News & Stories

Amish Community of Nickel Mines Honored as Most Inspiring People of the Year

December 15, 2006

     Beliefnet.com, an online community for inspiration and spirituality, named the Amish of Nickel Mines as the Most Inspiring People of the Year 2006. Traditionally, this honor is bestowed upon one person who is deemed by Beliefnet readers and editors to have risen above expectations, countered stereotypes and demonstrated courage, forgiveness, self-sacrifice and love under challenging circumstances. This year’s acknowledgement goes to the entire Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, for their remarkable spirit of forgiveness in response to the murder of five young girls this past October. 
     “The Amish showed superhuman qualities of forgiveness,” said Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com. “We all watched what they did and thought, ‘Wow—I doubt I would have the strength to practice such radical forgiveness. They taught [us] how to live our faith and values in a vivid way.”  
     This is the seventh year that Beliefnet has honored the Most Inspiring Person. To assemble this year’s contenders, editors conducted a year-long search for 12 extraordinary candidates who were nominated for the honor. The three finalists were the Amish of Nickel Mines; Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell, who, after spending three months in hiding, discovered her parents, grandparents and three brothers had been murdered in the Rwandan genocide and forgave the murderers; and Lance Corporal Todd Corbin, a U.S. Marine fighting in Iraq, whose bravery, selflessness and extraordinary grace under pressure saved the lives of many men in his unit as he single-handedly carried them off the battlefield under heavy fire into safety.