Eternal God,
hear your diverse people
as a world unites in prayer and compassion
for the people of Newtown Connecticut.
We pray for all involved in the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Bless with your kindness those who speak to the broken-hearted.
Bless the teachers, paramedics, medical staff and police
with courage, skill and wisdom.
Bless those who mourn.
Bless those who grieve
and comfort the bewildered.
Help us each to build a world safe and fit for children.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
8 responses to “Bin Ladin”
-
I agree with him entirely.
Then I think my friend that you join him in a conclusion that at this moment cannot be substantiated by fact. There is no evidence that bin Laden was executed. He died in a fire fight when the team tasked with his capture tried to do so. To claim more than the facts currently state is to jump to a conclusion based in personal prejudice.
Aside from that one discrepancy, I also agree with much of what he said.
-
It did occur to me that the UK does public rejoicing (see Friday) better than the US (see this morning).
-
We have no room for complacency – remember ‘Gotcha’ in the Falklands war???
-
Yes, that was vulgar too.
-
-
Irrespective of the terrible atrocities masterminded by individuals such as Osama Bin-Laden…and…regardless of the improbable scenario of his being captured alive and put on trial, the rejoicing that followed his death was both tacky and tactless. Comments (albeit by family members of 9/11 victims) alluding to …”God placing him in Hell to rot for eternity…” similarly did nobody any favours. If anything, the backlash from extremists eager to avenge his death (martyrdom?) will now cost further innocent lives. The phrase that jumps to mind is: ‘least said soonest mended…’
-
I’m not sure that pacifist prooftexting is any lbetter than the other kinds. It’s surely morally permissable to celebrate the death of a legitimate, significant military target. And much of the “fanning the flames” rhetoric is inane – people can argue over whether nominally Islamic terrorism can be appeased , but the idea of Al-Queda dialing back their actions or reforming their ethos because (say) the world didn’t overly celebrate killing Bin Laden is ridiculous. Wouldn’t capturing him alive and forcing him to endure infidel courts be even more provocative than a martyr’s bullet and burial at sea?
-
I don’t think I like the idea of celebrating the death of anyone, Ryan.
That’s the kind of thing we find too often in the Bible, isn’t it? And it is vulgar there too.
I don’t like lynch mob mentality no matter who is on the receiving end.
-
-
Indeed – I agree that the “get it up ye!” response very much does not represent humankind at its best. But not celebrating *anyone’s* death is quite different, to me, to the most popular current arguments that largely emphasise that Bin Ladin personally is an inappropriate figure for Sic Semper Tyrannis triumphalism.
I found the Vatican’s reaction interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_death_of_Osama_bin_Laden#Europe
Previous Posts
-
Summer Lightning
I have a major computer failure following a thunder storm here tonight. Presumably some kind of surge reached the computer. This seems particularly hard to take as I had unplugged the CPU as soon as the lightning started to crack. This post is coming from the laptop – the main computer won't start at all…
-
Book Review – cev youth bible ? Edited by Nick Page
This edition of the Bible is aimed at teenagers. Well, perhaps it is aimed at Evangelical parents and other relatives looking to buy a Bible for teenagers, which is nearly, but not quite, the same thing. The Contemporary English Version is a Bible translation which uses a restricted vocabulary. It is a fairly progressive translation,…
-
Upcoming Books
I had a look through the up-coming religious books on Amazon to see whether there was anything that I was likely to want to review. There is a depressing swathe of Kabbalah books on their way, presumably cashing in on the Madonna nonsense.Continuum are also about to publish a new edition of Barth's Church Dogmatics,…
-
Reviewing
I’m sent copies of books to review from time to time – they get published in the Episcopalian newspaper. Today someone sent a copy of the bible. It is very tempting to write a review as though neither I nor any reader had read it before at all. However, I think that there are things…
Leave a Reply