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10/5/06
Five young girls aged 6-13
were killed Monday at the Nickel Mines Amish school. Five other girls still remain
hospitalized with serious injuries.
Minister Who Has Private Contact with Mourning Amish Available for Comment
During Funerals
Faith and Action president Rev. Rob Schenck traveled from Washington, DC, this
week to minister to families of Amish school shooting victims as well as the family
of shooter Charles Roberts. The Evangelical minister was one of only two non-Amish
invited to the very private mourning ritual for one victim and watched as her
mother prepared her daughter's body for burial. He said the funerals which will
occur today and tomorrow are opportunities to understand what is at the heart
of Amish culture.
Rev. Schenck said, "It was while the family and community stood watching
this mother tenderly care for her little girl's brutally damaged body that they
spoke to me at length of forgiving the shooter. It was the most moving thing I've
seen or heard in my 25 years as a minister of the Gospel. It was a living sermon
on the power of God's mercy."
One Amish religious leader explained to Schenck, "We forgive because God
has forgiven us. God extends his forgiveness to us in Christ, then, we must receive
it. Once we do, we must share it with others."
Schenck said the Amish base their ethic of forgiveness on the Sermon on the
Mount in which Jesus said, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Schenck said one of the most impressive parts of his visit with Shooter Charles
Roberts' family was their reception of forgiveness from the families of their
son's victims.
"Out of guilt and shame, the Roberts family could have rejected that generous
offer of forgiveness, but they instead accepted it. I don't think there's a better
illustration of the Christian message in the Gospel. As the Amish say, God extends
his forgiveness to us for our sins, but we must receive it. That's the essence
of salvation. Only then can we pass that forgiveness on."
Schenck, who returned to Washington last night, will return to Lancaster today
to visit with more families during funerals today and tomorrow. He is available
for further comment.
Schenck, who served as a chaplain at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11 and
visited New Orleans church leaders in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said
this experience was for him on the same level of emotional trauma of those two
tragedies.
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