Thursday, October 19, 2006
Pacifica Commentary For October 18, 2006
Forgiveness
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister has a challenge for us coming from the Amish Community and its response to murder of its children. Here are some of Sister Joan's words, "In a nation steeped in violence, from its video games to its military history, in foreign policy and on its streets, the question remains: Why did this particular disaster affect us like it did? You'd think we'd be accustomed to mayhem by now. But it was not the violence suffered by the Amish Community that surprised people. Our newspapers are full of brutal and barbarian violence day after day after day, both national and personal.
"Do not think evil of this man," the Amish grandfather told his children at the mouth of one little girl's grave.
"Do not leave this area. Stay in your home here," the Amish delegation told the family of the murderer. "We forgive this man."
No, it was not the murders, not the violence, that shocked us; it was the forgiveness that followed it for which we were not prepared. It was the lack of recrimination, the dearth of vindictiveness that left us amazed. Baffled. Confounded.
(For clarification here Sister Joan might have added that the Amish were not ignoring the need of a criminal justice system, they were speaking about forgiveness of a deceased murderer.)
Sister Joan concludes her statement saying: The real problem with the whole situation is that down deep we know that we had the chance to do the same. After the fall of the twin towers we had the sympathy, the concern, the support of the entire world.
You can't help but wonder, when you see something like this, what the world would be like today, instead of using the fall of the Twin Towers as an excuse to invade a nation, we had simply gone to every Muslim country on earth and said, "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you. We know that this is coming from only a fringe of society, and we ask your help in saving others from this same kind of violence."
"Too idealistic," you say. Maybe. But since we didn't try, we will never know, will we? Instead, we have sparked fear of violence in the rest of the world ourselves. So much so, that they are now making nuclear bombs to save themselves. From whom? From us, of course.
The record is clear. Instead of exercising more vigilance at our borders, listening to our allies and becoming more of what we say we are, we are becoming who they say we are.
Thank you, Sister Joan Chittister.
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister has a challenge for us coming from the Amish Community and its response to murder of its children. Here are some of Sister Joan's words, "In a nation steeped in violence, from its video games to its military history, in foreign policy and on its streets, the question remains: Why did this particular disaster affect us like it did? You'd think we'd be accustomed to mayhem by now. But it was not the violence suffered by the Amish Community that surprised people. Our newspapers are full of brutal and barbarian violence day after day after day, both national and personal.
"Do not think evil of this man," the Amish grandfather told his children at the mouth of one little girl's grave.
"Do not leave this area. Stay in your home here," the Amish delegation told the family of the murderer. "We forgive this man."
No, it was not the murders, not the violence, that shocked us; it was the forgiveness that followed it for which we were not prepared. It was the lack of recrimination, the dearth of vindictiveness that left us amazed. Baffled. Confounded.
(For clarification here Sister Joan might have added that the Amish were not ignoring the need of a criminal justice system, they were speaking about forgiveness of a deceased murderer.)
Sister Joan concludes her statement saying: The real problem with the whole situation is that down deep we know that we had the chance to do the same. After the fall of the twin towers we had the sympathy, the concern, the support of the entire world.
You can't help but wonder, when you see something like this, what the world would be like today, instead of using the fall of the Twin Towers as an excuse to invade a nation, we had simply gone to every Muslim country on earth and said, "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you. We know that this is coming from only a fringe of society, and we ask your help in saving others from this same kind of violence."
"Too idealistic," you say. Maybe. But since we didn't try, we will never know, will we? Instead, we have sparked fear of violence in the rest of the world ourselves. So much so, that they are now making nuclear bombs to save themselves. From whom? From us, of course.
The record is clear. Instead of exercising more vigilance at our borders, listening to our allies and becoming more of what we say we are, we are becoming who they say we are.
Thank you, Sister Joan Chittister.
