O Lord,
You know I'm not much for formal prayers, and I apologize for my laxity
with even informal prayers. I am not among the most diligent of Your
children in communicating with You, as You well know.
But stressful times call for desperate measures, and so I'm publicly
offering up this prayer to You.
I am praying for the soul of Osama Bin Laden. It doesn't even matter
whether or not he is connected with the September 11 2001 attack - I'm
asking You to grant him a change of heart. I ask it in the name of all
the innocent people in the world of any religion - for innocent
people everywhere are in grave danger these days.
Surely, Lord, if You could move the heart of Saul of Tarsus, one of the
greatest persecutors of peace-loving people of his day, You can move
the heart of Osama Bin Laden. Just as Saul of Tarsus became St. Paul
of the New Testament and converted many to follow the path of peace, I
am begging You to convert Osama Bin Laden to become St. Osama. Let him
preach peaceful means of addressing problems. Let him understand that
killing or injuring unsuspecting civilians is not the way of Allah, that
such actions are anathema to the will of Allah. And let him convince
others of these truths.
I'm not asking his conversion to any specific religion, Lord - in fact
he would have the most influence for good as a Muslim. I am asking that
You move his heart so that he preaches non-violence. For his voice
would have a far greater impact on the Islamic enemies of peace than my
voice or that of any westerner. And I pray that You move the hearts of
others high in terrorist circles to the same end.
And I also pray for those in my own country, Lord, especially our
leaders, that we may also learn these lessons and not engage in acts
against civilians of any country, race, creed or cultural heritage.
And should Bin Laden's conversion occur, O Lord, I ask You to move our
hearts to forgive him any crimes, to leave him free, that he may do Your
work more effectively than he could in prison.
May we all learn the wisdom in the words of Your servant, Martin Luther
King Jr., who wrote:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do
that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred, only love can do
that.
And even though this prayer is obviously motivated by fear and blatant
self-preservation, Lord, I ask you to overlook my deficiencies to think
of all Your children.
To this end I most fervently pray, O Lord. Only You can save us from
ourselves now as we stand on the brink of an abyss of ever-escalating
violence.
-Steffan O'Sullivan
I wrote this after pondering the various scenarios
involving Osama Bin Laden. Consider:
- He can continue as he is, spewing hatred, preaching terrorism,
distorting Islamic beliefs. This cannot be good for world peace.
- He can be imprisoned in the West. Unfortunately, history tells us
this will do little to deter his followers - in fact, his cause will probably
grow as disenfranchised radical Muslims see him as unjustly imprisoned.
This cannot be good for world peace.
- He can be killed. It doesn't matter how - assassination, bombing,
execution after fair trial - any of them will make him a martyr and
swell the ranks of those eager to continue his policies.
This cannot be good for world peace.
- He can die a natural death. Well, yes, but he's young - younger
than I am, in fact - and he's probably got more than twenty years to live,
barring being killed. It's true that people do die of natural causes
at his age, but if it happens there's no way his followers will believe
he wasn't assassinated. This brings us back to the previous possibility.
So actually the only scenario involving Bin Laden that I can see that
would be good for world peace is his conversion to a more tolerant state
of mind. Hence this prayer, since I have no other way to try to get him
to that state of mind. If you know of such a way, please implement it!
And if you allow even the slightest possibility that prayer might work,
then please pray for his conversion toward non-violence. Please. At
worst, it can't hurt ... at best, it could save us all.
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