Just 24 hours after the disposal of Osama bin Laden's earthly remains, a new debate has emerged.
Should Christians be rejoicing over the death of a human being, even if that man is the modern-day epitomy of evil?
Clergy writing for websites such as Huffington Post lament the celebrations taking place across our country saying such vulgar displays of jubilation debase us as a people, certainly if we call ourselves Christians.
No word on whether atheists or religious non-Christians are free to whoop and holler without the charge of hypocrisy being heaped upon them.
As a Christian, albeit an imperfect one, I decided to explore my own feelings about the long overdue demise of OBL. To what extent am I merely relieved? To what extent am I actually gleeful?
Frankly, it's hard to tell.
Am I sorry OBL was so deranged and deluded by visions of grandeur and a thorough perversion of his religion that he masterminded the death of nearly 3,000 people on 9/11? Sure am.
Am I sorry OBL was killed? No.
As we say in Texas, "he needed killin'." Besides, if we'd taken him alive, some bleeding-heart liberals would have whined that his constitutional rights had been violated and we'd have had to let him off on a legal technicality. Killing him removed that risk altogether.
It's a fact that once a murderer is himself killed, he can never murder again.
Is being not sorry equal to feeling joy?
In my case, it might be, and I'm willing to admit it.
I rejoice because our military men were brave and successful in their effort to track and nail OBL. I rejoice because none of our men were hurt. I rejoice because OBL will never commit another atrocity -- because we killed him. I rejoice because now OBL has the chance to meet face to face with the One Who made him and to begin his atonement for the many sins committed while on earth. I rejoice because the principle of the universe that says no one goes unpunished either here or hereafter for violating God's laws proved itself true once again.
So, yeah, I guess I do rejoice in the death of OBL.
I know what Jesus says about forgiving seven times seventy. I know what he said about turning the other cheek. I know that if he'd been here in the intervening years after 9/11 he'd have probably driven out the evil spirit that dwelt in OBL and changed the man's life for the better.
But Jesus hasn't been here all these years -- at least not in a bodily form able to meet and talk with OBL -- and I am just flawed enough in my walk with God to struggle mightily with forgiveness, especially when neither my country nor my fellow Americans asked to be attacked.
May God forgive me since I cannot find it in my heart to forgive OBL. And may God work a mighty work in OBL so that he finally sees the error of his ways.
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