Bin Laden and the Costly Grace of Forgiveness

Last updated on: May 3, 2011 at 8:31 pm by Lori Erickson

Bin Laden and the Costly Grace of Forgiveness 2011-05-03T20:31:18-06:00 Lori Erickson

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Like many of you, I’m sure, I greeted the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death with relief and a sense that justice has finally been served. Since then you’ve probably read a number of commentaries about the political implications of his death, but I want to direct your attention to two interesting pieces about its religious significance. The first is Kevin Eckstrom’s article from the Religion News Service: Is it OK to cheer Osama bin Laden’s death? Eckstrom writes:

For many people, bin Laden’s guilt or innocence never needed to be adjudicated in a court of law, and an American bullet to his head was judgment enough. Scholars cautioned, however, that there’s a difference between judging a man’s actions and judging his soul.

The Rev. John Langan, a Jesuit professor of Christian ethics at Georgetown University, said killing bin Laden to prevent future attacks is morally valid, but cautioned that vengeance is ultimately a divine, not human, right.

“I knew people who died in 9/11,” Langan said. “I feel deeply the evil of that action. But I am part of a religious tradition that says that we don’t make final, independent judgments about the souls of other men. That rests with God.”

Which all leads back to Americans’ response to the death of a madman.

“You have to have compassion, even for your enemies,” said A. Rashied Omar, a research scholar at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

“The Quran teaches that you never should allow enmity to swerve you away from compassion, because without compassion, the pursuit of justice risks becoming a cycle of revenge.”

Others said there is a difference between rejoicing in bin Laden’s death and finding a certain degree of satisfaction—a “subtle but important difference,” said the Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, an Episcopal priest who teaches at the Pacific School of Religion.

“I’m not sorry Bin Laden is dead,” Johnson posted on Twitter. “That’s not the same thing as celebrating his death.”

And that, perhaps, is where Americans will live in the coming days and weeks, caught in the gray space between satisfaction and celebration, glad that bin Laden is finally gone but not wanting to dance on anyone’s grave.

Jesuit priest James Martin posted a thoughtful piece in America Magazine: What Is a Christian Response to Bin Laden’s Death? His essay refers to the fact that John Paul II was beatified on the same day that Osama bin Laden was killed:

Perhaps the confluence of events is providential. As someone who lived under Nazism and Communism, John Paul was no stranger to terror or murder. But he also was a Christian who knew the centrality of forgiveness, even for the most grievous of crimes. In 1980, he was the victim of an assassination attempt by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish ultra-nationalist. One of Blessed John Paul’s first acts after his recovery was to journey to Agca’s jail cell and offer him the costly grace of forgiveness.

Osama bin Laden was responsible for the murder of thousands of men and women in the United States, for the deaths and misery of millions across the world, and for the death of many servicemen and women, who made the supreme sacrifice of their lives. I am glad he has left the world. And I pray that his departure may lead to peace.

But as a Christian, I am asked to pray for him and, at some point, forgive him. And that command comes to us from Jesus, a man who was beaten, tortured and killed. That command comes from a man who knows a great deal about suffering. It also comes from God.

So what do you think, dear readers? What is the proper spiritual response to the death of Bin Laden? Is this something you have struggled with?

Forgiveness

Osama Bin Laden

Pope John Paul II

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