Bin Laden is dead. Okay. That's one more person who has died in this war of almost 10 years. Yes, he did some really, really awful stuff. Yes, thousands of people in our country have died because of the stuff he did. Yet Christians are called to love one another. If I'm not mistaken, "love" is one of the most common words in the Bible. Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that." (Luke 6:32-33). We are called to love one another, good or bad, nice or mean, friend or enemy. That means that when someone dies, we should mourn.
Again, I realize that Bin Laden was a evil man. His thoughts and actions prompted many more people to think, say, and do evil things. But if we respond to his death with celebrations in the street, Facebook and Twitter posts about how awesome America is, and happiness, then we are just more of the people who have thought, said, and done evil things because of Bin Laden. I know it's an overused Bible passage, but Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. Yes, as Dr. Ruge-Jones taught many of us TLU-ers, there is a message of passive resistance in that verse. But the main point in the message is that we are not to exchange stealing for stealing, cruelty for cruelty, or violence for violence. We are called to be peacemakers, not killers.
There are some who say that Christians are called to fight evil, that there are passages in the Bible that prove this. But Jesus never commanded violence; he came not to fight against oppression, not to overthrow the Romans, but to die for all of us sinful humans. Bin Laden is definitely one of those sinful humans--he's up there with Hitler on a lot of people's lists. But I am just as sinful. So are you. Yes, I've never killed anyone. I've never plotted the murder and destruction of people just because of their nationality. Again, Jesus says that my division of sins into "worse" or "not quite so bad" just isn't the way it works: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."
So my anger with my (real or spiritual) brother is just as bad as Bin Laden's murder. That's a tough pill to take. It doesn't make sense to us. Yet it doesn't need to make sense to us. Our law is not the same as God's law. I completely agree that we need laws to keep the world from falling into chaos. We're not perfect, so we need worldly laws as well as God's. But we absolutely MUST realize that they are not the same. In the same way, God's punishments do not mesh with ours (see our last blog post about Rob Bell for more on this).
My main thought all day today has been disappointment. Am I disappointed that Bin Laden is dead? Not particularly. Am I disappointed in myself for thinking that way? Absolutely. And I'm disappointed that I can't see any other news on Yahoo--what about our brothers and sisters who are being ravaged by tornadoes? What about Syria? What about...anything else? I'm disappointed that my favorite radio station has played almost nothing but "America is awesome" songs all day long, mixing in quotations from Obama's speech last night. I'm sad that people are dancing in the streets. A human being is dead. And that should make us all sad.
Wes: Well, as always, Jess said pretty much everything that needed to be said. Which doesn't leave me with much to talk about. I'll take a swing at filling in a few of the gaps that she so graciously left for me.
I am not one of those people who wakes up every morning and turns on the news or reads a newspaper. I wish that I was. I really do. By the time I'm awake enough to formulate coherent thoughts, though, I'm usually halfway through with my drive to school. So my newsmongering usually comes later in the day, when I jump onto a few online news sites and see what's what in the world today. Therefore, I did not know about bin Ladin until one of my friends texted me about it while I was in class. I waited impatiently for my break and then jumped on the news to see what the heck was going on.
My first impression after receiving a text saying he'd been captured: Great. We caught one of the top leaders of a militant, fundamentalist, extremist group that had taken credit for a large number of terrorist attacks around the world. For a country that needs a morale boost, this is exactly what we needed.
Then I read that he had been killed. Then I read that people were celebrating in the streets of NYC, on the Washington DC Mall, and throughout the world. Not celebrating that he had been captured, but that the sorry so-and-so had been killed. We were cheering, singing, shouting for joy over the death of person.
Someone on a news article likened it to the way certain extremists celebrated in the Middle East after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings and into the Pentagon.
Celebrating. Really?
Then I jumped on my facebook and started seeing posts from my different friends. I saw the expected satirical commentary from a few people (shout out to Corbin!!!), which I only expected because I know that they are some of the deepest thinking people I know and they could truly balance the truth and the satire. I saw some Bible verses of hope and love from others. And then I saw a long string of hateful remarks, mis-used Scripture, and more celebration from a number of my friends.
Most of them either spiritual leaders--pastors and youth pastors--or strong leaders within their faith communities.
I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to say. I was disappointed in my fellow brothers and sisters. I was hurt that they were inserting God's hand of justice into an act of killing.
I kept thinking of this quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
So I posted it. One of my good friends, a man I look up to greatly, mentioned that I was speaking from a place of privalege. I've always been an outsider looking in on most of the injustices of the world. I have the luxury of living on the other side of the battles, of the war, of the death of bin Ladin. And he's right. I do. I've never had to see the hatred in the eyes of a man that believes completely that I am evil and I have a God-ordained death sentence. I've never had to suffer through the horrors of war like so many have. I've never known life outside of my privalege.
But if people like Dr. King can say this, if people like Gandhi (spoiler alert: not even a Christian!) can uphold a lifestyle of love in the midst of terrible, horrific oppression, I would hope that people like myself could do so as well. We as Christians are called to uplift justice, but never to rejoice in the loss of life. It might be a thin line at times, but the line is there.
I rejoice in justice. I do. But I do not rejoice in the loss of a life, even the life of Osama bin Ladin. I hope that God has more grace and compassion for him than we do. For I whole-heartedly admit that he deserves death, but so do I.
One of Jess' and my friends from TLU make an amazingly spot-on comment about how a week ago, we were celebrating Easter, celebrating life and the victory of God's love over death's power. Now we are celebrating death.
Not much different than those who shouted "Hosanna" one day and "Crucify" soon after...
May love, now and always, win.
Next blog will be light-hearted. I promise. For now, you stay classy, World Wide Web.
-Jess and Wes
---UPDATE---
The above quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not correct. Due to a crazy Facebook sensation that started with some American woman teaching elementary school in Japan, the quotation was amended. I apologize for the mis-quote, but would like to offer the correct quotation below:
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
Another great quotation from the late Dr. King is the following:
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, norestablish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - MLK, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, pp. 62–63 (1967)
You guys are awesome...if you don't mind...I'm going to use a little slice of this in my church newsletter. COULDN'T AGREE MORE!
ReplyDeleteAwww. I get a shout out. Thanks Wes.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I've read a good handful of posts like these today, but this was definitely one of the better ones, especially since you guys perfectly captured how YOU feel about the whole thing.
Wes & Jess,
ReplyDeleteI have pretty much spent my afternoon/evening catching up on your blogs and facebooks...sometimes my life is just reading about yours. haha. Today has been a great day because you both have made some excellent points and have jumped into some deeper issues and taken stances that others may not immediately think about. I like how much you speak of the callings we have as Christians to work for justice. Honestly, I think y'all begin to do that as you wrestle with the heavy issues of today and seek out the places where love needs to be shown. I completely agree with what both of you said in this post. Thanks for making my afternoon/evening intellectually delightful!
Love ya both and miss ya tons!
i really like the way ya'll acknowledged the general gut reaction of most people, and even of yourselves, but then took those thoughts further and re-evaluated them alongside the faith we claim. granted there is now a sense of relief and perhaps closure for people who lost loved ones or put their lives on the line to find this man. but the celebration should not become a celebration of his death, because like you said jess, who are we to determine that his death is deserved? what human being deserves to have their death celebrated? justice is not conditional, because then it is not justice. and the loss of any life, while it may not bring us to tears, should not lift us to celebration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for delving deeper into the meaning of all this than a simple one-line facebook post can allow. I was quite amazed at the opinions of many of my friends, yesterday. A funny thing I noted: It seemed like there was more rejoicing late Sunday and early Monday, but as Monday wore on, more people came out of the woodwork showing a little more reflection and remorse at the devastation of the whole situation. I found that time gap to be very telling.
ReplyDelete