Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days, you would be aware that after ten years of searching and invasions and war, Osama bin Laden has finally been tracked down and killed.
Unsurprisingly, this has led to an outpouring of celebration across the Western world, especially in the United States. Twitter went crazy with tweets talking about how wonderful this is, my Facebook was plastered with posts celebrating the news.
Now, I want to preface this by saying I am in no way unhappy that Osama is dead. I think he lived by the sword, and died by the sword. He was, both directly and indirectly, responsible for countless death and suffering, and I believe that justice has been served. While I don’t think it will mean a sudden miraculous end to the “War on Terror”, it certainly is a big psychological blow and a step in the right direction.
But, and yes there is a but here, I have to admit that I have been slightly discomforted by the tone of the response I have seen. Something about the concept of taking such joy in the death of another human being, even one as downright despicable as Osama, makes me uneasy and I have been trying to work out why. I have been asking myself, as a Christian should I be happy he is dead.
After a fair bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that, for me at least, that this event should be a time for reflection rather than out and out celebration, and from that reflection came the following thoughts. The are rather random, and I am not really trying to advance any particular agenda, they are just what this even provoked in me, and I hope that they may be food for thought for you, whether you agree or not.
If we become like them, the terrorists have won
One of the themes of J.R.R Tolkien’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings is the idea that any victory that results from using the methods of the enemy will, in fact, be a defeat. The heroes could have used the One Ring to defeat Sauron, but in doing so would have merely replaced one tyrant with another.
The temptation in fighting an enemy like Al Qaeda is to adopt their philosophy that the end justifies the means, and be willing to suspend human rights and the conventions of war in fighting them. I don’t believe we are simply fighting for survival, we are fighting to defend a set of ideals, the ideals of equality and freedom that are anathema to totalitarian regimes everywhere, whether theocratic or communist or fascist.
I think, in general, that the West has done a good job of maintaining these ideals and not stooping to Al Qaeda’s level, but Abu Gharib and the like show that it must be constantly guarded against.
The thing that concerns me is that in these celebrations we seem to be becoming like that which we are trying to overcome. If you put footage of the streets of Gaza when a successful suicide bomber fulfils his mission against footage from the parties in front of the White House at the news of Osama’s list, the similarity would be eerie. The only difference would be one group shouting “Allah Akbar” and the other “U-S-A, U-S-A”.
If we end up becoming like them, Osama has won. That was always his goal, to use acts of terror to break down the will of the Western world to stick to their core values and beliefs.
Whatever the provocation, let us continue to show that we are better than that. That’s why, as much as my first thought would have been to bury the body sown inside a pig skin, I applaud the fact the US government buried him at sea. Al Qaeda would have not shown such respect for other cultures.
All humans are of value
As much his acts were incredibly evil, the unavoidable fact we must face is that Osama is just as much a creation of God as any of us, and as valuable in His eyes. It is hard for us to comprehend, we don’t want to think about that, but the Scriptural truth is inescapable, no matter how much we would prefer to forget it.
Osama would have had a mother who loved him, a family who cared about him. There will be people grieving for him right now. God had a plan put in place specifically for Osama’s life. Instead of taking joy in his death, perhaps we should be mourning the waste of a life that could have brought joy to others, instead of suffering.
I have no issue with condemning the actions of someone like Osama. I am no moral relativist, they are indefensible and inexcusable, no matter what he felt was wrong with the world. But, when we start believing that some lives are of inherently less value than others then we have taken a step down the road to the same mistakes that Osama made. All lives are of worth in God’s eyes, whether we think so or not.
Sometimes Christians have to say the unpopular stuff
Immediately after the news was announced my Facebook was covered in celebratory posts, some very vitriolic. However, one stood out, where a Christian friend asked whether it was right to rejoice in any death. Immediately it attracted a lot of adverse comments, and I am sure she knew that would happen. But, she did it anyway, because she felt it was the right thing to do.
Christianity is a counter cultural religion. We forget that when we get tied up in the world and its politics, but it is not meant to be of this world. Its truths are timeless, but the world’s are ever changing, and that means that there will be times they come into conflict. It is hard to say things that run contrary to popular opinion, especially an emotive subject like this, but we can’t value the good opinion of those around us more than we value speaking the truth. If you agree with the celebrations that is one thing, but not speaking up for fear of being condemned is another thing entirely.
We have to take responsibility
I don’t believe that there is any excuse for acts of terrorism, or the Western world “deserved” 911 or any of the other terrible events. There is no justification for the deliberate targeting of civilians. So, what follows is in no way condoning that.
But, as Christians, we need to ask ourselves how is that that a good chunk of the world has been reduced to such hopelessness that they believe that the only answer is to follow such men as Osama Bin Laden and look to them to improve their terrible circumstances? Hard as it is to believe, there are people right now congregating around the site of his death and mourning him as a hero, a champion of the oppressed. Evil men like Osama use the fact that we live in a world with a massive gap between the haves and the have nots, where the poorest person in Australia is better off than the average person in some of these countries, to attract people to their banner with promises of a better life and a fairer world.
What are we doing to make the world a better place, a place where false messiahs like Osama would have no way of exploiting the suffering of others to further their agendas? If we have the Truth, if we really do have a better system to offer (and I believe we do) why are there so many who have no access to it?
Why when voices cry out “Help us!”, “Free us from tyranny” and “Feed us, we are starving!” it is not us who answer but men like Osama? We need to take a hard look at ourselves and answer those questions.
As I said, I do believe that Osama’s death is an act of justice, and a positive step for the world. I can understand how those who lost loved ones in the acts of terror that he had a hand in feel a sense of relief that he was brought to justice, and I certainly don’t judge them for celebrating. But, for the rest of us I really can’t see how the death of anyone, even him, should bring an outpouring of celebration. Instead, we should reflect on how the world has gotten to the point where his death was necessary, and what we can do to change it.
Osama was no victim, he reaped the consequences of his actions and I have no sympathy whatsoever. And, I have to point out, that despite the thoughts I am sharing here, my first reaction was one of jubilation. I am only human after all. I do think, though, it is helpful to actually think about these things instead of just going with current of emotion swirling about in the wake of Osama’s death.
I would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below.