· Micah 3:5-12
· Psalm 43 (3)
· 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
· Matthew 23:1-12
I'm not going to preach the lectionary today. Lectionary 31 will still be there in three years; today I want to talk about something important that happened last Thursday. Hopefully you're all aware that Moammar Gaddafi died on October 20. One person said to me "he didn't die, he was shot." Yes. Well, he was shot, and then he died of being shot.
When I read the news, I always keep my prayer list in mind, and look for people I need to include. I can't pray for everyone, or I'd have to quit my day job, but I try to include those who are most in need. So immediately I thought I must pray for Gaddafi; and my second thought was no, I shouldn't, for two reasons.
The second reason is that Gaddafi himself probably wouldn't want my prayers. Somehow I don't think he would have valued prayers from a fat, corn-fed, non-veil-wearing, non-Muslim Canadian woman. Especially since we bombed him and killed his son and three grandchildren. But then I thought, either he's saved now and he'd accept the prayers after all, or he's in the outer darkness gnashing his teeth and he needs all the prayers he can get.
The first reason is much more stupid. I thought people would judge me if I prayed for Gaddafi. Now that's very stupid because obviously I don't need to tell anyone who's on my prayer list; besides, it serves me right, because I've judged people for praying for things I don't find acceptable. More to the point, the Master told us "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:44-45). And verse 45 continues "for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." Besides, Gaddafi was no enemy of mine, nor did he persecute me or anyone connected to me. Certainly he persecuted some, but I personally have no reason to regard him as an enemy.
I decided therefore to pray for Moammar Gaddafi. So first I needed to find out more about him, and particularly what we accused him of.
The first thing I found out was that he wasn't just shot, he was tortured. He was 69 years old and fell into the hands of a bunch of younger men who beat him and abused him, and then shot him. No trial whatsoever. His corpse was then treated with disrespect, being displayed in a grocery freezer where people are taking photos with their cellphones. As well, his son Moatassem was killed and displayed, though with more respect. This is the third of Gaddafi's seven sons to be killed in this rebellion. The defence minister Abu Bakr Younis was also killed and displayed with Gaddafi and his son.
Gaddafi's third son Saadi, a professional soccer player refugeed in Niger, issued a communication through his lawyer stating that he "is shocked and outraged by the vicious brutality which accompanied the murders of his father and brother. The contradictory statements issued by the NTC excusing these barbaric executions and the grotesque abuse of the corpses make it clear that no person affiliated with the former regime will receive a fair trial in Libya, nor will they receive justice for crimes committed against them." It's hard to disagree with him.
So first of all, the people who tortured, killed, and dishonoured the corpses of these three men need prayer. They need the Lord's mercy to bring them repentance for their crimes and forgiveness for those they murdered. No doubt they suffered greatly under the Gaddafi regime; nonetheless the Lord told all of us equally, Muslim, Christian or Jew, "thou shalt not kill." And the Lord didn't add it to the Ten Commandments, but I'm pretty sure if you ask him, he'd tell you "neither shalt thou torture and ridicule someone before killing him, and take videos with your cellphone, and dishonour his corpse."
Gaddafi, like all dictators, was only dangerous through the machinery of the state. In person, he was an old man who couldn't defend himself. His defenders were beaten and dead, there was no one to help him. Once apprehended he was no threat to anyone; he could have been imprisoned and tried. Like Saadi, I don't believe he would have received a fair trial, and most likely he would have been executed anyway, but it wasn't for those men who caught him to judge him. The same person who told me Gaddafi "didn't die, he was shot" also added that "he deserved it." But this is not for us to judge, nor is it for his captors to execute him. Only the Lord may judge him, as he will also judge those who tortured and killed him, and just the same he will judge those of us who are passing judgment. Only the Lord is our judge.
Now as to Gaddafi himself, most likely he was a psychopath. Many people have speculated that he might have been bipolar, schizophrenic, or some other psychiatric issue. A psychopath easily looks like any of the above, but one characteristic of psychopaths is strange speech dysfunctions, which Gaddafi was very much known for. According to Dr. Robert Hare, the leading expert on psychopathy today, this speech dysfunction comes from a lack of segregation between the two halves of the brain, so that speech is controlled by two conflicting processes. For anyone who has met a psychopath, the speech pattern is the most visible symptom of psychopathy. And our second clue that Gaddafi was probably a psychopath is that he admired Mao Zedong, the most destructive psychopath the world has ever known. No decent individual can look at the life of Mao and conceive any respect for him.
That being said, psychopaths are not insane. Psychiatrically and legally, they are sane and responsible for their actions. They are very well aware of the suffering they inflict on others, and they like it that way. They feel no remorse, guilt or compassion. Therefore it is my personal opinion that psychopaths cannot be saved, because they are deliberately cruel and cannot repent. Yet what is impossible for man is possible for God, and for all I know, by the grace and mercy of the Lord, Gaddafi may have repented his sins and been saved. Perhaps Gaddafi is now among the saints in heaven, praising and glorifying the Lord with the choirs of angels.
What exactly were Gaddafi's sins on earth? He created an authoritarian regime with brutal repression against dissension. That's one thing at least that our rulers haven't done very recently... though they've all done it at least until the 1970s. What else? He financed international terrorism. So do the US. He trained and helped establish other despots. So do the US. He was wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. So would George W. Bush and some other US officials, if the ICC was doing its job. He tortured prisoners. So do the US. In fact Libya under Gaddafi was the torture contractor for the US; since US laws forbid torture, the US would simply send prisoners to Gaddafi to have the torturing done for them. Gaddafi had weapons of mass destruction. So do the US. Gaddafi was in fact an ally of the US in the "War on Terror." Gaddafi was a good buddy to the US. Obama personally shook hands with him. And whatever the US do, we, their lackeys, have a hand in as well.
But here are some things Gaddafi did for the greater good which the US and ourselves certainly haven't. He fought against imperialism and worked tirelessly to establish Arabic and African unions of states. He paid reparations to the victims of some of his more publicized acts of terrorism – the US certainly haven't paid any reparations to the descendants of slaves or to the millions they have victimized in other countries. He invited UN weapons inspectors to inventory his weapons of mass destructions and then had them destroyed of his own initiative; something else the US hasn't done. He turned Libya into a developed country with education, health care and a serious effort at proper housing for all, and one of the highest standards of living in Africa and the Arab world, and he did it without any foreign debt whatsoever, whereas the US as we know are not solvent. And what we Canadians should most remember about Gaddafi, in that it touches us the most, is that it was he who ran up the price of oil and started all of OPEC on the road to ridiculous prosperity. We, Canada, are a member of OPEC and owe our wealth to a huge extent to the high price of petroleum in the 20th century. And this was Gaddafi's doing.
All of us here, in this room, are too rich. We may be part of the 99%, but as the world goes we are the 1%. We are in fact the top of the 1%. We are disgustingly rich. We are so rich we are eating ourselves to death. We have forgotten how to do anything the least bit strenuous. We have forgotten how to feed and clothe ourselves. We are greedy and whiny. Everyone in this room is a camel trying to whine his way through the eye of a needle. And this ridiculous wealth that we enjoy, we owe it in great part to Gaddafi. We benefited from him, we shook hands with him, we hid behind him, and then when he was in trouble, we betrayed him, kicked him when he was down, and cheered his murderers. Perhaps Gaddafi was a "mad dog" as Reagan called him, and perhaps we should pick our friends better, but certainly we are all snakes in the grass. Today when I look around me and I see my nice car with gas in it, my warm, bright apartment with hot and cold running water, power, indoor toilet, my musical instruments, my tropical plants, my spoiled little dog who eats fresh meat every day, my many clothes I don't even wear, everything seems to be whispering to me "thirty pieces of silver."
So is this a sermon, or a political rant? Where is God in all this?
Remember Jesus and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11)? The Teacher said "let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone." Who among us can be the first to throw a stone at Gaddafi? Not only is there none of us without sin, but we are all eating the fruits of Gaddafi's labours. We are all accomplices with Gaddafi, not only because we, in supporting the US, have a hand in every sin Gaddafi is accused of, but even more because we owe him our disgusting wealth. And this is what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery. "Has no one condemned you? Then neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
None of us are in a position to judge Moammar Gaddafi. And neither can we say that the Lord will condemn him. Therefore it is righteous to pray for his soul, and for our sins. So in the end, I wrote a little prayer for Gaddafi.
Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Bestower of peace, the Forgiver, the All-Knowing, the Judge, the Equitable. Lord, I commend to you the souls of my brother Moammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, who was returned to your infinite kindness and compassion on October 20, of his sons Moatassem, Saif and Khamis, of his grandchildren, and of his other associates who have died in this war. In your mercy I trust that you will grant them repentance for the sins they have committed against you and against their fellow man, and welcome them to your forgiveness and eternal rest. I pray that you grant also repentance and peace to those who persecuted them, and to those who were persecuted by them, so that Libya may rise from the rubble into a country of peace and brotherhood for all. And finally I pray that we who are benefiting from Gaddafi's life work may remember our place in the world and those who suffer while we wallow in plenty. May we repent our wealth and our judging and work for peace on earth and for your glory, who lives and reigns now and forever. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
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