On Monday morning‎,‎ October 2‎,‎ 2006‎,‎ a gunman entered a one‎-room Amish school in Nickel Mines‎,‎ Pennsylvania‎.‎ In front of twenty‎-five horrified pupils‎,‎ thirty‎-two‎-year‎-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave‎.‎ After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls‎,‎ Roberts prepared to shoot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task‎.‎ The oldest hostage‎,‎ a thirteen‎-year‎-old‎,‎ begged Roberts to ‎"‎shoot me first and let the little ones go‎.‎‎"‎ Refusing her offer‎,‎ he opened fire on all of them‎,‎ killing five and leaving the others critically wounded‎.‎ He then shot himself as police stormed the building‎.‎ His motivation‎?‎ ‎"‎I‎'‎m angry at God for taking my little daughter‎,‎‎"‎ he told the children before the massacre‎.‎

The story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the United States and around the world‎.‎ By Tuesday morning some fifty television crews had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines‎,‎ staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried‎.‎ The blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their children‎.‎

The outside world was incredulous that such forgiveness could be offered so quickly for such a heinous crime‎.‎ Of the hundreds of media queries that the authors received about the shooting‎,‎ questions about forgiveness rose to the top‎.‎ Forgiveness‎,‎ in fact‎,‎ eclipsed the tragic story‎,‎ trumping the violence and arresting the world‎'‎s attention‎.‎

Within a week of the murders‎,‎ Amish forgiveness was a central theme in more than 2‎,‎400 news stories around the world‎.‎ The Washington Post‎,‎ The New York Times‎,‎ USA Today‎,‎ Newsweek‎,‎ NBC Nightly News‎,‎ CBS Morning News‎,‎ Larry King Live‎,‎ Fox News‎,‎ Oprah‎,‎ and dozens of other media outlets heralded the forgiving Amish‎.‎ From the Khaleej Times ‎(‎United Arab Emirates‎)‎ to Australian television‎,‎ international media were opining on Amish forgiveness‎.‎ Three weeks after the shooting‎,‎ ‎"‎Amish forgiveness‎"‎ had appeared in 2‎,‎900 news stories worldwide and on 534‎,‎000 web sites‎.‎

Fresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children‎,‎ grieving Amish families accounted for half of the seventy‎-five people who attended the killer‎'‎s burial‎.‎ Roberts‎'‎ widow was deeply moved by their presence as Amish families greeted her and her three children‎.‎ The forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence‎:‎ the Amish also supported a fund for the shooter‎'‎s family‎.‎

AMISH GRACE explores the many questions this story raises about the religious beliefs and habits that led the Amish to forgive so quickly‎.‎ It looks at the ties between forgiveness and membership in a cloistered communal society and ask if Amish practices parallel or diverge from other religious and secular notions of forgiveness‎.‎ It will also address the matter of why forgiveness became news‎.‎ ‎"‎All the religions teach it‎,‎‎"‎ mused an observer‎,‎ ‎"‎but no one does it like the Amish‎.‎‎"‎ Regardless of the cultural seedbed that nourished this story‎,‎ the surprising act of Amish forgiveness begs for a deeper exploration‎.‎ How could the Amish do this‎?‎ What did this act mean to them‎?‎ And how might their witness prove useful to the rest of us‎?‎