Ding Dong the Bad Man's Dead...

It is less than 24 hours since Osama bin Laden’s death. Perhaps like walking into school that morning when I was in fourth grade and remembering the exact outfit I was wearing and the tone of light that hit the trees as our music teacher told my mother and me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, I will remember what I was wearing and who I was with when I heard the news of Osama bin Laden’s death.

I’m not a Twitterer. I pretty much stick to Gmail, Facebook, and texting (when my phone decides to like me), but even my limited social networking sites were gushing with people’s reactions to the news. For an interesting look at how this affected media sites and statistics, look at this link: http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/02/technology/osama_bin_laden_internet_traffic/

It seemed that the reactions leapfrogged each other. There were shouts of “Go America!” and “We got him!” followed by arguments over who should get the credit (Obama, Bush, or the Marines), followed by “I’m disgusted.”

My own thoughts are confused.

Osama bin Laden is a bad man. If you really want to argue that point, well…then I’m afraid we’re going to have to agree to disagree. Even if you ignore the 9/11 attacks, and even if you ignore the acts of terrorism he has committed in his own country and in other nations across the globe, you can’t ignore the fact that it has been one of his sole missions to spread hatred. Yes, specifically against the West and capitalism and non-Islamic peoples. But again, even if you ignore that the hatred is targeted mainly at the lifestyles of people who live in countries like the United States, the fact that he is trying to cause dissention and fear at all makes him a person who is doing something terrible. There is enough suffering in the world without someone going out and intentionally spreading more fear.

Not only that, but the hatred against western nations has provoked a backlash—a hatred (stemming from fear of) Islamic nations by western peoples. It is ugly the way that people, specifically in the US, view Islam as a religion, and the people who practice it. As a Christian, I of course do not believe or agree with Islam. However, as a Christian, I believe that one of the most important things Jesus ever said was to love your neighbor as yourself. This does not mean agreeing with them. This does mean respecting them, and it is applicable to any controversy in any country in any time.

So I feel comfortable in concluding that Osama bin Laden is a bad man—for the crimes he has committed against various peoples, for the malice and ill-will he has intentionally spread across the globe, and for the resultant repercussion of hatred that was a natural if entirely regrettable response.

For these reasons, I must also conclude that the world is better off without Osama bin Laden in it. And while I will not say I am “glad he’s dead,” since above all I think it makes me sad and sick that he felt it was necessary to do the kinds of things he did, I will say that I am glad that his negative influence on the world is greatly diminished, and that he personally can no longer continue to hurt anyone.

I don’t know what will happen next. I hope only good things come of this. But I think it is important to remember that what makes us human is more our compassion than it is our hatred. I am not sorry that Osama bin Laden was killed, and I thank the soldiers who were there and had to pull the trigger. It is simply my sincerest hope that with his death comes reconciliation with the people groups that have been held in tension, rather than gloating or obscene celebration.

I think that some men need to be killed. But I think the day that it becomes easy to kill a man is the day that we’ve lost something very valuable.