Accepting 'God's will'
October 5, 2006

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) -- In most communities, a deadly school shooting brings demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones lash out at the gunman's family or threaten to sue.

But that's not the Amish way.

As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will.

"They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent, and they know that they will join them in death," said Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher on children in Amish society.

"The hurt is very great," Mrs. Huntington said. "But they don't balance the hurt with hate." the rest