Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy

US: Jossey-Bass, 2007. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. On Monday morning, October 2, 2006, a gunman entered a one-room Amish schoo l in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to lea ve. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts prepared to sh oot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammun ition 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 h er offer, he opened fire on all of them, killing five and leaving the other s 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 t he 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 crew s had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines, staying for five days unti l the killer and the killed were buried. The blood was barely dry on the sc hoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the fami ly 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 vio.