From CNN:
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.Also in the same article:"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 admire their ability to forgive, the depth of the compassion they demonstrate, but I have to wonder how much of that is a result of their belief that all things are God's plan. If you hold a fatalist point of view, you can more easily forgive the person who does you harm, since it was God's will.Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, said local people were trying to follow Jesus' teachings in dealing with the "terrible hurt."
"I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts," he told CNN.
Sam Stoltzfus, 63, an Amish woodworker who lives a few miles away from the shooting scene, told The Associated Press that the victims' families will be sustained by their faith.
"We think it was God's plan, and we're going to have to pick up the pieces and keep going," he told AP. "A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors."
This is one of the things that bothered me as a grew up, and one of the reasons I questioned so much of what the Church tried to teach me. I believe that human beings commit evil acts as a result of a variety of factors -- none of which are divine in origin -- not that God has a plan and that we are merely acting out our parts.
However, I can see the comfort in holding such a viewpoint, especially in the face of such horror.
4 comments:
Bill, if God knew everything that was going to happen in the universe before he made it, it seems to me that everything that happens afterward IS part of his plan. Therefore, the awful events in that Amish schoolhouse were part of his plan. The Amish simply face up to this more boldly than most Christians do, and, if they derive a measure of comfort from it, more power to them.
--Steve
Steve,
There is no reason that I know of -- from the Bible -- to believe that God knows everything that is going to happen. In fact, the Book of Job would suggest he doesn't at all know what the future holds. In that book Satan challenges him to see how loyal Job is -- it's a bet. Satan loses, but one would assume that God clearly didn't know if Job would stand up to all the horrors visited upon him. In fact, that is the last time God gets involved in human affairs until he sends Jesus to die on the cross.
I can't recall if Paul preached God's perfection and infinite knowledge, but Jesus didn't.
Anything anyone believes about fatalism is based on human beings trying to interpret that nature and knowledge of God. Fatalism is an old belief to defend the perfection of God. If I were Christian, I'd prefer an imperfect God, which is suggested by the fact that we are made in God's image.
Peace,
Bill
I'm no theologian and I don't even play one on TV, but I understand that there are many theologians and scripture scholars who have argued for millennia that God IS omniscient, giving rise to the perennial "problem of evil." In fact, I would venture to guess that there is more "official" Christian theology declaring that God is omniscient than there is saying that he isn't.
But you raise a good point about the Book of Job. One WOULD assume that God didn't know what the outcome would be before he made the bet. But this would be a RATIONAL assumption, and Christians have demonstrated time and again, as your buddies Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins painstakingly point out, that they aren't always paragons of rationality in their beliefs.
"I believe that human beings commit evil acts as a result of a variety of factors -- none of which are divine in origin -- not that God has a plan and that we are merely acting out our parts."
I'm afraid I must strongly disagree with you here. If God made the universe and us, he put the conditions in place that gave rise to "the variety of factors" to which you refer and to every resulting human act of good and evil that has ever been committed. None of it would have happened without God. In other words, they are ALL "divine in origin," even if God didn't specifically "plan" each and every one.
I should clarify -- I don't belive in God in any way that would make sense to a Christian, therefore I do not hold to infallibility or omniscience.
I think you are probably right about the theological arguments in favor of omniscience. But if all theology is supposed to be based in the Word of God (the Bible), I suspect they're just winging it to butress their faith. But then, I don't believe in God, so what do I know.
Back to the original post -- one news person commented that the Middle East could learn a lot from the Amish (forgiveness rather than retaliation) -- I'm totally down with that sentiment.
Peace,
Bill
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