Solving the world's conflicts can't happen without forgiveness

I awoke on Monday morning and sat down at my computer with my morning coffee to the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead, killed by American soldiers in a covert operation in Pakistan.

Being a Facebooker I was almost simultaneously presented with status posts from American friends saying things like “Osama Bin Laden...may you go straight to Hades!” and worse.

Alongside this were pictures and video of Americans outside the White House celebrating with flag waving and placards saying things like Obama 1: Osama 0, responses which left a bad taste in my mouth and left me wondering about the relationship between terrorism, justice, forgiveness and peace.

Certainly Osama Bin Laden planned the deaths of thousands of people and it is right that he should have been brought to justice. I am not the only one to be concerned about the absence of due legal process in this execution (especially on hearing latterly that Bin Laden was unarmed and surrounded by his family) or the issues raised by the vigilante approach to sovereignty shown by the US actions in this matter.

But the celebrations that followed seemed to be glorifying his killing in a way which I don’t believe is fitting for a society that even loosely bases itself on Christian principles.

Theologian Miroslav Volf from Yale University writes: “For the followers of Jesus Christ, no one's death is a cause for rejoicing. This applies to Osama bin Laden no less than to any other evildoer, large or small. Jesus Christ died for all; there are no irredeemable people. The path of repentance is open to anyone willing to walk on it, and no human being has the right to permanently close that path for anyone.”

At the heart of Christianity there is a foundation of forgiveness - forgiveness of all of us by God, and of each other, by each other. If we are ever to find any solutions to the conflicts of this world, especially in the Middle East, it is only going to be through exercising some forgiveness. Jesus said “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy’. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5 verse 43-44).

Not long after all this news surfaced, another Facebook status started to crop up with the following quote: “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." These words come from Martin Luther King Jr and are from his book ‘Strength to Love’.

These words perfectly encapsulate the spiral of violence and revenge that can be destructive to peace which I hope the killing of Osama Bin Laden is not leading us into.

This quote is proliferating across Facebook status posts as the days go by and my hope is that this will become a predominant theme as we reflect on this staging post on the way to peace and that, as the most recent recipient of the Nobel prize for peace, President Barack Obama will take this opportunity to build bridges towards genuine peace. For “God blesses those who work for peace” (Matthew 5 verse 9).

These are certainly not easy things to do or put into practice, especially when faced with the horrors of terrorism, but I am convinced that we should be looking for positive outcomes to every act and that forgiveness is an important part of that.


Martin Poole is vicar of St Luke's Prestonville, Brighton