Love...do good....bless....pray

From The New York Times, Oct 4, 2006:

In one sign of their approach to tragedy, Amish residents started a charity fund yesterday not only to help the victims’ families but also to help the gunman’s widow.

“This is imitation of Christ at its most naked,” Mr. Shachtman said. “If anybody is going to turn the other cheek in our society, it’s going to be the Amish.”

He continued, “I don’t want to denigrate anybody else who says they’re imitating Christ, but the Amish walk the walk as much as they talk the talk.”

The Amish surmount hardship through mutual aid. When a barn burns, they do not call the insurance company. They have a barn raising, said Kimberly D. Schmidt, associate professor of history at Eastern Mennonite University, in Harrisonburg, Va., who has studied Amish women.

“For the families who lost children, there will be a tremendous community outpouring of love and support,” Ms. Schmidt said. “They will not suffer alone in their grief at all. People will bring in meals for weeks. As devastating as this is, there’s so much strength they can draw from thceir community.”

HT: Mark Traphagen

UPDATE: This opinion column captures the point. I agree with the writer, Dreher, that the talk of an Amish "lost innocence" is misplaced. If the Amish really thought they lived in some sort of idealic innocence untouched by life's vagaries, they would have freaked out because their life's foundation would have been destroyed. But the Amish are realists. They understand this is the way the world is. Yet they also know that this "way of the world" is what Jesus dealt with in his death and resurrection. Thus, while they do of course grieve, they are able to extend forgiveness while living with hope.