Forgiving In The Midst Of The Dark Days

On the morning of October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts barricaded himself inside West Nickel Mines Amish School. After murdering five young girls and wounding six others, Roberts committed suicide. It was a dark day for the Amish community of West Nickel Mines, but it was also a dark day for Marie Roberts, the wife of the gunman, and her two young children.

On the following Saturday, Marie went to her husband’s funeral. She and her children watched in amazement as Amish families — about half of the seventy-five mourners present — came and stood alongside them in the midst of their blinding grief. Despite the horrific crimes the man had committed against them, the Amish came to mourn Charles Carl Roberts as a husband and daddy.

Bruce Porter, a fire department chaplain who attended the Service, was profoundly moved: “It’s the love, the heartfelt forgiveness they have toward the family. I broke down and cried seeing it displayed.” He said Marie Roberts was also touched. “She was absolutely, deeply moved by the love shown.”

 — “Amish Mourn Gunman in School 
Rampage,” USA Today (October 7, 2006)

Must Forgive

Vivian Malone, a young black woman, enrolled as a student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1963. Federal troops helped ensure her entrance into the school, but Governor George Wallace tried to block her way. He made a dramatic stand in the school's doorway, physically carrying out his inaugural vow of "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever." When he failed, Malone became the first African-American student ever to graduate from the University of Alabama.

Years later, Governor Wallace was taken in his wheelchair to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, where he asked black people to forgive him for his racism, bigotry, and specifically his ill-treatment of Vivian Malone. He asked Malone for forgiveness. Malone said she had forgiven the governor years before.

"He said he did what he felt needed to be done at that point in time, but he would not do that today," she later recalled. "I spoke of forgiveness."

When asked why she had done that, Malone said, “I’m a Christian, and I grew up in the church. I was taught that we are all equal in the eyes of God. I was also taught that you forgive people, no matter what. And that was why I had to do it. I didn’t feel as if I had a choice.”

Malone Jones (her married name) died in 2005 at the age of 63.

 — “Transition — Vivian Malone Jones,” 
Newsweek (October 24, 2005)