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Osama Bin Laden... What is the Christian response to this?

What is my moral response to the death of Osama

  • I hope he burns in Hell

    Votes: 31 26.5%

  • I'm just glad he is dead. Let God Decide

    Votes: 41 35.0%

  • Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner

    Votes: 13 11.1%

  • Conflicted

    Votes: 17 14.5%

  • Other/Poll fail

    Votes: 15 12.8%
  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
Glad he's dead, he's in God's hands.
 
Christians can and do disagree wrt views of war and capital punishment. I've already said where I stand on these, though I've stood previously on the other side of theses issues and have some sympathy for that position.

Here's a (very) brief overview of some of the arguments on both sides for Christians wrt capital punishment: link to BBC article.
 
WhatUTalkinBout Willis said:
I'd also like to toss out that God's main man Moses was a murderer and therefore an evil man who should have been put to death, as long as we're going with a "one verse says it all" version of hermeneutics.
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This was before christ died for our sins, dummy. Jeez! :p
 
ConnorEl said:
I think you mean everyone.
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Of course, to an extent, no one can come to any text without bias. But it's always amusing when people cite Scripture back and forth to each other.

Plus, what many people miss is that in Christianity, the Bible is the word (lowercase "w") of God, not the Word (uppercase "W") of God (see Karl Barth for more on this, not to mention John 1). Jesus is the Word of God and that is where we should look for true exegesis of what the Christian faith and life is all about. But we instead get bogged down in the Bible. Luther said sola scriptura, but I don't think he meant to get rid of Jesus in the process, which is what, effectively, most folks do with their theology and Biblical interpretation.

[/sermon]
 
RevDeac06 said:
Of course, to an extent, no one can come to any text without bias. But it's always amusing when people cite Scripture back and forth to each other.

Plus, what many people miss is that in Christianity, the Bible is the word (lowercase "w") of God, not the Word (uppercase "W") of God (see Karl Barth for more on this, not to mention John 1). Jesus is the Word of God and that is where we should look for true exegesis of what the Christian faith and life is all about. But we instead get bogged down in the Bible. Luther said sola scriptura, but I don't think he meant to get rid of Jesus in the process, which is what, effectively, most folks do with their theology and Biblical interpretation.

[/sermon]
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I think mebanedeac should read this. I feel like I'm in bible class every time I read one of his posts.
 
Well, of course we should try to recognize and be suspicious of our biases when attempting to access something of what is true (or God/Jesus). Only I think it's always an impure (or corrupted) process for us...

Also, while I certainly appreciate the point of distinguishing the Word from the word, I'd hasten to add that they're not unrelated and, for many of us, not entirely unrelatable. Nor necessarily in conflict. Though no doubt we can make them so and do so quite regularly and readily.
 
ConnorEl said:
Also, while I certainly appreciate the point of distinguishing the Word from the word, I'd hasten to add that they're not unrelated and, for many of us, not entirely unrelatable. Nor necessarily in conflict. Though no doubt we can make them so and do so quite regularly and readily.
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Agreed with your comments. It's just that most folks quote the Bible till they're blue in the face, but when it comes to actually promoting the Kingdom of God, taking up your cross and following Christ or in a sense "quoting the life of Jesus" they are much more reluctant.

I'm reminded of the quote attributed to St. Francis- "preach the Gospel everyday, use words when necessary." Now, I have my issues with that quote, because I do think we should use our words; but too many folks start with the words and ignore the action part. The action must come first, and action often stems from putting the emphasis on the Word over the word. But I digress, this is a thread about the Christian response to killing, which is :rulz: Even if you go through just war theory and think this was a necessary thing, killing as a solution is not moving us closer to the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
 
RevDeac06 said:
\

Agreed with your comments. It's just that [it's far easier for most folks to] quote the Bible till they're blue in the face, but when it comes to actually promoting the Kingdom of God, taking up your cross and following Christ or in a sense "quoting the life of Jesus" they are much more reluctant.
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Agree entirely with this.

Sorry for the slight adjustment. I'm ferociously fastidious. Or so I'm told.
 
tintinisahottie said:
Why the fuck would I mourn a guy who purposefully killed thousands of completely innocent people? my people. That's a nice sounding quote and all but seriously, f osama
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You should mourn the choices that he made and the things that made him and others make those choices. You should mourn that he was never able to repent from those choices. You should mourn that our nation's only solution was to murder him. And you should mourn that he died without using his talents for the good of the world.

I didn't rejoice in OBL's death. At this point it's more symbolic than anything else (except another multi-million dollar special operation). My thoughts were more in line with reflecting on the past ten years and the pain that he wrought and the ensuing horrible decision making that our country engaged in.
 
TownieDeac said:
Damn, I even scanned the thread first. Should have read closer. Great quote, summarizes my feelings.
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lbE08 said:
crap, i seriously just came to drop the MLK quote.

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr
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High fives all around.
 
RevDeac06 said:
\

Agreed with your comments. It's just that most folks quote the Bible till they're blue in the face, but when it comes to actually promoting the Kingdom of God, taking up your cross and following Christ or in a sense "quoting the life of Jesus" they are much more reluctant.

I'm reminded of the quote attributed to St. Francis- "preach the Gospel everyday, use words when necessary." Now, I have my issues with that quote, because I do think we should use our words; but too many folks start with the words and ignore the action part. The action must come first, and action often stems from putting the emphasis on the Word over the word. But I digress, this is a thread about the Christian response to killing, which is :rulz: Even if you go through just war theory and think this was a necessary thing, killing as a solution is not moving us closer to the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
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Agree here. It's when people move from sola scriptura (Scripture as primary although working in concert with tradition, reason, etc.) to solo scriptura (Scripture and only Scripture - it's not just the primary source, it's the only source) that we lose sight of the point of the whole thing - to commune not with the Bible, but with the God of the Bible.

One of the reasons I rejected being a follower of Jesus was this idea and the idea the Rev alluded to earlier that the point of following Jesus was the afterlife - as if life didn't matter (and I heard this preached pretty explicitly), however, one of the first steps toward faith for me was understanding the Scripture as placing a high value on life and it wasn't that you live life and when you die, you're sent to heaven or hell, it's that we're dead and we can have life through Christ, here and now, in order to bring about His kingdom and if you are truly alive - that life overcomes death - that the personal aspect of salvation is just a small piece in God's overarching plan to reconcile all things to himself and renew all things.
 
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WhatUTalkinBout Willis said:
While I'm at it, I'd like to say there is no such thing as "Hell" (fiery burning place non-Christians must spend eternity suffering within) for Osama to go to. So, he's got that going for him.
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That is a rather dogmatic statement, especially since Christ Himself spoke of Hell more than any one Biblical Person.

The distinction between the written Word of God and the incarnate Word of God is valid but only so long as they are not presented as in conflict with each other. Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos Who became flesh and lived among His creatures for a time. He is the ultimate revelation of God. However the only way we presently know Him: His character, His behavior, His accomplishments, His teaching or His will is by the written Word. Qualifying the integrity or authority of the written Word becomes the occasion for eisegegis in the ultimate sense. The teacher who constructs his doctrine of Christ out of the whole Bible (seeing that Christ is the subject of the whole Bible beginning in Gen. 3:15) and properly interpretes the various genre in the Bible, will arrive at a different Christ from the One who selectively lifts certain perceived themes of Jesus' teaching out of the whole framework of Scripture and embellishes upon those themes to arrive at the Jesus who best serves his own philosophical purposes. Interpreting Scripture is no easy task, but there is more safety in making a conscientious attempt to do that and feeling oneself constrained by the actual words of God than presuming one wise enough to dismiss large portions of Scripture in order to construct the story which one thinks to be best.

And, the reference regarding Christ and the sword earlier was used simply to demonstrate that Christ was not a pacifist. He was obviously not calling for people to go out and murder people; but He was saying that a time was coming to Jerusalem when self-protection would be very necessary.
 
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