I am sorry, but I don't understand. As a follower of Ayn Rand the concept of self-sacrifice is anathema. And yet you seem to be presenting this as a desireable response to a horrific situation and various posters here are exulting the religious faith of those victims of tragedy.

Without question the event was terrible. Without question the butcher who slaughtered these girls was beyond remorse and nothing more than a vicious deranged animal. OK, but to use this as an example of the exercise of religious faith because of the stoicism of Amish religious teaching is endorsing a willing acceptance of fatality as a mazel tov.

It appears as an endorsement of " Oh Ceasar, we who are about to die salute you." A passive acceptance of death at the hands of a madman is not a heroic act, it is a fatalistic one. The event was indeed tragic, but I find it dishonest to try and extract anything to praise from the victimization of these children. To have "faith like a rock" is an endorsement of an acceptance of evil to the greater glory of God. That is akin to the acceptance of the sacrifice of a suicide bomber by his family because he was serving the greater glory of Allah.

Please don't allow your empathy and grief for the slaughter of these innocents be contorted into an acceptance or glorification of fatalism or pre destination. God did not place this killer in this school to test or demonstrate the faith of these children. This was an act of a deranged psychopath that senselessly took away the lives of 10 little girls. The members of their community may need to find solace in praising the faith of the victims, but for the rest of us we should recognize a senseless act of madness for what it is.

Publius