Christian Faith and the Oslo Massacre.

This is being composed a few days after the massacre of eight people in a bombing in downtown Oslo, Norway, and sixty-eight young people at a youth camp on an island not far from that city. The destructive bomb was made of fertilizer packed in a car near a government centre in the city. The explosion is thought to have been directed at the prime minister and also a cover for the more horrifying tragedy at the camp. The young people at the camp were attending a political training experience sponsored by the prime minister's Labour Party. He expected to give an address there the following day and was at home preparing his speech when the bomb exploded near his office.

 As far as is yet known, just one lone man, a 32 year old Norwegian, Anders Breivik, carried out both acts of extreme terrorism. In a long diatribe running to some 1500 pages online, the self-confessed perpetrator made the ostentatious claim that it was his Christian duty to do this. His intent was to shock his own country and all of Europe into the dangers of Islamist immigration. He wanted to initiate a revolution to purge Europe of an Islamic invasion. His rambling message defined himself as a 21^st century Crusader determined to form a new battalion of the Knights Templar to free Christian Europe from Islam.

When Breivik appeared in court six days after the massacre, he sought to have all the media broadcast his message. The court denied him the privilege. Later the presiding judge briefed the public on what had occurred at the hearing. He said that the accused had admitted committing the crimes, but pleaded not guilty. Breivik  believed his acts had been justified. He had to do it to save Norway and all of Europe from Islam. He regarded what he had done as an act of war.

Not since the invasion of the German Nazis during World War II has Norway been victimized by such horrendous events. Breivik’s lawyer has reported that his client is a “very cold person,” used drugs and is probably insane. It is not yet clear whether he will plead insanity when the trial begins.

Is this an expression of genuine faith or is it a form of excessive ideological fundamentalism only peripherally associated with the Christian tradition?

It is true that some intense forms of religious ecstasy can reach the borders of insanity. It is also true that a political or economic ideology can have the intensity of a religious conviction sanctioned by God. Many Christian fundamentalists in Europe, Australia and North America have expressed attitudes against Islamic immigrants closely related to those of Breivik. Multiculturalism and racism too can be as extreme and as religiously sanctioned as any Christian belief.

As the Norwegian Prime Minister said, it is not a crime to think or to have such destructive beliefs as Breivik. It is criminal to act on them.

Even Jesus was charged with being possessed by an evil spirit. Mark 3:21 reports that his family came looking for him because people were saying that he was out of his mind. In biblical terms, Breivik appears to be possessed of a demon. He perpetrated this tragedy by letting his demon drive him to mass murder.

In the Bible Joshua 8:1-29 cites an instance of mass murder that was also part of Israel’s ancient tradition. Was this really done at God’s bidding as related in the biblical record? (8:1, 18) The poet who composed the bitter verses of Psalm 137 certainly thought that it was God’s will for Israel to destroy its enemies Edom and Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. These are difficult passages to interpret from a progressive point of view.

The God I believe in is compassionate and caring for all people, not vicious and immoral. It is wrong for anyone - Christian, Moslem or Jew - to turn from belief the bloodshed.

The people of Norway are in mourning. They have flooded the square in front of the national cathedral in Oslo with all sorts of memorials for the dead. The prime minister has avowed that this vicious act of madness will not deter his country from being an open, intercultural, interreligious democracy that welcomes people of all races and religious convictions. It is to be hoped – however faint that be that hope – that no other nation will suffer a similar act of terrorism.

Thanks be to God.