the 2006 episode of the random killing of five young schoolgirls in the Amish community of West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania is instructive. What startled everyone was not the killing — that happens all the time in America, both in real life and in movies and TV shows.
What shocked was the response of the Amish, who, based on their belief in the biblical mandate to forgive one’s enemies, immediately extended care, concern, and forgiveness to the family of the killer — his wife, parents, and children, none of whom were Amish. The natural response is anger, and a desire for revenge, an ‘eye for an eye;’ what is much rarer is the Amish choice to forgive...
In The Weakness of God: A Theology of Event, John Caputo quotes Jacques Derrida and the “other famous deconstructionist,” Thomas Aquinas, as he considers the power of forgiveness.
“Forgiveness is the gift in which I give away the debt owed to me…. That is why, when someone owes me something, we say ‘we have something on them’, which means that in forgiveness, I give up what I have on the other. I release them, dismiss their debt, and let it go.”
My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit it’s going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country, they could use some mercy now...
(Resources listed here reference more than one reading and are normally shorter than the resources listed under the individual texts above. If you are looking to link the readings, check these resources.)
(Resources listed here reference more than one reading and are
normally shorter than the resources listed under the individual
texts above. If you are looking to link the readings, check these
resources.)
