Traditionally, this honor is bestowed upon one person who is deemed by readers and Beliefnet editors to have risen above expectations, countered stereotypes and demonstrated courage, forgiveness, self-sacrifice and love under difficult and challenging circumstances. This year’s acknowledgement goes to the entire Amish community of Nickel Mines for their remarkable spirit of forgiveness in reaction to the murder of five young girls in their community this past October.
Their extreme example of how true faith and forgiveness can be awe-inspiring, prompted Beliefnet readers, writers and editors to express overwhelming support for the Amish, who were nominated along with 11 exceptionally inspiring individuals, including Warren Buffett, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Russell Simmons and others whose heroic stories are detailed in video and narrative form at
www.beliefnet.com.
“The Amish showed super-human qualities of forgiveness,” said Steven Waldman, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Beliefnet.com. “We all watched what they did and thought ‘wow—I doubt I would have the strength and wisdom to practice such radical forgiveness. They really taught everyone 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. In several rounds of voting, more than 50,000 members of Beliefnet’s online community narrowed the choice to three final nominees.
Beliefnet’s editors then made the difficult choice between the three finalists: 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 of the men in his unit as he single-handedly carried them off the battlefield under heavy fire, into the safety of his truck.
Other nominees included: Adam Zuckerman, teenage Darfur activist; Bindi Irwin, daughter of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin who’s stepped into her father's shoes on behalf of wildlife preservation; Jason McElwain, an autistic basketball player who proves that having a disability should not interfere with your dreams; Warren Buffett, billionaire philanthropist who this year made our country’s largest charitable donation; Russell Simmons, hip-hop mogul and anti-bigotry activist; Elissa Montanti, advocate for war-maimed children; Charles Moore, homeless good Samaritan who returned $21,000 in savings bonds to their rightful owner; Richard Cizik, pro-environment evangelical, and Kathleen Traylor, wheel-chair bound actress who founded a theater for the disabled.
Video features on selected nominees, including an exclusive interview with a designated spokesman for the Amish community, can be found at Beliefnet.com.
Last year’s honor went to Victoria Ruvolo, the Long Island woman known by many as the “Turkey Toss Victim” who urged leniency for the teen who nearly killed her by tossing a turkey through her windshield.
