A few weeks ago in Sunday School, the assistant teacher asked this question: "How do we celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, yet still act as Christians?" After hearing several responses, I decided to speak about how I've been feeling ever since the news came in that the world's most wanted and dangerous man was shot and killed.
I was glued to the tv at the very begining. I was watching the local news while feeding Elliot, when the anchor said that President Obama would speak to the nation shortly. I didn't think much of it until the anchor said that it was unusal for the president (or any) to speak to the nation late on a Sunday night. I couldn't think of any reason why he would do this, but I decided to stick around to see what he would say. Then I fed my Facebook addiction by reading people's statuses just as I do 250 million times a day. A former classmate of mine, whom I have no doubt will have a great political future one day, posted "I wonder what my president has to say". After several comments about what people thought it could be, gas, Khadafi, or the war, someone mentioned Geraldo Rivera calling someone a "bastard" on tv. I didn't give it much thought except I hoped he wasn't calling the president a bastard, though that is no reason to speak to the nation about being called a mean name. I then turned my attention back to the news, where the anchor said it was still unclear what Obama would be adressing, except it had something to do with bin Laden. Back to Facebook I went with my status reading "oh crap, did we finally capture bin Laden?" Little to my knowledge that it was about to be so much more than a capture. I trust CNN out of all the national news stations, so I left the local news and turned to ch. 34. Below the yellow box that read in big bold BREAKING NEWS, simply said "Osama bin Laden is dead". My chin began to have carpet burns, because of my literal jaw dropping reaction. "April Fools Day was a month ago," I thought to myself. The man who is responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 innocent Americans, not to mention hundreds of people in other countries is dead? Hardly anyone knew of this man in the states prior to September 11, 2001, and soon after he was an (unwanted) household name. We could not find this over 6 foot tall bearded man for nearly 10 years. Reports came in that he was living in the desert in a cave in Afganistan, or that he was already dead and we were chasing after a ghost. None of that was true. He was living in a so called mansion, in broad daylight in Pakistan, not far from their capital city. Navy SEALS rushed the compound and after 40 minutes of firefighting, America's Boogeyman was shot in the head, just above the left eye. I became drunk with Facebook statuses, posting several of my own, and reading others. Some made jokes about what to do with his body, others were simply happy that this man was dead. Back on CNN, they showed the outside of the White House where a handful of tourists were waving flags, cheering, and chanting "USA!" over and over. As the night went on, the handful of cheerers ballooned up to hundreds of people rejoicing. As my shock began to wear off, happiness started to take its place. This man who took away our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, children, grandparents, friends, lovers, is gone. Gone forever. I didn't know personally anyone who perished in either New York, Shanksville, or D.C., but I was happy that their death had been avenged. Happy for their familes who can breathe just a little bit easier. Then President Obama came on the television and made his short noticed speech that will no doubt be in the history books, confronted his American people, and said "Osama bin Laden is dead." "Justice has been served." After his carefully worded speech, the celebration made its way from D.C. to the streets of New York City. Reporters were interviewing people who were in the buildings when the planes hit, or rushed to help save people by pulling them out of the debris, and the families of the victims. As I was hearing these people speak about what they encountered, and what this moment meant for them and their families, something was happening to me. My smile started to fade, my singing of the national anthem with the folks on tv ceased. I started to feel weird. Queasy. Like my midsection was removed from my body yet I was still alive and breathing. I couldn't explain what I was feeling, but whatever it was, it didn't feel right. Then it hit me. "A man is dead. A man is dead and we're celebrating. A man is dead, and we're celebrating?" What were these thoughts that were suddenly going through my mind? "But this is Osama bin Laden, of course we have to celebrate his death....don't we?" I started to feel more uneasy. "I don't think this is right. I shouldn't say anything because I might be the only one with this thought, and I don't want anyone thinking I'm un-American." Hours passed since the breaking news, and everyone around the world knew the details surrounding his demise. I had to sleep. Elliot would soon wake me for a late night feeding, and I had like to get some type of rest before I heard him shifting in his crib, waking himself up.
Later that day, I went on Facebook, and I saw a staus saying that they didn't think it was right to celebrate a man's death, even if it was the most dangerous man in the world. "Well thank God I am not the only one who thinks this!" I thought to myself. I scrolled down to other statuses, some who quoted scriptures from the Bible renouncing the rejoicing of one's death. Still I decided not to say anything. Though later, I posted a status about being happy that he himself could not hurt our nation again. Days passed, and the name Osama bin Laden was spoken as much as we drew breath. Just as I started to get tired of it, and a little aggrevated that hardly anyone was mentioning the tornados and its victims in the south, I came upon this article on CNN.com. Leaders from all sorts of religions and demoninations had all felt that we should not rejoice the death of bin Laden. The sun began to part the clouds of my mind and heart that was within me when I felt ashamed of celebrating. It was comforting to know I was among thousands, millions, who thought this kind of celebration was wrong. I was not alone.
So back at Sunday School, I raised my hand. "After all the news reports and pictures/videos of people in celebration, we still need to remember that a man is dead." That's how you have to look at it in the very beginning. A man is dead, and Americans are celebrating. How unsettling is that? I then said that after you realized that a man had met his death, you look at who the man was, and what he did. Yes he was the definition of evil, but again, a man. A man who had a family. Wives, children, brothers and sisters. People loved him. Terrorists and other radical Muslims like himself, yes, but still loved. Believe it or not, he was one of God's creations. We should not even begin to say it was a bad creation, because God makes no mistakes. He has a plan for everyone, whether they turn out to be good or bad people. If we celebrate bin Laden's death, then we are no different than he was in the sense of the disregarding of life. We have stooped to his level by rejoicing in the death of others. So what can we do? We're certainly not going to mourn the man. No, I couldn't do that. We should celebrate that justice was served, not that a man is dead. A man who had given his thoughts before mine, spoke of forgiveness. I hadn't even thought of forgiving bin Laden. But I said that some of the survivors and family members of the victims of 9/11 could not find closure in this man's death. Yet forgiveness is the key to closure. I can't bring myself to forgive someone who had hurt me and brought never ending pain to me. But the Bible teaches us to forgive those who had trespassed against us. Just like a child who is told to eat the very vegetables he loathes, we must forgive Osama bin Laden, because it is good for ourselves. Forgiving him won't make everything all sunshine and rainbows, but it would please the Father that His children forgave the very man who instilled fear into our lives, and changed forever the way we travel by airplane. If we want to be more like the Son, we must forgive. And not only does forgiving bin Laden rest well within our soul, it does the same for bin Laden. It releases that grip of hatred we have on him. It won't mean he'll go to Heaven and have a seat next to God Himself, it actually weakens him because he can not scare us anymore. We took that power away from him.
As I said, we should celebrate that justice was done, but not a man's death. However we can't be blind to the fact that Osama bin Laden was not the only radical Muslim. There will be retaliation. There might even be a successor, either one far more radical and dangerous, or one who could not live up to the evilness of bin Laden himself. Christians who fought the feelings of celebration should rest easy knowing they were not the only ones thinking it is wrong to celebrate death. That's what the devil wants us to do. But we serve a mighty God who gives us the power forgiveness and understanding. Though we act like we know everything sometimes, it pleases God to see that He has children who follows the teaching of Jesus the Christ and forgives. Celebrate justice, not death.
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