Jesus, Christian Theology and the Death of Bin Laden

I've been reflecting over the past week -- and writing over at Patheos -- about possible Christian responses to the execution of Osama bin Laden. As I watched the TV news, read Twitter feeds, read newspapers and magazines, checked my Facebook feed, I observed jubilation, righteous assurance, ambivalence, and sadness, every conceivable reaction --

And all from individuals I know to be people of faith.

So for my friends at Huffington Post, I want to provide a quick intro to what I've observed, outline the theological positions informing these reactions, and present a challenge for us to try to live and believe in a different way.

The most troubling of the reactions I've observed grows out of Holy War. Some respondents said that Osama received what he had coming, that he had stood in opposition to the Christian God, that evil must be struck down, and that we had an obligation to do it. Holy War grows out of a black and white moral assurance that right is right, that evil is evil, and that God most certainly is on our side. I find this mindset particularly troubling given the Christian use of Holy War in the Crusades, when Pope Urban, for example, preached the Crusades in dualistic terms: the European Christians were Children of God, the Muslim hordes were Children of the Devil, and it was the responsibility of every able-bodied Christian to wipe the Children of the Devil from the face of the planet.

President Obama spoke to the nation from the standpoint of the theology of Christian Realism. As in his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, he might have been speaking the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, who, writing during the Cold War, said that we must acknowledge the evils in the world, and that we must sometimes do the morally questionable in order to safeguard our nation and the people we love.

The strength of Christian Realism is that it acknowledges the tensions inherent in calling for Just War and the death of evil men. It doesn't suggest that there are easy answers -- in fact, it suggests the precise opposite. And sometimes, as Obama has observed, perhaps the head of state must make decisions that seem to run counter to her or his beliefs to preserve the greater good and defend the helpless.

But although I know that I reacted to Osama bin Laden's death with a certain amount of relief before I got to grief, I believe we are called to Christian Pacifism, a belief in which violence cannot be justified by reference to the Christian tradition because Jesus's life and teaching point us precisely in the opposite direction. Jesus rejected violence as a solution for his nation, and he rejected it personally, even when given that most powerful of temptations, to save one's own life through the use of violence.

Jesus's example is nonnegotiable; we are called to emulate him. Kathryn Tanner notes in her Jesus, Humanity, and the Trinity that the call to Christians is unequivocal: "Our assumption in Christ is to become visible as our lives show forth in action and in deeds, the form of Christ's own life." (71) We are to do what Jesus did, to the extent we are capable, as hard as it might be, as foolish as it might appear to be.

Even crusty old John Calvin encourages us to be Christ-like, to be counter-cultural, and to embrace a better way:

As we think of [Jesus] we can achieve the difficult and unnatural: we can love those that hate us, give good for evil, and blessing for cursing (Matt. 5:44), remembering that we are not to dwell on the evil in men, but look to the image of God in them. This image covers and obliterates their faults, and by its beauty and dignity draws us to love and embrace them. John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion 3.7.6.

Evil as bin Laden may have been, he was nonetheless beloved by God, made in the image of God, and Jesus called us to love rather than hate.

My friend Peter Francis, Warden of the marvelous Gladstone's Library, reminded me this week to consult John Donne, and as usual, he (and Donne) provide good advice:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.

We should not celebrate the death of anyone, including Osama bin Laden, because God loves all humankind, and all men and women, however far they stray, remain our brothers and sisters.

Hard wisdom. But straight from the mouth of Jesus.

 

 

 

Comments

[Tony Annechino]

10:14 AM on 05/27/2011

"Mainstream Christianity" is far removed from the teaching of Jesus. He also taught that his true followers were to be no part of the world (John 15:19; James 4:4). Indeed, true Christians are awaiting the Kingdom of God itself to rule the world (Daniel 2:44). The responsibility of true Christians to society at large is to advertise this Kingdom, while witnessing to its superiority through accurate and faithful adherence to God written Word.

[Scott Gay]

08:30 AM on 05/11/2011

The truth is that the mass of mankind are refractory to the Spirit of Christ. To try to govern with the help of the Gospel would be as sensible as enclosing in the same farm yard, all manner of animals and saying to them: 'Live peaceably, feed together, you have nothing to fear' The sheep would accept and welcome such governance.

It is the statesman's dilemma, and it is agonizingly real; we who are, or have been, or are about to be pacifists, are caught in the paradox.

There are truths about scapegoats that are hidden from us. However, the celebrations in this case seem more to be about statesman that recognize the truth of our realities, more than it is about scapegoating.

[Daleri Rileda]

01:46 AM on 05/11/2011

You fail to realise that if we allow murderers to kill, we then become responsible for the killing of other people when it is in our power to stop it. The government also has the responsibility to protect its citizens. There is a difference between killing and murder, believe it or not. Murder is a violation of a law. Killing is required by the law in some cases depending on the law.

Since Osama declared war against the United States, he made himself a legitimate target of the United States. He should not and did not expect any other thing.

In a perfect world, we would give Osama a chance to change his ways... not much chance of that happening. In the mean time we are responsible for all of the killing that he organizes and encourages.

We need to bury the ideology that teaches people to murder other people for the sake of causing terror to get attention.

Sure there are some of us who are evil but we need to "overcome evil with good", not the way that Osama went about doing things.

Our teaching has to be perfect. That is the way that we will convince people to change their ways and even that is not enough sometimes.

Osama declaring war on the US is like shooting at the police, you cannot expect them to be nice to you. It is not a very productive thing to do.

[Briangular]

09:59 PM on 05/10/2011

Mr. Garrett. It is nice to see you put this in print. I have been deeply troubled by the jubilant celebrations. From a secular point of view, we seem to have forgotten that all people have a right to the due process of law regardless of the horror of their crimes. From a Christian point of view, many seem to have forgotten that the man who died was a soul created in God's image. While I feel a certain sense of relief, any celebration on my part must be tempered by the fact that a man had to die to resolve the situation.

[umbriago]

06:06 PM on 05/10/2011

"Evil as bin Laden may have been, he was nonetheless beloved by God, made in the image of God, and Jesus called us to love rather than hate."

That's assuming a lot!

My concern is with what killing people we consider "evil," be they terrorists, dictators, or criminals does to us, the righteous ones. Vicious as he was, he was a relatively harmless old man who probably could have been apprehended and brought to trial. Despite the fearmongers' yelping about how no one would be safe with Bin Laden in captivity (are we any safer with him dead?), a trial witnessed by the entire world and a life sentence in prison for the convicted would have been the enlightened path to take.

[Bill J4321]

04:53 PM on 05/10/2011

"Jesus's example is nonnegotiable; we are called to emulate him."
________________________________________________________

I do not believe that Jesus Christ would have killed Osama Bin Laden.

Jesus Christ would have forgiven him.

Yet America, whose loudest and most obnoxious citizens declare a 'christian' nation,' has acted in direct opposition to the directives of the savior it purports to exalt above all else.

This is why free-thinking human beings can not and do not view 'christians' in a positive light.

[Ami Toben]

12:56 PM on 05/10/2011

Why is it so difficult to have an opinion or to conduct a deep philosophical debate about death, suffering, well being, and justice without invoking iron aged tribal middle eastern campfire legends? You might as well invoke Indian legends or quote the Greek or Egyptian gods for the exact same affect. It will continue to be very difficult to have an adult conversation about current events and important philosophical issues if man made tribal deities and so called magic books keep being injected into the conversation. History has consistently shown that the greatest progresses mankind has made came out of a dependence on reason, evidence, and humanism, and not on the childish and dangerous ancient tribal fairy tales that many people refer to as religion.

[Bueno Hombre]

11:55 AM on 05/10/2011

Excellent article. If the Christian Right followed Jesus' actions, words, and example I might would listen to them.