The scene is a very busy bookshop. A bepigtailed elderwoman protagonist approaches the information desk. She pauses for a moment and then asks…
“Excuse me, Religion is…?”
Her bearded interlocutor pauses for a moment and then replies….
“Religion is in the gold room, just up the stairs.”
He pauses once again, and then asks, “Or were you looking for a more esoteric answer?”
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
Can Tony Blair survive attacks such as the letter from former diplomats which he received today? It is hard to imagine anyone governing Britain without even the grudging support of the Establishment.
Last week, I telephoned the Royal Mail Customer Care line to ask them to deliver my post to the right house and everyone else's post to their own houses rather than mine.They have written this morning apologising and enclosing a book of twelve first class stamps in compensation for my troubles. This is was good wheeze…
Today, we celebrate a Feast Day. Today we remember one of the younger followers of the Lord. One of the witnesses of the first days of the church. Someone who himself wrote down stories and sayings and passed them on to us so that we could find faith in the risen Lord. Today is St…
The link referred to in this week's sermon is http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/features/jewish_eyes/It is a rather interesting account of someone looking at Jesus through Jewish Eyes.
Leave a Reply