Upon the Death of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi

Authors note:  Many of the thoughts expressed in this week's blog are based on a similar column I wrote that was published in The Monticello News in May of 2011 upon the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed last weekend in raid led by U.S. soldiers.  Bakr al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS which is an Islamic inspired terrorist group that controlled a substantial swath of territory in Syria and Iraq and one.  Bakr al-Baghdadi was no doubt a murderous soul and a sinister individual.

It is certainly appropriate that we commend those brave members of our armed forces who carried out this raid.  The young men and women of our armed forced can never be thanked enough. Though there are certainly domestic political considerations in play in this scenario this is not the place to address those issues.  

There is within me, as I would hope that there is all Christians, a tension when I receive news such as this.  On the one hand there is a sense of triumph.  Let me state unequivocally the world is a better place without  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in it.  His death means that there is at least one less person in our world who has dedicated one's life to destruction, violence and cruelty.

At the same time there is a part of me that cannot rejoice in the death of anyone. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was evil.  I do not wish to be evil because of the presence of God's grace in my life.  To rejoice in Bakr al-Baghdadi's death is to make me like him and that is not who I wish to be.  An overarching teaching of Christ is that we respond to others out of the content of our character not from the content of their character.  So it is that I live with the tension of conflicted emotions.


What I can say is that last week-end righteousness in some small way dealt a blow to evil. We have shown that evil does not have the last word.  The world remains on notice that those who would oppress others will not endure and righteousness will prevail.  That said, evil is still a real, living breathing presence in our world and we must forever vigilant against it.  As we declare in our baptismal ritual we must "Resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves."

These things said, while this event may well make for a better world it does not solve the myriad of issues that face in our greater society.  There is still much work to doin our homeland and in other places in our world before God's perfect reign and justice will dwell in all the earth.

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