The gongs of celebration resonating throughout the realm of social media and the crowds frantically waving American flags all proclaimed the good news. Osama bin Laden, the supposed mastermind behind the attacks on 9/11 is dead (I say “supposed” because the FBI has yet to admit the fact. Strange). Some of the scenes looked like a patriotic orgy that might put Mardi Gras to shame. Through it all, the talking heads in the media did what they do best: repeat a bunch of words over and over again, combining them into vague phrases, telling us that this was a great moment for the United States. Terrorists, watch out. The United States can reach out and kill an old man who is dependent on dialysis.
Granted, you probably have about 10 years until we can actually find you. But seriously. Watch out.
Finding the Lever of Justice
Anyone who reacts to this news with anything other than a simple, solemn nod in recognition of justice should take a step back. Because it was justice. Deserved justice. And that’s all it was.
But it certainly wasn’t swift justice. And it certainly wasn’t isolated justice.
The US bumbled around for almost 10 years, trying to find the lever to turn on the electric chair. Along the way, they managed to pick the pockets of everyone in the viewing gallery to the tune of trillions of dollars.
Thousands of live were lost on 9/11. But over 5,000 soldiers have been lost since then. The blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, shed by US weapons, cry out as we try to ignore them in our faux-victory march. Barely any traces exist of the Christian communities in Iraq that existed before the war, a beachhead of the Christian mission gone.
And we have now finally killed this one man. Who, by the way, was hiding in a country whose dictator we give billions and billions of dollars in aid (bribe) money.
And we’re proud of this? We’re celebrating this? This means the US is awesome?
Justice. A solemn nod in it’s direction. God is not mocked. Men will reap what they sow.
But everyone deserves justice of some kind. And what seeds has the US really been sowing?
Will we celebrate when justice finally comes our way?
The Fall of Enemies
We didn’t win anything. There is no strategic victory. Nothing much has changed, other than Obama’s re-election prospects. It’s just a poor excuse to thump our chests and pretend we won some victory. A nice emotional high that we will come down from quickly, and then demand something else we can shoot up so we don’t go into withdrawal. Perhaps a renewed enthusiasm for two futile wars will do the trick.
Like a junkie, we think this is good news. And those who don’t join in with the ecstatic quivering of nationalistic joy will be demonized in the public squire. Like clockwork, demonization of the “other” will commence.
But what do the Scriptures say?
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
(Proverbs 24:17-18)
And:
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
(Ezekiel 18:23)
But what about the imprecatory psalms, the great prayers of rejoicing that thanked God for saving Israel and destroying her enemies? The rejoicing did not come from the deaths and destruction themselves, but from the salvation that came through it. Israel was right to rejoice and thank God after being led out of Egypt. But if they had turned around and then laughed and gave the collective finger to all the Egyptians who had lost their firstborn children, how would God have reacted?
The death of Osama bin Laden brings no salvation or deliverance to the United States of America. It was a simple act of justice, poorly executed. There is nothing to rejoice about in this. Show solemn approval? Of course. It is appropriate to approve of the execution of a serial killer. It is not appropriate to heckle the mother of the condemned after the execution.
President Obama said:
We are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history.
If this is really the story of our nation, may God have mercy on us all.