With New Book, Cardinal Addresses Evil In The World
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's Francis Cardinal George disputes Osama bin Laden's use of religion as justification for terrorist attacks.
The Cardinal sat down with CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine to talk about a new book he's written, "God in Action." It talks about how faith in God can address the challenges of the world -- and what happens when there's a total separation of church and state.
"We've seen states that have banished God from public life -- the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Mao's China -- we know what those states look like," George says.
But at the same time, the Cardinal says, a distorted sense of God can have similar consequences.
"Is it true that God would bless a terrorist attack on the United States? No, a God who would do that is a false God," he says. "A false sense of God can lead people into violence, so therefore that should be addressed."
As for the Christian principle of forgiveness, the Cardinal says, that only goes so far.
"You have somebody who, from a moral perspective, is monstrous, and how do you come to a kind of forgiveness, at least to the extent that you say in his death you confide him to God's mercy," George says.
"I wouldn't want to be standing before God if I were Osama bin Laden, Hitler or Mao or any of those people," the Cardinal says.
George has no problem with the raid which led to bin Laden's death, citing the biblical notion that he who lives by the sword will die by it.
