Betrayal Without Bitterness

Betrayal is not our fault. We will face betrayal and misunderstanding from all quarters, within and without the faith community. To be betrayed is by definition to be a victim. But Jesus refuses to let us be victims for long. Instead, he offers forgiveness as a way to get on with our lives.

It was a sad, frustrating, frighteningly familiar story. Two young men were arrested for arranging with a big-time drug trafficker to import cocaine into their community. The 22-year-olds would become the drug's main dealers, selling coke to all the teenagers they could interest in, then addict to, that potent pleasure drug. Because this deal crossed state lines, it was the FBI who finally moved in and made the arrests, breaking up the alliance between the locals and their out-of-state supplier, cutting off the drug supply to the teens of that community.

What was so shocking about this otherwise all too common story? What brought this drug story prominent play on network news? The community was Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The two young men arrested were members of the Amish community. The teenaged customers cut off from their drug supply were young Amish boys.

The parents of all these young people were like every parent: stunned to think such a thing could happen in their...