Soon they will begin "outing" gay lawmekers and staff of both parties

The Rev. Robert Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, was one of the only "English," as the Amish call outsiders, to be invited to a viewing. He called it "a gift given to me by God" to have seen the mourners' quiet grace. "There was no animosity or bitterness or anger," he said. "They were praying for the gunman and his family." Dressed in black, groups of men and woman sat separately on plain benches in the front rooms of the bereaved farm families. It was quiet enough to hear the snorting of their horses out front. "One moment they might be crying, the next they are smiling over something they remember about the child," Rhoads said. Viewing the body is very important to the Amish, and so the coffins were open, despite the grievous physical damage the girls suffered. The Amish prohibit using cosmetics on the body. "One moment they might be crying, the next they are smiling over something they remember about the child," Rhoads said. Viewing the body is very important to the Amish, and so the coffins were open, despite the grievous physical damage the girls suffered. The Amish prohibit using cosmetics on the body. "The head wounds were very apparent," said Schenck, who went to 13-year-old Marian Fisher's viewing. "There was a bandage of sorts on her head, but the concave outline of the wound was clear. That was very jarring to see." And yet, he said, it wasn't gruesome. Indeed, he was moved to tears watching Marian's mother gently tend to her daughter. "Her mother was very tenderly adjusting the wrapping around the body. She was swaddling her daughter, caring for her. It was very clear that this mother was very proud of her daughter. She obviously loved this little girl," Schenck said. The mother encouraged Marian's 10-year-old sister to touch the older girl's cold limbs. "It's part of realizing that's she's really gone now, that she's really in heaven," Rhoads said. Schenck said Marian's grandfather told the assembled children they "must not think evil of this man who did this." The viewings were especially hard on the two sets of parents whose daughters are among the five girls still battling for life. "They really aren't able to visit the children in the hospital as much as they'd like to. They have to concentrate on funerals," Rhoads said. In keeping with all aspects of Amish life, today's services will be unadorned, humble and intently focused on God. About 500 people are expected to attend the four funerals, to be held in large barns. The funeral for the fifth girl, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, will be tomorrow. There will be no flowers or singing, though hymns will be chanted. There will be no eulogies: The Amish believe praise is for the Lord, not the dead. And though the massacre caught the horrified attention of the world, there will be no tearful relatives flown to New York to appear on morning TV shows, no pictures of the victims getting their own mournful theme song on CNN, no book deals. For once, there will be dignity.

Amish elders have also set up a fund for Roberts' three children. According to King, a district deacon said, "'If we hear they've got $5 and we've got a thousand, we must go help them.' The ultimate mission of this group is about forgiveness."

Clayton - I think the Left started outing people yesterday...