The brutal murder of five young Amish girls by a an angry and deranged man in Pennsylvania was truly horrible. Shock and sadness is the natural reaction, along with anger that such an evil would be directed upon defensless girls as young as 7 years old. In the aftermath of the horrible event, perhaps the most striking thing that has happened is that the Amish community and the families of the victims have offered forgiveness to the murderer's family.
In the midst of searing pain, anguish, and loss they have reached out to comfort others. Yet many people are probably wondering why the Amish have reacted in such a way. Perhaps one can understand offering forgiveness to the murderer's family, but not the murderer. However, the grandfather of one of the murdered girls said "We must not think evil of this man." This is radical forgiveness, after all if one were to hate anything or anyone, would it not be grotesque displays of evil and those who perpetrate them? This sort of forgiveness raises serious moral questions. Does forgiveness minimize evil? What is the proper reaction to such evil? What does God require of us?
These are difficult questions. Undoubtedly Christianity is a religion of grace. God offers forgiveness to man, and man is supposed to emulate God (Christ) by acting in love and forgiving others. Yet, there is such a thing as righteous anger, even in the New Testament. Jesus declares that it is better for a person to be drowned and die than for that person to prevent children from coming to Him. He also reserved his harshest words for the religious leaders who took advantage of the poor. Because Jesus is fully God and fully human, his responses to the world around him are the correct responses that a human whose morals and ethics are in proper working order would have. It appears that the proper response to evil is to hate it. Yet, we also know that Jesus taught that forviging one's enemies is the height of moral perfection: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”Jesus modeled this forgiveness in his life by offering forgiveness, including to those who did not seek it (such as the Roman and Jewish officials who conspired in his murder). This also is the proper moral response for a human being. It appears that Jesus models for us both righteous anger in the face of evil, and radical forgiveness--even for those who do not seek it. So, what are we supposed to do?
It is natural for each of us to feel anger when we see evil. In doing so, we emulate God himself who throughout the Bible burns with anger at evil. It is a sign of a rightly ordered mind and moral compass that we dislike evil. However, as Karl Barth, C.S. Lewis, and many others have pointed out, the key message that God has given humanity is that He is gracious to us. Through the history of God's dealings with humanity, He has always offered forgiveness. From consistently offering to forgive his chosen people of Israel if they would repent of their sins to sending Jesus Christ to offer salvation and forgiveness to all peoples, God has shown that forgiveness is at the heart of his character. Thus Christ's command that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us is a call for us to follow what Christ himself lived out and to emulate the character of God. The apostle John stated that God is love. John said this about God because the "good news" spoken of in the Gospel is that God offers love and forgiveness through Christ. There are two options for dealing with evil: forgiveness or retribution. God offers forgiveness to all throughout each person's life, and only those that reject it in effect choose retribution. If we are to model God, we must offer forgiveness to each person for all their lives, even as we hate the evil that has happened.
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