After 9/11, what if we had forgiven « Wisdom « Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom

After 9/11, what if we had forgiven

Published on November 14, 2006 at Wisdom

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Marie Roberts said she and her family were “overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace and mercy” shown to them following the murders on 2 October, her husband, a local man had killed himself after killing children at a local Amish School.

The Amish have said they forgive him and have helped set up a fund for the Roberts family at a local bank.

“Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need,” Marie Roberts wrote in a letter addressed to Amish friends, neighbours and the local community.

Now imagine this most amazing reaction, which shines as a beacon for human dignity, for shared humanity and forgiveness as something that business political and community leaders might have taken after 9/11…..

Technorati Tags: 11, Amish, Bush, USA, Violence

…imagine George Bush appearing on TV and saying how hurtful this has been to the American people but they were not going to lash out, they realised that these people did not represent Muslims, or Muslim thought or belief and that they offered thoughts and prayers on this terrible occasion not just for the victims and their families but for the perpetrators.

Imagine if Bush and others had offered ‘forgiveness grace and mercy’ , imagine if something similar had happened in the UK after the 7/7 bombs in London.

Are you thinking about it, now imagine how the world might be different now. How many more lives saved, how much less destruction and destabilisation. What an example could have been set for a new way of doing things.

The Amish who have been mocked for their old fashioned ways, and become a little of a museum and tourist attraction in the areas they live, have sent out a clarion call for a better way of dealing with the darker side of life…George bush and Tony Blair are supposedly Christian, but it has taken the Amish to show them what this really means.

“The Gift to Be Simple: Life in Amish Country” (Bill Coleman)

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Jonathan has experience in both the nonprofit and business sectors, working in a consultative capacity and as a project manager with PCTs, charities, the arts, trade unions, businesses and individuals in the areas of Information, motivation, direction and communications development. He has helped organisations as diverse as carers charities and magazine publishers to develop strategy, policy and process to make a more efficient infrastructure. One where staff share in the gains of the organisation and the end user, whether client, patient or customer, receives the highest quality service possible. As well as being an expert in applied information technology and communication he is a qualified and experienced counsellor and motivator.