Saddam Hussein : Can We Do the Christian Thing?

The Christian message says that we should judge not that we be not judged. What does this mean in the case of someone like Saddam Hussein who has committed horrendous atrocities?

I think it means recognising that if we had been given the job of maintaining authoritarian control over the warring parties within Iraq, we would have either committed much the same kinds of atrocities as Hussein or we would have failed in the job. The crimes were crimes inherent in the job he was asked to do, not in the man himself.

Aren’t those who asked him to do that job equally responsible for his sins? This includes those within Iraq who supported him, and also political and business leaders in other countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia, who helped or supported him in one way or another. In fact we could say they bear an even greater responsibility. At least Hussein had the guts to commit the atrocities himself, rather than employ a deniable intermediary.

And yet those who asked Hussein to do this job will not hang with him.

Has Hussein not become a scapegoat for the sins of us all. The sin being our fear of freedom, i.e. anarchy, i.e. the surrender of authority over others.

Now that Hussein has no power he will no longer need to commit atrocities. But those who are afraid of freedom may support another intermediary like him.

The government of the United States repeatedly claims that they are the world’s champions of Freedom, and yet increasingly they enact laws to try to monitor and control the behaviour of their citizens.

Even if we cannot find it in our hearts to do the Christian thing and forgive Saddam Hussein, let us at least vow to be less like him and catch ourselves when we start to try to tell others what to do.

Let those who say they believe in Freedom put their money where their mouth is and renounce their authority over others.