Bill Moyers Journal: Bill Moyers Essay: On Amish Grace

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Bill Moyers Essay: On Amish Grace

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A year after the tragic shooting, Bill Moyers looks at what the Amish can teach us about healing. For more on Amish Grace, click here.

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What do you think?
Is forgiveness always possible? Is it always the "right thing to do"?

Tag(s): forgiveness
Posted by Bill Moyers Journal on October 4, 2007 10:23 AM | Permalink

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I posted this story on Bill Moyers Amish school story… Since the beautiful girl in the blue and white dress at the end, reminded me so much of the beautiful Amish girls I saw voting at the schoolhouse, or one like it, on a recent PBS story… Hell I In 1959 after school one day my father is choking, flogging, and bashing me, I am beginning to black out and know he is killing me, I land a left to his face and feel a squishing sensation as I land a right to his gob area and kick him, no use blackout. Come around can not move or shake off the blackness, black out again. Just like walking thru a stage curtain I step onto a path, white decomposed granite edged with grey blue stone, the path is undulating between hills of cotton wool texture, along comes a man leading a horse. I ask him if he knows where the path leads and he assures me that he does. I wait for him to move off planning to make my own way when he tells me that he has come for me… I tell him that I have a feeling...

Posted by: Martin Timothy | October 19, 2007 8:59 PM

I just saw this and had a grim laugh, because earlier this week I had posted a piece to my Daily Kos diary about this very issue, for which I got pretty beat up in the comments from the lefties at Kos, who tend to ridicule anything outside the realm of empiricism. The point, though, was very simple: we can learn from these people without pursuing a course of slavish imitation. Things like closing Gitmo and a simple memorial at ground zero (rather than another corporate tower) came to mind.

Posted by: Brian Donohue | October 12, 2007 8:43 AM

Practicing compassion for those who do us harm, is the ultimate of humanity and the closest we get to one. = MJA

Posted by: Michael J Ahles | October 10, 2007 12:44 PM

What a contrast between the courage and amazing grace of the Amish, in the face of unimaginable shock and sorrow, and the fear and insistence on 100% adherence to dogma of the evangelical christians who belong to CUFI under the direction of Hagee. If we were able to take the example given to us by the Amish, and introduce it successfully into negotiations in the Middle East, peace and reconciliation could occur. On the other hand, if we adopt the zero tolerance attitude of the my-way-or-the-highway christian evangelicals who are apparently 100% certain of their rightness, and can always find at least one passage in the Bible that they can interpret to support whatever end they are determined to show as inevitable, then they will have proven their own self-defeating "prophecies" by ensuring a continuation of the use of violence as a "solution." Thank-you so much, Mr. Moyers, for staying on this topic of faith and religious beliefs, and their influence on politics and war. I'm sure that somewhere in the Bible, there is at least one passage to "prove" that we will be so hell-bent on insisting on taking the wrong path, that many of us will completely miss...

Posted by: Linda | October 7, 2007 7:25 PM

I thought this program was the best I have seen in years. Much to my amazement and delight, for the first time I can remember, Evangelicals were recognized for representing a spectrum of Christians, instead of the typical charaterizations, such as those the my progressive United Methodist brothers and sisters share. I think Bono says it succinctly: "The left mocks the right, and the right knows it's right." Just as the academic bias against Evangelicals has made our major university affiliated seminaries sadly unproductive, the innapropriate bonding of many Evangelicals to a particular politics has significantly diminished the opportunity for grace. (Note the current reactionary rise of the angry athiest humanists.) Many Evangelicals are not total literalists, but are open to the miracles described in Scripture. For my spiritual growth and for my faith journey, being open to believe in God's miracles is a truer and deeper choice than choosing to make everything in Scripture a metaphor, to avoid the possibility of the appearance of inadvertent offensiveness. That doesn't mean that I get to shove my faith at someone. But it means I can make the choice to be gracefully unapologitic about my faith, which was born in me from...

Posted by: Mike M. | October 6, 2007 4:40 PM

I was just reading an interview with coleman barks. There was a poem by barks after the interview. It spoke of the world we live in and the world we yearn for. How this yearning has us torn within but we feel we must bury it in order to live in what we call the real world, so we accept our suffering and we have grown so used to it that we no longer notice it, unless we start to dig deeper within ourselves to where it rests, waiting for us to awaken and truly live. This truly living means not accepting hatred when we so much want more love in our lives. Not accepting violence when we desire so much cooperation and collaboration in our communities. Not accepting isolation and misunderstanding when all we have to do is to reach out to all without fear of rejection. We are living in one world and living for another and this tears us in half on a conscious and subconscious level. first we will have to let go of the world that is killing us.we must let the old disconnectd self die and with it all the hatred, all the things...

Posted by: lee jankowski | October 6, 2007 9:42 AM

Forgiveness is a word that is so broad in meaning. In This context forgiveness is a jump from violence to forgiving or choosing not to revenge against the attack. I believe that a person/people attacked have the duty to defend themselves. Seems like human nature desires revenge after an attack. But I really admire people who can, with sturdyness, try to Defend against attack, and then make the world safer rather than seek revenge. Part of that means holding victimizers accountable and making sure they can't hurt others. There is something in trying to make a situation right that can help a victim(s) grow beyond needing revenge. However, here we are with the wisdom of many ages under our belts and we are sowing the seeds of discontent in the middle east, I can not see how using extremist thinking and action is helping ourselves in the long run. Have we made ourselves safer, and another 9/11 less likely? I wish that were true. Seems like we've taken revenge though. I guess I know what Moyers meant by "American Depression", because the cost is high and the benefits are unclear. A "forgiveness" that can defend us, is what I'm trying...

Posted by: At.D. Quinn | October 6, 2007 3:47 AM

I find the story of the Amish community deeply moving, just as I find the story of the Christian Zionist deeply disturbing. I'll share some thoughts about life and pain, that in my mind relates to both. Speaking of the fall . . . upon reading Robinson Jeffers’ Original Sin It’s not so much that human beings are despicable, tainted with original sin, odious and stinking— though if I look around I could, as well, make a compelling argument for that point of view. The vocabulary of just my own life time includes Treblinka and Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Khmer Rouge and the cultural revolution, Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur, the Gulag, the Mussad, the BOSS Anfal, Abu ghraib, Mutanabbi Street, 9/11 and al qaeda — this list seems endless and I could bring it closer to home, as well, by looking in the mirror at who I have been and who I am today. Yet to these eyes, that see this world and see myself a part of it, it’s more that we are bound together, all of us, in suffering. I can’t say, for sure, I know how things are as they are— but I can say what it looks...

Posted by: Bill Denham | October 6, 2007 2:36 AM

Profound and touching thoughts, Mary. I too have also found that through God's help one can forgive even the worst offenses. A very touching and thought provoking sermon on forgiveness was given by the late James E. Faust almost exactly a year ago. He also referenced the examples given by Jesus Christ and, more recently, the Amish. Text and Video can be found at: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-690-24,00.html

Posted by: Markus Maleek | October 6, 2007 1:12 AM

Both segments were intensely interesting. I find the fervor of mass behavior as in Reverend Haghe's congrregation very frightening, a hint of what Hitler did in Munich. It does not seem to take much to tip people over the edge, especially when they are worried about the future and all too eager to be spoon fed. The lack of compassion for the Palestinians was remarkably unChristian. The Reverend's interpretation of the Bible was so simplistic and manipulative as to be laughable if it were not so avidly devoured by the huge crowd. Moderate Chrisians should be alarmed to see the extent to which religion is being used for political purposes, not as a guide to ethical behavior. I was shocked that our president and wife sent a message to this gathering. Bill Moyers' Journal is absolutely the best program on PBS. Thank you.

Posted by: Caroliine Orman | October 6, 2007 1:02 AM

I have found that forgiveness is base on the Love of God. You cannot forgive people that give your child the HIV virus but through the Love of God. And the only way to know for sure is through experience. Death is death. I can only say I do it because Jesus loved me enough to die for me. That's how it's done Mary Williams

Posted by: Mary Williams | October 6, 2007 12:39 AM

I was deeply touched by the placement of the Amish Grace piece after the longer one on the KAFI and beliefs fueled by politics, fear and war. Without saying such, Bill Moyers gave us a glimpse of another way to live in this world with forgiveness and the strength and unity of faith and community.

Posted by: Pat Drewry Sanger | October 6, 2007 12:21 AM

This is the first time I have posted a comment after seeing a tv program. I thought tonight's program was so good and I would like many people to see it. My only criticism is that instead of saying Christians the word Evangelicals was always used, even for the one speaker who has a different point of view than Hagee. I am a lifelong United Methodist and belong to a non-literal progressive United Methodist Church.where the Bible is considered important I am disturbed that the point of view of the most conservative Christians is what the secular world seems to believe is that of all Christians. Using the word Evangelicals in tonight's program instead of Christians seemed to me to NOT help clear up this problem, in spite of the excellent presentations of both speakers and Bill Moyers.

Posted by: Mary Liz Burris | October 5, 2007 11:45 PM

Forgiveness is necessary. Whether it is possible for everyone in every circumstance I cannot say. Recalling an interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa about eight years ago, Tutu said that forgiveness was realpolitik. He persuaded Mandela to set up a commission that brought together victims with those who had committed horrors. They knew that unless they began healing and forgiveness that there would eventually be a bloodbath. Learn more about the Forgiveness Project and International Forgiveness Day the first Sunday in August. www.theforgivenessproject.com/stories/desmond-tutu

Posted by: Pat Williams | October 5, 2007 10:10 PM

Thank you for this piece. The dignity and grace of the Amish in the face of the unthinkable was a true inspiration. What strikes me is that forgiveness requires enormous strength and courage. Vengeance is a coward's response that sews more fear. What I vividly remember from last year was how they asked the national news media to respect their privacy rather than welcoming them in to make a circus of private grief. We have so much to learn from the Amish. Grace indeed.

Posted by: beth | October 5, 2007 9:09 PM