Broken

With all the foofaraw about Rep. Chickenhawk, we should remember a far more serious and far more somber event, the murder of Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania. These are different people:

PARADISE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A grieving grandfather told young relatives not to hate the gunman who killed five girls in an Amish schoolhouse massacre, a pastor said on Wednesday.

"As we were standing next to the body of this 13-year-old girl, the grandfather was tutoring the young boys, he was making a point, just saying to the family, 'We must not think evil of this man,' " the Rev. Robert Schenck told CNN.

"It was one of the most touching things I have seen in 25 years of Christian ministry."

The girl was one of 10 shot by Charles Carl Roberts IV after he invaded their one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania on Monday.

I couldn't say that. Perhaps I should, but I couldn't.

HT: Rod Dreher, who writes:

Could you do that? Could you stand over the body of a dead child and tell the young not to hate her killer? I could not. Please God, make me into the sort of man who could.

I'm not even certain I'd want to be that way. As I say, perhaps I should.

UPDATE: Here's a fascinating piece by a rabbi outlining the difference between the Jewish and Christian atttitudes toward forgiveness vs. hatred of evil.