Community Corner

Local Religious Leaders Weigh In on Reaction to bin Laden's Death

Dexter ministers discuss their thoughts on the terrorist leader's execution.

As word about the of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden quickly spread throughout the country this week, citizens took to the streets cheering, partying and singing the national anthem.

For some, it has been a weeklong celebration. For others, it is a striking display of glee at the death of a human being. After watching around-the-clock news coverage of bin Laden's death, we have to ask, is it ever appropriate to cheer someone else's death?

"The cheering on the streets is strange but not surprising," Matt Hook, pastor of Dexter United Methodist Church, said. "Rather than celebrating, if anything, it can make us think about deeper issues of life, death, sin, God’s grace and God’s judgment.

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"If anything, this reminds me I need to work and pray and live for God even more. No death should give us pleasure," he said.

While Hook said he is "thankful for the containment of evil," he cautions residents not to get caught up in celebration.

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"When we get too excited about justice or death for someone else, it’s awfully easy to forget our own need for God’s grace and the reality of our own salvation," Hook said. "The message of Christianity is that God through Christ has offered us salvation from our own wickedness."

The Rev. Mark Porinsky, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Dexter, said he does not feel that it's the church's place to weigh in on bin Laden's death.

"Our church, Faith Lutheran, is probably less politically minded and more spiritually based than many churches, so when an incident like bin Laden’s death occurs, our members take it in stride," he said in an email. "It is not the church’s job to advise the government on political matters, on when to go to war, and on whom to kill and not to kill. And it is not the government’s job to advise me on what to preach or not to preach.

"It is also not my job to look into anyone’s heart and tell the person how much rejoicing is appropriate over the death of an enemy. While the Bible forbids hatred and taking personal revenge and rejoicing over the misfortune of one’s personal enemy, I also think of the unbridled rejoicing that the Israelites experienced after the drowning of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea," Porinsky said.

Porinsky said in his opinion, the excitement over bin Laden's death is more of a symbolic victory over the war on terrorism.

"I think a lot of the rejoicing in the present case does not so much result from personal hatred of one human being, but rather from what that one man stood for and the damage that came about through him," Porinsky said. "His death is symbolic of the hope that our country has not succumbed to terrorism."

Repeated calls to other religious organizations were not returned by publication time. However, National Public Radio relayed the Catholic Church's statement on the death of bin Laden: "Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of everyone before God and man, and hopes and pledges that every event is not an opportunity for a further growth of hatred, but of peace."


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