love your enemies?”
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The Good Democrat 
I read your comment over at Gospel Cougar regarding this story of the Amish grandfather.
My personal take on “forgive your enemies” is that it “works” on the person-to-person level. If we choose to love back in the face of hate and spite, then the hater will hopefully feel the sting of our love and will in turn choose not to be our enemy. If we love back and our enemy still chooses to hate us, we must still choose to love back or else the hate will swell within our hearts and will fester and make our souls corrupt.
However, I feel that on the national or global level, love your enemies cannot be strictly applied in the sense that you ALWAYS choose to love your enemies. True, our rich nation can spend millions spreading peace and wealth to other nations that might hate us, but the odds are that the hating nations will not reciprocate. One example that comes to mind is North Korea and the nuclear technology scandel involving that nation. Additionally, I seem to recall the Lord commanding the Israelites and the Nephites and even the early saints that they must defend their familes and nation, else if they lay down their weapons and the whole nation dies at their enemies’ hands, what good does that do?
However to counter this point, we also read of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and how they simply did not defend themselves and in turn, their enemies were “stung” and gave up their weapons of war. But to counter that point, we also read that this act of pacivity (if that’s a word) did not stop the bigger war. In fact, the sons of Helaman ended up fighting in a war a number of years later.
Lastly, the love your enemies doctrine seems to draw a line at murder. Yes, you can forgive a killer (as the grandfather did), but not many people would want the killer set free. If EVERYONE lived by that doctrine and assumed that in order to love this killer, we must not imprison him, them some killers/rapists might change their lives, but others would go on to rape and kill even more innocent people. So in that sense, we can forgive, but not embrace the killer. Similiarly, those nations (and terrorists) intent on obliterating this land of promise ought not to have the opportunity of killng our citizens again.
Comment by dp— October 5, 2006 #
DP,
Thanks for posting. I think sometimes we think that forgiving someone of their crime against us negates the justice that individual still has to face for his crime.
Forgiveness is more about ourselves than the perpetrator. The perpetrator still has to pay for his crime, whether by the laws of man or by the laws of God. Forgiveness is not about stifling justice, but about changing our own hearts to no longer have hatred for those who have committed crimes against us.
Being forgiving also doesn’t mean we lower our defenses. But being forgiving also means we don’t “take the war to them” as some think we should.
If we take 3 Nephi 3:20-21 as an example, the people of Nephi implored their prophet, Gidgiddoni, to go defeat the Gadianton Robbers. Gidgiddoni’s response:
Defending the country does not contradict the principles of forgiveness and loving our enemies.
Comment by redhatmandan— October 5, 2006 #
where is chritianity practiced? what is the central figures.
Comment by Tamarra Oatman— January 24, 2007 #
Tamarra,
Christianity can be practiced anywhere where individuals actually follow the gospel of Jesus Christ. The central figures are those who are kind, benevolent, who suffer long and are patient, who show love for their enemies, and do good to those that hate them or spitefully use them. There are not many of these kinds of Christians around in the world today.
Comment by Daniel— January 25, 2007 #