Church of England does not condone killing.

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/6g4tsy6

So the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that "the killing of Osama bin Laden while he was not armed has left him with a very uncomfortable feeling".

That uncomfortable in fact that it killed him. :0)

It is interesting to note however that the Roman Catholic church would not be commenting on the killing of the leader by American forces.

Would Dr Rowan Williams have also been better not comment on it?

[jackthehat]

Dr Williams is dead ?!?!

He had/has a right to comment on world events (delete as appropriate).

[pa___ul3]

I personally think the church would be better keeping out of it, the more it is made into an issue of religion the worse it will be. It would be better if it was only considered a political issue.

[I.Don No]

if the CofE does not condone killing then why are their clergy in the army?

and if someone replies that they are there to comfort the troups I would agree with that but their very presence in the forces condones killing, unless, of course, corporal padre Smith stands in front of the enemy when our forces are firing on them.

[jno]

I Don No, the army do not (in theory) kill unarmed men like Bin Laden.

[Bobbisox]

The Church should keep out of this kind of thing
and get on with inviting Mugabe to Rome and such!

[I.Don No]

jno....in theory the army does not kill any unarmed people, but it can and does happen....so my point re corporal padre Smith still applies.

the bleeping church should keep it's conk out of the public arena and only be concerned about religion.

[Davethedog]

Does anyone actualy read beyond the headlines? This is the end of the Archbishops statement.

"I don't know the full details any more than anyone else does. But I do believe that in such circumstances when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a war criminal in terms of the atrocities inflicted it is important that justice is seen to be served."

Now I might be wrong but I interpret that as got him uncomfortable or not.

[Gromit]

Surely the church is allowed to comment on moral issues. A man was murdered in front of his daughter. There are reasons why that is not necessarily a bad thing, and OBL was a very bad man, but Christian teaching say 'Thou shalt not Kill'. Nations, States and Countries kill all the time, but the church should act as their conscious or moral compass.

If it is indeed true that the Roman Catholic Church has made no comment, then that is to their shame.

[Bobbisox]

and I am sure Islamic teachings will say the same thing Gromit?

[venator]

it would have been reasonable to expect some of the people in the compound to be wearing suicide vests. I'm sure the US soldiers would be justified in shooting them in the head to preserve the lives of soldiers and terrorists alike.

[Kromovaracun]

"the church should act as their conscious or moral compass. "

Why? As an atheist (and a gay man, but that's beside the point) I'm not particularly comfortable with the government following a religious moral code.

(As another beside-the-point comment, I'm also not sure it's particularly realistic to expect states to act morally all the time and then get all up-in-arms when they don't.)

[DTCwordfan]

Dr Rowan Williams is probably the worst AB of C that we have ever had. He is totally ineffectual and the only thing he represents is the ineptness of Tony Blair and his cronies.

The sooner he goes, the better.

This comment of his is totally redundant and reflects his delusional mind about society- Bin Laden effectively murdered 3500 people.

I would also underpin my statement with:

(i) his lack of leadership on the debate of gay bishops and clergy that is splitting the Protestant communities

(ii) ditto women priests

(iii) little about paedophilia or abhorrence of what has happened in the Catholic church

(iv) Failure to enter debates about gays in Christian hotels (whether one agrees or not, there should have been leadership at his level and the local bishops suchas Chester and down here, Tim Thornton, B of Truro

(v) Failure to enter debates about symbolism such as the wearing of crosses (e.g. BA case)

(vi) Failure to counter the Muslim arguments and extremism in our society - I am not anti Muslim s 99% of them are good people but we need to see more leadership coming out of Lambeth Palace

(vii) Loss of key personnel such as the B of Durham, Tom Wright, which has been more out of frustration

(viii) the pilfering of disaffected congregations and vicars to the Church of Rome. A very mealy-mouthed response.

He is symptomatic of the demise of the Church in this country and the Queen should have him retire forthwith (and Cameron ought to propose this).

Lastly, what a scrag-bag he looks with his unshaven locks - reminds me of a Jacob sheep on a Welsh mountainside and that's where he should go, well out of harm's way.

[RATTER15]

Christians have been killing innocent people since the year. (dot) why do they all of a suddenly think they can start preaching morals to anybody, especially over a vile turd like Osama Bin Laden.

Maybe the Archbishop of Canterbury should look at the Christian past and make a few apologies on behalf of his faith before criticising others.

[Everhelpful]

I don't think Bin Laden was "Uncomfortable" when he was carrying out the atrocities.!!

[Cowtipper]

I make no apologies. That's double to the godless heathens :P. It makes me very uncomfortable too. In fact it makes me damn uncomfortable. Its like being in a chat room full of angry cats.

[trt]

The poor people who perished in the twin towers were not armed!!!!!!!

[youngmafbog]

It is political and he should keep his nose out of it.

Although who cares what a believer in Fairy tales says? The man lives in cloud cuckoo land