Harry Potter and God

[Carol]

Kemper aksed:
> | I cut out Potioncat's excellent suggestion in order to ask  Christians other people of religion a question: what are your | thoughts regarding the circumstances of Dumbledore's death and how does that align with the tenets of your faith?  
> 
Lee responded:
> Maybe I'm not understanding what you seek, but it doesn't do anything. Dumbledore died, in a manner of speaking, in the line of duty.  It was his job to prepare Harry for what was to come.  <snip> Dumbledore, because he was desperate to use the resurrection stone to see his sister, didn't take time to think of the possible consequences and shortened his life so he was unable to enter the promised land, as it were, the time of Voldemort's downfall.
> 
> Hope this makes some sense.

Carol responds:

I'm not sure, but I think that Kemper may be asking what Christians and others who hold strong religious beliefs think about the way Dumbledore died, especially his choice to be killed by a particular person rather than his shortening his (long) life by using the Resurrection Stone. We know that Dumbledore was already dying from the curse on the ring, which Snape said could not be contained for longer than about a year. We know that DD drank the horrible potion, further weakening himself, which might, in combination with the ring curse, have caused him to die that very night if he could not get Snape's help, which Draco's arrival on the tower made impossible. (We see DD getting so weak that he can no longer stand, slipping down the wall. Amycus remarks that "Dumby" looks like he's dying.) Dumbledore is wandless and helpless, and Draco, though he can't bring himself to kill DD, has brought in Death Eaters whose only cause for hesitation is that Draco is supposed to do it. If Snape hadn't entered when he did, almost certainly the Carrows or Fenrir Greyback would have done it. (Even Yaxley might have yielded to necessity rather than insisting that Draco do it.) And then Snape enters and, unless Snape breaks his word to both DD and LV, not to mention breaking the Unbreakable Vow, which would probably kill him, DD's death becomes inevitable. But it's still *his choice* to die by Snape's hand rather than Draco's or one of the real DEs. We know his reasons, all but one of which he told to Snape (and that reason has literally gone out the window, but he still begs Snape to kill him--though everyone else present assumes that he's begging for his life).

Dumbledore chooses to die by the hand of a trusted associate, a coup de grace and/or euthanasia rather than be murdered (and just possibly pass the power of the Elder Wand to the DE who killed him). Whether he could have chosen to die from the combination or the curse and the potion, allowing weakness to overcome him, I don't know. He seems not to have wanted that to happen ("Severus, please!), perhaps either way, ring or potion, he'd have been killed by Voldemort and perhaps that would make Voldemort the master of the Elder Wand, or a valid contender in the wand's view, even though Draco has Disarmed DD. (Either that or he's desperately making sure that Snape survives to follow through with his--DD's--plans, which can't happen if Snape falls dead from the broken UV.

Is that what you mean by "the circumstances of Dumbledore's death," Kemper? Are you asking how a Christian or other religious person views Dumbledore's choice to die in that particular way rather than in the various other ways available to him (dying at the teeth of Fenrir Greyback being clearly the least desirable option)? He didn't have the choice of not dying--he was going to die no matter what--but he did choose the way in which he died. Are you asking whether that particular choice amounts to suicide in the eyes of a religious person? Or are you concerned about the implications for Snape, who's forced by his own word and by circumstances to kill a helpless old man because the consequences of not doing so would be worse? I think we all agree that Snape isn't a murderer, but he certainly performed a kind of assisted suicide. DD was going to die, anyway, but he chose the method and the man who killed him. And Snape, too, has a choice, but a terrible one. In terms of the story itself, setting aside religious implications, it was the right choice.

Carol, who hasn't offered any views on the matter because she's just trying to clarify the question