Comment on Healing on both sides of the Nickel Mines tragedy, four years on by Chris.
I saw the movie Amish Grace tonight. I knew of the tragic, horrific event, saw the news, heard the stories, and in spite of that I was, all at once again – appalled, shocked, angry and horrified.
And absolutely stunned by the reaction of the people whose children were killed.
Perhaps this film does not perfectly reflect Amish life and/or philosophy. Perhaps this film does not perfectly reflect the actions and feelings of the Roberts family or the community situation as it unfolded.
All I know is that it has affected me very deeply. I think the line was “Hatred soon takes up all the space and pushes love out of your life.” That was a real revelation for me. I hope it is for others as well.
Anne Rodgers wrote in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette a year after the tragedy: “Dr. Kraybill said, typical Protestant forgiveness theology says God has forgiven you, so you should pass it on to other people,” he said. “The Amish flip it and say, if we don’t forgive, we won’t be forgiven. In that sense it leads directly to their salvation,”
I would say it leads directly to our salvation, as individuals, as communities, as a nation. This is a revelation that for me has shaken my world.
If this film does nothing else, it is a small – yes possibly imperfect contribution, but a concept that can make our society better, our country better, make our world better, and in a very big way memorialize the lives of those girls and those families in a lasting way that no monument or marker could possibly ever achieve or outlast.
