on monday morning october 2 2006 a gunman entered a oneroom amish school in nickel mines pennsylvania in front of twentyfive horrified pupils thirtytwoyearold charles roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave after tying the legs of the ten remaining girls roberts prepared to shoot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task the oldest hostage a thirteenyearold begged roberts to shoot me first and let the little ones go refusing her offer he opened fire on all of them killing five and leaving the others critically wounded he then shot himself as police stormed the building his motivation im angry at god for taking my little daughter he told the children before the massacre the story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the united states and around the world by tuesday morning some fifty television crews had clogged the small village of nickel mines staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried the blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their childrenthe outside world was incredulous that such forgiveness could be offered so quickly for such a heinous crime of the hundreds of media queries that the authors received about the shooting questions about forgiveness rose to the top forgiveness in fact eclipsed the tragic story trumping the violence and arresting the worlds attentionwithin a week of the murders amish forgiveness was a central theme in more than 2400 news stories around the world the washington post the new york times usa today newsweek nbc nightly news cbs morning news larry king live fox news oprah and dozens of other media outlets heralded the forgiving amish from the khaleej times united arab emirates to australian television international media were opining on amish forgiveness three weeks after the shooting amish forgiveness had appeared in 2900 news stories worldwide and on 534000 web sitesfresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children grieving amish families accounted for half of the seventyfive people who attended the killers burial roberts widow was deeply moved by their presence as amish families greeted her and her three children the forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence the amish also supported a fund for the shooters familyamish grace explores the many questions this story raises about the religious beliefs and habits that led the amish to forgive so quickly it looks at the ties between forgiveness and membership in a cloistered communal society and ask if amish practices parallel or diverge from other religious and secular notions of forgiveness it will also address the matter of why forgiveness became news all the religions teach it mused an observer but no one does it like the amish regardless of the cultural seedbed that nourished this story the surprising act of amish forgiveness begs for a deeper exploration how could