Many people think these plain communities have perfected the art of forgiveness by their response when they are attacked publicly. Have you ever witnessed what happens when they are attacked privately? Have you ever been on the receiving end of a curse that is spoken over you when you decide to go from one church to another? Some plain churches practice shunning, but sadly it is most often applied for the wrong reasons. When the apostle Paul spoke about “delivering such a one to Satan” (1 Corinthians 5:5), it was for the sin of having sex with his Father’s wife. He never told anyone to shun people for transferring their membership to another church. These days, it seems shunning and excommunicating are being applied to everything except sexual sin.
The plain people have some of the ugliest family feuds you can imagine. While there is no real “Amish Mafia,” there are some evil/awful plain people who fit the bill for sure. You have to look behind the scenes and behind closed doors to find them of course, because they’re usually very “gentlemanly” in public (which is true of any evil person in any culture or church, and just so we’re clear there are evil women as well). There is a ton of unforgiveness within the plain circles, but they rally to the cause when they are attacked publicly and it makes the system look angelic. If only they would practice the same forgiveness with each other. Sometimes forgiveness is encouraged to a fault. By that I mean, someone will commit an atrocious sin, then instead of true heartfelt repentance, will insist on being forgiven (pointing to a verse of Scripture) and try to make those who were hurt feel like they are the bad ones for not forgiving and “moving on” in five minutes flat. Humility is not their strong point, and brokenness is not in their vocabulary. They can be as mean as a rattlesnake, and I’m sorry but this type of person does not represent God.
Real forgiveness is the key to freedom, make no mistake about it, but it requires remembering how you were hurt and who did it. Many people feel (and some preach) that forgiving someone consists of a casual, off the top of your head decision, and then you try to forget it. That is a big lie used by Satan to keep millions in bondage.
You will discover sooner or later, even if it’s with your last breath, that your personal sins are not completely released from you until you completely release the sins of others (“forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” - Matthew 6:12). Our personal level of freedom hinges greatly upon how much we forgive, not just others but also ourselves. If you figure out how to forgive (which is through confession, i.e. telling someone), you will experience the joy of having your burdens lifted off of you here and now on Earth. After all, His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). In other words, if your load is heavy, it’s not from Him. Christianity comes with plenty of external persecution, but many people carry a heavy load that has nothing to do with following Jesus. Real Christianity includes a deep internal peace that people have been willing to die for ever since it began.
According to Jesus, you get to pick what kind of person you want to be. “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.” - Matthew 12:33. For those who choose to be a good one, the key is forgiving others and asking for transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit.