There's a challenging article by Susan Windley-Daoust over at Godspy looking back at last year's Amish school shooting. If you recall, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting there was a great deal of discussion about the fact that the families of the victims so openly forgave the killer, with no sign of animosity. Windley-Daoust writes:

I remember last October’s fascination with forgiveness like this: millions of people sitting around, staring at the television, mumbling “that's incredible…” and shaking their heads. Translation: that's admirable, but I have no idea how they do that, and I know I couldn't. Indeed, given how reporters reacted to the Amish lack of anger and their practice of forgiveness, I suspect they felt the same way.

She goes on to ask some tough questions: is forgiveness always the proper Christian response to sin? If so, why did the Amish community's forgiving response strike so many people as strange or even inappropriate? Can Christians get angry about sin, and if so, how does that fit into the question of forgiveness?

I'm curious what you guys think about this. Let me toss a few more specific questions out there for you to think about:

1. What was your reaction last year to the Amish community's open forgiveness?
2. Is anger an appropriate or noble Christian response to something like this? Is anger a failure to respond in a Christian manner?
3. Is it really possible (in practice, not just in theory) both to be seriously angry at someone, and to genuinely forgive them? How have you dealt with this in your own life?