Can we learn from this?

[bloomz]

PARADISE, Pennsylvania (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.

"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."

The girl was one of 10 shot by Charles Carl Roberts IV after he invaded their one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania on Monday
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and a related quote I found from a book I think I would like to read:

With a new difficulty of any kind, it is the reception that you give it mentally, and the attitude that you adopt towards it in your own thought, that completely determine its effect upon you. That is what matters. What matters to you, truly, is not people or things or conditions in themselves, but the thoughts and beliefs that you hold concerning them. It is not the conduct of others, but your own thoughts that make or mar you. You write you own history for tomorrow and for next year by the thoughts that you entertain today. You mould your own life destiny day by day, entirely by the manner in which you react mentally to experience as it comes. Right reaction is the supreme art of life," . . . . .

The Sermon on the Mount - The Key to Success in Life
By Emmet Fox - P87,88 - Published 1934

 

[fairfield]

I reserve "hate for the evil" specifically for people that do things like this. He shot 10 children, killing 5 of them. I can't think of anything more to say, except that I'm very pleased with his decision to kill himself - too bad he didn't do it before he shot 10 children, killing 5 of them.

 

[Victoria]

Christianity teaches forgiveness. Humanity however deals with things on a different level.

I admire the Amish... always have... however I must admit a failing of mine. I am not easy to forgive some things. The person who harmed my daughter will, I hope, rot in his life and after life if he has one. I do know the Amish will forgive as that's how they live.

I do believe in not holding the gunman's family accountable for the heinous actions of their father/husband. They now have an awful legacy to surmount and I hope they have the support needed.

V

 

[Connie]

Bloomz, a quote which changed my life is, "It's not the situation, it's how you react to the situation."

Surely it is difficult to forgive someone of something so evil as killing a child. It is even more difficult to forgive someone who has not even asked for forgiveness. It's something I'm working on in my own life. The Amish have certainly continued the example which Christ set.

 

[bloomz]

An addendum to this:

GEORGETOWN, Pa. - Dozens of Amish neighbors came out Saturday to mourn the quiet milkman who killed five of their young girls and wounded five more in a brief, unfathomable rampage.

The Amish mourned the death of the gunman who shot their children. It was said that about half of the 75 mourners at Charles Roberts funeral were Amish.