What have the Amish ever done?

I'm greatly disturbed whenever I read about yet another school shooting. But it disturbed me to the core to read about how yet another gunman has targeted a strict Amish community in Pennsylvania.

And I ask myself, "What's next?"

People have already gone so far as to murder ordained clergymen of all faiths--that's "old news." The Jews have been targeted for centuries, with rabbis being some of the first to die at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War. Catholic nuns and priests are killed on a daily basis in Asian and African nations, especially. Protestants have been persecuted for centuries for "turning against the true, Catholic Church." Islamic clerics, most of whom preach of peace and brotherhood, are gunned down too often in a retaliatory nature because of 9/11 or because of all the terror Muslim EXTREMISTS have expelled on the general populace.

And those all bothered me big-time. But this takes the cake.

I'm not saying that there haven't been "bad" Amish people who have committed crimes of various sorts. But they are typically such a God-fearing, peaceful people that I can't recall ever hearing of one significant Amish criminal.

Granted, they are a very small percentage of the American population. But so are Catholic priests--and you hear stories of how some of them molested children and how their Bishops knew about it and did nothing. Jewish rabbis only make up a small percentage of the population, but I can recall one or two who have been convicted of one bad crime or another. There aren't a TON of Protestant ministers, but you hear stories in the news of various crimes they've committed. And well, as sad as I am to say it, there are, unfortunately, many Islamic cleric-"men of God" who have acted considerably less-than-holy by advocating violence in its most extreme sense.

But these are the AMISH, for the love of God! They make quilts and jelly and homemade furniture. They live off the land and take care one another--refusing to partake in Social Security or welfare benefits for ANY reason. The drive BUGGIES. They don't believe in war, but in peace--even if it means they must die because of their refusal to participate in violence. They wear plain, simple clothes they make themselves. They light candles for illumination because they don't use electricity unless it's TRULY necessary for food preservation and such. They worship daily and many would even say that they worship "excessively." They pray constantly for we "normal people's" sorry asses who are so dependent upon electricity and running water and new cars and the latest fashion and the most expensive and well-known hair stylists, that we may enter the Kingdon of Heaven WITH them, despite the fact that we haven't lived as simply--and as devoutly--as they have.

They are unusual, yes. But if ANYONE didn't deserve this to happen to their community, it's the Amish. They don't deserve gunmen murdering their children execution-style. Not that ANYONE deserves that, really...but ESPECIALLY them.

You know what? If the man who gunned down these innocent children of these incredible families did that to MY kid, I'd hate him with all of my being. As unfair as it would be (and I fully admit that it would be unfair), I'd likely be mad at his family, too--maybe his parents did SOMETHING wrong while raising him?! Maybe his wife did SOMETHING to piss him off to THAT extent? It wouldn't even matter, really. My kid would be dead and I'd be apeshit and consequently, I'd want to find someone to take it out on.

But these wonderful people will pray for this man like they have never prayed before. They will pray that he is forgiven by God and enters the Kingdom of Heaven with them. They'll pray for his family and friends and will grieve not only for their OWN losses, but for the gunman's family's loss.

And then, they will forgive this person who so brutally killed their children. And they'll MEAN it.
And this is why I find the Amish an odd, but ever-so-incredible group of people. This is why these people are a million times better than I could ever hope to be.

And this is why the Amish, especially, just plain didn't deserve this evil to strike their community.