Osama bin Laden dead: Christians should pray for his soul, cardinal claims

[KittensAngel]

The Telegraph
A Roman Catholic cardinal has said Christians should pray for the soul of Osama bin Laden despite the atrocities he perpetrated.

Osama bin Laden (left) and the French cardinal Albert Vanhoye
By Nick Squires 04 May 2011
"I have prayed for the soul of Osama bin Laden. We have to pray for him just like we pray for the victims of Sept 11. It's what Jesus teaches Christians," Albert Vanhoye, 87, a French cardinal, told an Italian newspaper, Il Messaggero on Wednesday.
(Full Telegraph Article)





Related:


Facebook Group ~ Pray For Bin Laden




I can see the Cardinals point. Jesus would have forgiven Bin Laden and Bin Laden as a Muslim would have respected the prophet Jesus.

It's a testament I think to the meaning of Christ like, to forgive those who have trespassed against us. A people, a nation, the world.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

God can do what he wants with Osama - hopefully overseeing Osama's escort to hell.

I'll spend my time praying for Osama's victims.

 

[*Anne*]

I see his point too. I'm not sure I'm there yet though.

(I think half my family would unfriend me if I joined that FB group.)

 

[esmith]

Same as the Catholic Priest on "The O'Reilly Factor" last night saying that it is wrong to celebrate OBL death

 

[no-body]

Proverbs 24: 17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls;when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, 18 or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them.

 

[Quiddity]

I'm glad that Osama's work has ended. I am not glad that it took death to make it happen. Human life must have intrinsic value, or it has no value. It's a blessing that we finally caught up with him. Truly it is...

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I do not think praying for any ones soul will alter God's mind.
I do not Know why it is done?
I am sure it is not a voting issue.

 

[Quiddity]

I do not think praying for any ones soul will alter God's mind.
I do not Know why it is done?
I am sure it is not a voting issue.

For catholics, praying for the dead isn't to sway God's mind about their eternal destination; that's a done deal, nothing can change that. However, we do believe that some catholics going to heaven suffer in the afterlife. What is best known as purgatory. No soul in purgatory goes to Hell. The prayers are for their sufferings.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

I don't think its right to rejoice over the death of someone.

Here in Toronto that rag of a paper (the Sun) proclaimed "ROT IN HELL" in headlines all down the streets.

Osama is guilty of terrible crimes and, as was said above, I am glad "his work" is done. However, the American government and countless regimes, institutions and corporations (here in North America, and across the world), which make up so much of the spine of our societies and furnish us with the luxuries of daily life, are complicit and facilitate unspeakable horrors across the globe. Some of which Bin Laden was also reacting to.

In a way, who is not guilty in the eyes of God? I think praying for his soul, and our own, is apt.

 

[Pegg]

well i often think about people like Osama and while they have done a lot of bad things, in some way they were doing them for the purpose of improving what they viewed as injustice. Now that he's dead, his sins are forgiven.

Anyway, whatever we think of him, he is now living in Gods memory and in Gods time he will decide if Osama is worthy of a resurrection. Im guessing he will receive one and when he does he will be given the opportunity to repent and live under Gods peaceful rulership.

Acts 24:14-15 "...as I believe all the things set forth in the Law and written in the Prophets; 15 and I have hope toward God, which hope these [men] themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous"

 

[Sunstone]

I don't understand praying for the dead, unless it's kind of like the rule of etiquette that prohibits us from speaking ill of the dead.

That rule, so far as I understand it, is not for the sake of the dead, but for the sake of the living. It seems to be there to remind us that all our differences might count for nothing in the end because we all share a common fate. That, in the end, we are all human. Or at least something along those lines. And as such, it is not to redeem the dead that we are supposed to think that way, but instead it is to help us put life and death into perspective that we are supposed to think that way.

On the other hand, I don't know of any reason to feel remorse for the death of a mass murderer. Nor of any reason to refrain from remembering him as someone who committed great evils. Nor of any reason to pretend that he was any better or any worse than he was.

 

[Quiddity]

I don't think its right to rejoice over the death of someone.

Here in Toronto that rag of a paper (the Sun) proclaimed "ROT IN HELL" in headlines all down the streets.

Osama is guilty of terrible crimes and, as was said above, I am glad "his work" is done. However, the American government and countless regimes, institutions and corporations (here in North America, and across the world), which make up so much of the spine of our societies and furnish us with the luxuries of daily life, are complicit and facilitate unspeakable horrors across the globe. Some of which Bin Laden was also reacting to.

In a way, who is not guilty in the eyes of God? I think praying for his soul, and our own, is apt.

Well said.

The movie Inglorious ******** comes to mind. Where a group of Jews do the most horrendous things to the Nazis. They were evil, they deserve it right? In that film it was demonstrated that the evil of others is license for our own.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

I agree, Sunstone, that Bin Laden ought not to be remembered for anything other than who he was and what he did. It is right that he be brought to face justice according to human standards.

Victor, Vox Nova has an interesting post on this topic:

Make no mistake: Osama was a killer. The culture of Saudi Arabia from which he came (and both the secular and Islamic Middle East) is a culture of death, ruled by violent men. But make no mistake: Obama is a killer too. His liberal ways of killing are more subtle at times, but he is the commander in chief of the American military industrial complex; he presides over all US wars, those fought through martial forces and technologies and those waged through institutions that violently enslave the bodies, hearts, and minds of people at home and abroad. The culture of the United States of America is a culture of death ruled by killers and slave-traders, who are themselves dying and enslaved.

War Lords, Theologies of Violence, and the Culture of Death « Vox Nova

 

[Greyn]

Prayer can be used as an exercise, as well. When I find myself focusing too much toward the negative, it can force me to re-examine my motives. It is easy and natural for me to be angry and vengeful towards OBL. He has given plenty of reason to feel this way, but it is harder to find room for forgiveness. I believe the hard road is what myself, as a Christian, is supposed to travel. Praying for his soul may be a very small and simple act that helps me rise above my initial response of hate.

 

[confusedius]

I agree with the thoughts of Jordan St. Francis.

When you think about it, OBL must now meet his victims in the hereafter. So, praying for his soul is praying for a reconciliation of all those souls in another life. Hopefully hate is disallowed there...

 

[Katzpur]

I don't think our praying for bin Laden's soul is going to do much good. I'm not saying I believe he's doomed to spend eternity in Hell, because my religion doesn't teach of an eternal Hell. I do believe he's in Hell right now, though, and will stay there as long as it takes for him to come to the realization that what he did was reprehensible and that it is only through Jesus Christ's Atonement that He can be forgiven. That would be the first step towards his redemption. If he never does get to that point, the punishment will eventually come to an end, but it's really up to him how long he wants to draw it out.

 

[Biblestudent_007]

May the Omniscient God who knows all things have mercy on Osama Bin Laden.

 

[Pegg]

I don't think our praying for bin Laden's soul is going to do much good. I'm not saying I believe he's doomed to spend eternity in Hell, because my religion doesn't teach of an eternal Hell. I do believe he's in Hell right now, though, and will stay there as long as it takes for him to come to the realization that what he did was reprehensible and that it is only through Jesus Christ's Atonement that He can be forgiven. That would be the first step towards his redemption. If he never does get to that point, the punishment will eventually come to an end, but it's really up to him how long he wants to draw it out.

Katzpur, may I ask what you believe hell to be?

 

[Parzival]

I don't think our praying for bin Laden's soul is going to do much good. I'm not saying I believe he's doomed to spend eternity in Hell, because my religion doesn't teach of an eternal Hell. I do believe he's in Hell right now, though, and will stay there as long as it takes for him to come to the realization that what he did was reprehensible and that it is only through Jesus Christ's Atonement that He can be forgiven. That would be the first step towards his redemption. If he never does get to that point, the punishment will eventually come to an end, but it's really up to him how long he wants to draw it out.

I was not aware that Mormons didn't believe in eternal Hell. That is interesting.

 

[hawaado]

I agree in the fact that rejoicing at someones death, as I saw a lot of Americans do, is quite disgusting. No matter what someone has done, yes the evil works have ceased but I will still not be happy that someone is dead. Not very Christian like if you ask me, Jesus prayed that God forgive the people who were killing him. Osama really believed what he was doing was good in the eyes of God. I will pray and continue to pray for everyone that has walked this earth, I honestly hope that everyone will find happiness.