On the first of May, 2011, the president of the United States of America announced that Osama bin Laden was dead. The speech that followed was one carefully devised to avoid offending anyone deemed worth trying not to offend and part of this watering down involved the claim that bin Laden was not an islamic leader but simply a mass murderer. Now, obviously I do not believe that Osama bin Laden spoke for all or even most Muslims, but I do believe that if there is one courtesy every ideological enemy deserves, it is to have their truth-claims acknowledged. Osama bin Laden held to a particular view of God and God's law which concluded that unbelievers should be forced to obey islamic law and he believed that by acting on this he was being righteous. The man was a human being who loved and thought and hated and sinned and worshipped.
When the news station inevitably started playing old clips of bin Laden, I tried to look at his face and understand just who he was. I can honestly say that I didn't see any hate there. There might even have been a bit of serenity at a few points. This man led others in prayer, had children, and sent soldiers he may very well have loved to their deaths. Did he ever feel giddy adoration for any of his wives? Did any of his soldiers ever come to him afraid and did he then tenderly comfort them and then pray together with them? When he though of what he believed his duty, how much hate was really there? When he thought of God, how much true reverence was there? What was the life of this horrible, sad man?
Osama bin Laden was born into wealth and he left his comforts to hide out in caves and do what he believed was God's work. And he believed God's work involved killing Americans and Jews and even other Muslims. I know many people find this infuriating but I myself find it sad. I think it is a terrible tragedy, greater and more shameful than anything Shakespeare ever wrote. And what is saddest of all is the thought that there are thousands more just like him. There are even teenage boys and girls who will blow themselves up in living out that heart-rending tragedy. The thought brings tears to my eyes.
But the thing that makes me sob openly (I'm not kidding here and I'm not exagerrating either) is the thought that when they go to hear our response, they hear exactly what they expect. They hear and enemy. They hear condemnation. They hear the words of those who do not understand. It makes me want to go there, to run across continents and swim across oceans and run up to them and shout at the top of my voice "JESUS LOVES YOU AND SO DO I!!!!!" If I am shot down on such a mission then that is better still. What greater glory can there be than to moan with one's very last breath "I still love you; I still forgive you"?
This is my prayer for Al Qaeda and the Taliban: that God's love would be poured out to them. I pray that the Church would wake up and recognize the thousands of sad and lost and lonely men and women that are so desperately in need of our love. I pray that for every Muslim who "martyrs" himself or herself for the sake of condemnation, there would be ten Christians who walk straight towards certain death for the sake of forgiveness. I pray that they would come to feel like lions trapped in a den of Daniels or a Pharisee begging for merciful hatred from a crowd of Stephens. I pray that wonders would emerge and that warring angels would be sent on their behalf. I pray that the children of the soldiers of Al Qaeda and the Taliban would grow up in a church so full of faith and love that it would put the rest of us to shame. I pray that the descendents of todays terrorists would have the faith and love and wisdom to one day come to encourage and admonish my own descendents.
I pray that during this very hour, God would annoint apostles to the terrorists. I pray that the Spirit would come upon the Church and awake a new wave of servants to sweep through the Middle East. God bless the sowing and reaping of this holy field.
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