The Amish are intensely private and distinguish themselves from the contemporary mainstream through their plain dress, their rejection of modern technology and their strong community bonds. Some Amish refuse to permit their children to be formally educated beyond a certain age or even to receive inoculations. These practices derive from their religious beliefs. Many times, the Amish are dismissed by mainstream culture, especially Hollywood, as quaint, unglamorous and odd.

Recently, however, after the brutal slaying of five Amish schoolgirls by a non-Amish killer, the Amish community near Lancaster, Pennsylvania set an exemplary moral standard of forgiveness as they simultaneously marked their difference from the mainstream. They extended public forgiveness to the killer and his family. One member of the community even said, “We must not think evil of this man.”