[amc] Mennonites/Amish in USNews & World Report
- From: "Ray Gingerich" <RGingerich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austin Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 22:54:06 -0600
Nature
Friends,
The following article is from the online version of U.S. News and World Report.
If like me, you forgot what "buccolic" means, see the book on Holmes Co., OH on
the table in the "narthex" of the church--I don't know what narthex means
either. Or, maybe Holly can define the word for us the next time she does the
children's service.
Ray
******************************************************
usnews.com
Nation & World 2/23/04
Crime and forgiveness
By Angie Cannon
MOUNT HOPE, OHIO--Every fall, teens in the Amish community here engage in
traditional harvest pranks. Some years, they steal buggies or set cornstalks on
fire. "It's an annual aggravation for us," says Nathan Fritz, chief deputy of
the Holmes County Sheriff's Office. But last fall, the mischief turned deadly,
and the shocked community has been trying to draw lessons. One rainy September
night, a dozen young people hid in a cornfield and threw tomatoes at passing
cars, just as they've done for years. This time, though, a motorist fired back
with a 12-gauge shotgun, killing one young man.
Now, with the motorist facing a trial set to begin March 2, the sobering
shooting is again the talk of bucolic Holmes County, a terrain of rolling green
hills with plain, white farmhouses and red barns nearly 70 miles south of
Cleveland. This is the home of the world's largest Amish population, who drive
horse-drawn buggies, attend one-room schoolhouses until eighth grade, and don't
lock their doors.
"Moral fabric." In this religious county, where murders are rare, there's also
a valuable lesson about forgiveness. The family of the young man who was killed
has forgiven the defendant--a longtime friend who delivered ice to Amish
families for their iceboxes. The other youths in the cornfield that night also
wrote a signed letter, published in local newspapers, asking for forgiveness
from the entire community. "We take seriously the words of Jesus about only to
the extent that we forgive others will we be forgiven," says Paul Miller,
executive director of the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center here. "It is
beyond just religious compliance. It is part of the moral fabric of the
community."
It was nearly 11:30 p.m. on September 1 when a silver Cadillac was pelted with
tomatoes. The driver threatened to shoot, then drove north on the dark,
two-lane country road, turned around, and was struck again. The man returned 25
minutes later and fired into the cornfield. Steven Keim, 23, was hit in the
heart and pronounced dead an hour later. Hardworking Keim had started his own
roofing company and helped on the family's 118-acre farm. He was raised Amish,
but his family left the order some years ago and became Mennonites, who share
similar beliefs with the Amish but permit modern conveniences, such as
electricity and driving.
The next day, Marion Weaver, 58, suffered a nearly fatal heart attack. Upon his
release from the hospital, Holmes County sheriff's deputies charged him with
murder and involuntary manslaughter after seizing his car and several shotguns
from his home. Weaver, it turns out, had been friends with Keim's father,
Reuben, and they had hunted and fished together. Weaver, who went to a
Mennonite college, lived alone in a ranch-style home with peeling red paint and
rusted junkers in the yard. He has a reputation as a hothead with an arrest
record for assault, criminal damaging, and trespassing. Unlike so many criminal
cases elsewhere, however, the victim's family forgave the accused shooter. "I
had forgiven him before I knew who it was," Gladys Keim told U.S. News. "If you
are filled with God's love, that helps make it easier to forgive."
Many townspeople, though, felt the kids were in the wrong, too. "People are
people," said builder Dan Schlabach, eating breakfast at Boyd & Wurthmann, a
restaurant where Amish and "English" men gather at dawn. "The kids aren't out
of control, but they want to be more independent." Chief Deputy Fritz says the
perception that police go easy on Amish or Mennonite violators isn't true. In
this case, the 11 other youths--eight were teens and three were in their early
20s--were charged with vehicular vandalism and were sentenced to community
service and weekend jail time, which was deserved punishment in the eyes of
many here.
In addition, the youths wrote an apology published in local papers. ". . . With
a sorrowful heart, we take full responsibility [for] what led into the shooting
death of our friend Steven Lee Keim. We apologize and ask for forgiveness from
the Reuben Keim family, the suspect, and any other vehicles that were hit, and
also to the whole community. May other people benefit from our bitter
experience." But prosecutor Stephen Knowling says the issue at this point isn't
their actions: "Steve Keim is dead not because kids threw tomatoes at cars. He
is dead because the defendant fired a shotgun."
Still, an Amish bishop and a minister met with the youths to "to impress on
these kids that what they did was wrong . . . and to explain that they could be
forgiven, but there will be consequences," said the minister, who asked that
his name not be printed. The shooting, he said, was unfortunate, but Amish
leaders hope all the soul-searching will prevent anything like this from
happening again. "If we let God work in this," the minister said, "he can let
something good result from this."
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"The only people on earth who do not see Christ and his teachings as
non-violent are Christians." --Mohandas K. Gandhi
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