I received a patriotic email today saying things like:
"Osama Bin Laden your time is short
We'd rather you die than come to court
Why are you hiding if it was in God's [sic] name?
You're just a punk with a turban; a pathetic shame."
I just want to get a different voice out there, because I disagree entirely with what this email had to say. In my response to the email, I think I summed up how I feel about what the appropriate Christian response should be. I said:
"We as Christians need to respond in a very different way. I might even challenge that Christians need to forgive Osama Bin Laden for what he has done to America. We need to pray for him, and we need to love him. Maybe we even need to look at him as a human being. Maybe we need to look deeply at his life, and ask ourselves what we have done that might have brought him to such intense hatred. Maybe we need to stop viewing him as the devil with skin on, and start viewing him as a small injured man loved by God, and angry at the world. I am not saying that he is not responsible for what he has done. I am merely saying that we as Christians need to respond differently. Our job is to love him. That is radical Christianity. And I don't know how to read through the message that Christ gave us without coming to this conclusion. What else could Christ have meant by 'Love your enemies.'?"
I know there are a lot of people who disagree. I just wanted to get my two cents on the table.
3 comments:
I just diasgree with the message because I 'd like to see justice served and I don't think that someone dying through natural causes satisfies that. I have not, will not prayed for the man. I think that America needs more closure on the issue than his simply being no longer alive.
Awesome and commendable sentiment Josh. I stand with you. I am glad that in God's economy, forgiveness and justice are not opposites, but twin pillars of love, and thus we may act accordingly.
Josh - I don't always agree with your political ideas that you occasionally blog about, but you are right on with this. Probably because it is not political, but biblical.
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