Flowers and candles are seen at a temporary memorial site for the victims of the shooting spree and bomb attack in Norway, on the shore in front of Utoeya island, northwest of Oslo, July 26. Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik is in all likelyhood "insane", his lawyer said after the anti-Islam radical admitted to bomb and shooting spree in Norway on Friday that killed 76 people. (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)
I find it sad that Anders proclaims himself to be a christian when not only do his actions but also his written manifesto say something quite different.
" Does one have to believe in God or Jesus in order to become a Justiciar Knight? no, you don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian-atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy)" taken from his manifesto
Yet I do not think that focusing on that, making an effort to show that christians do not wantonly slaughter in the name of God, or Christianity is a response worth the time. All it will do is show those who have their own agendas that when something goes wrong the church disowns those who use her name.
My response, is to mourn with those who mourn, pray for those that have been impacted and give Anders himself no time at all. Close the courts, don't report in the media, dont make blogs about him (unless required to by a lecturer **smiles**), no more pictures, give him nothing that he wants, which from what I can see is the hype and buzz of being in the limelight. Try him by the laws of his country. Convict him by the word of his testimony, and then let him become a non-event by focusing all attention on those he has left bereaved, now and into the future.
While we can pray for his repentance, conversion and subsequent life change, and as christians we should be doing these things, other than that I can see no reason to validate his actions.
Hi Paulette / Happi
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your post, interesting quote from the manifesto. Seems interesting to me that Anders had a concept of a 'personal relationship' with God. Did he put himself in that category or the other? I wonder what, if any, Christian upbringing he had?
I was challenged as I read this to think about the grieving families and those who were killed. Perhaps that would be a more productive topic? To focus on the stories of hope and remember those people slain? Thanks for the reminder.
But I wonder if all the discussion around the killer increases awareness and dampens the chance of a repeat or does it fuel the wanna-be copycat killers out there? It's never something you want to ignore I suppose because that could be an injustice to the families as well. If it was my family member I would want information as how to this happened?