It has become my standard practice to weigh in publicly on “controversial” issues only when multiple members of my own church, or other Jesus-followers whom I serve as pastor in some capacity, ask for my thoughts. (Case in point – the Rob Bell saga.) To be honest, my favorite blog response to Osama bin Laden’s death is this guy’s. (For those of you who won’t or don’t follow the link, he advocates saying nothing.)
I’m also tempted to include something to the effect of, “Blogs are not the place for this kind of thing to be addressed. At least from a Christian perspective, this question should be discussed over dinner tables and among members of local churches struggling to live with the gospel in a world of death.” The latter sentence is no doubt true, but the former is not. Blogs are one of the ways we communicate truth (and untruth, as it were) in our world today. It is not only how we think as individuals, it is how we think together. It is part of how we instruct and encourage one another.
Having said that, I hope I don’t disappoint you in sticking to my initial impulse to say nothing directly about how to respond. Obviously I’m not following it to a tee, but I do not intend to offer any thoughts, reflections, or responses to these events per se, at least not here on a blog. I only want to make one point, and then to direct you to some other places where things have been said that I’ve found at least moderately helpful in taking it all in. Continue reading