Celebrations are prevalent in the United States today upon hearing the news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Chants of "USA!" "USA!" and the singing of the national anthem has been televised from New York City, the site of 9/11, and the White House.
However, the Christian community online seems confused about this question of whether Christians ought to be celebrating Osama bin Laden's death. On the blog site Ragamuffin Soul, 134 comments were added through the early morning hours after the poster asked this very question:
Chant USA USA USA USA!
Or
Celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden at all?I’ll admit. I slapped a few high fives to some cops in the arena tonight when I heard.
Then while walking to the bus I wondered what my reaction should be.
Maybe I’m right. Maybe not.What’s your response to Osama’s death?
How should Christians respond to Osama’s death?
Blaine 2 May 2011 at 1:25 am:Struggling with this myself. posted a facebook message a little while ago something to the effect of “2000 yrs ago, there was a murderous terrorist named Saul. Then he met Jesus, planted churches, and wrote most of the new testament. I get not losing sleep over tonight’s news, but celebrating that a guy didn’t meet Jesus and is now in hell…really?”
Then I deleted it. Because I’m still struggling with this myself.Mel 2 May 2011 at 3:22 am:Thank you for your heart and insight Blaine. I know the Lord is grieving because I, in all my selfishness, am grieving over a murderer. But then, it takes one to know one, I guess. I would know. Jesus was on that cross for me, just as much as my enemy. And it is ONLY by His grace that I do not turn and curse Him and die.
Had Osama turned to Christ, there would have been more rejoicing in Heaven over him coming to Christ, than the rest of us proclaiming our innocence. (Lk 15:7)
Steve 2 May 2011 at 1:32 am:My opinion: I think it’s appropriate to have a feeling a justice served and closure to the 9/11 tragedy, and to feel compassion for those directly involved: NYPD, FDNY, etc in their elation. But I think the nationalistic celebrating is over the top. At the end of the day, by all appearances, a soul just entered eternal damnation – something that should give us all pause.
Proverbs 24:17-18 (New Living Translation)
17 Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
don’t be happy when they stumble.
18 For the Lord will be displeased with you
and will turn his anger away from them.Luke 2 May 2011 at 1:33 am:Justice is biblical, and justice was served today.
Isaiah 10:1-4
Crystal Renaud 2 May 2011 at 2:10 pm #when celebration is done boastfully. what i saw last night on tv outside the whitehouse and NYC were people drenched in arrogance—not celebration. yes, an evil man is now dead and the world is better for it. but those people on tv last night looked like idiots.
23 “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.” Ezekiel 18:23
Mike Huckabee is probably representative of the evangelical response in his statement issued this morning.
"It is unusual to celebrate a death, but today Americans and decent people the world over cheer the news that madman, murderer and terrorist Osama Bin Laden is dead. The leader of Al Qaeda— responsible for the deaths of 3000 innocent citizens on September 11, 2001, and whose maniacal hate is responsible for the deaths of thousands of US servicemen and women was killed by U.S. military. President Obama confirmed the announcement late last night. DNA tests confirmed his death and his body is in the possession of the U. S.
It has taken a long time for this monster to be brought to justice. Welcome to hell, bin Laden. Let us all hope that his demise will serve notice to Islamic radicals the world over that the United States will be relentless in tracking down and terminating those who would inflict terror, mayhem and death on any of our citizens."
Welcome to hell. Huckabee, a former preacher, has been described by some in the media as "tabloid" for saying such a thing. The blog "Unsettled Christianity" responded with this:
I do not not suppose that Love will Win for Osama Bin Laden…
Commenters on the site were not so agreeable:
Steve Douglas on May 2, 2011 – 9:24 am
How you can welcome someone to a place you yourself do not occupy?
KenLeonard :
Once again, I find myself glad that my efforts to help the Huckabee ’08 campaign failed …
The blog "Curious Presbyterian" noted a distinct difference between the Vatican response to bin Laden's death and Huckabee's when it noted with some disgust directed at Huckabee:
Vatican spokesman said: “Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of each and every one of us before God and before man, and hopes and commits himself so that no event be an opportunity for further growth of hatred, but for peace.”Mike Huckabee said “Welcome to hell, bin Laden.”
The Reverend James Martin, S.J. was there at Ground Zero when 9/11 happened.
As a Christian, though, I cannot rejoice at the death of a human being, no matter how monstrous he was.[emphasis ours]On the morning of Sept. 11 2001, I was working at my desk at America magazine in Manhattan. My mother, who lives in Philadelphia, called me to tell me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. When I ran out of my office and looked down Sixth Avenue, I could see the towers smoldering, inky black smoke pouring out of their tops. Already sirens were blaring, and men and women were running through the streets weeping, frantically trying to make calls on cell phones to loved ones.
The next few days were a horrible blur for me, and for all New Yorkers. For all Americans. On the night of Sept. 11, I worked at Chelsea Piers in New York, along with firefighters, rescue workers and chaplains. We awaited survivors who never came. On the morning and afternoon of Sept. 12, I sat with numbed family members in a large room at the New School in downtown Manhattan, poring through hospital lists of survivors, of whom there were almost none. Then, on Sept. 13, while working at Chelsea Piers, a police officer offered me a ride to Ground Zero, then called simply "the site." There I spent the next few days and weeks, in between my assignments at work, and along with other Jesuits, ministering to rescue workers amid the smoldering and stinking wreckage, in some places still in flames, before the mass grave. We walked over the awful detritus of the attacks; we prayed with firefighters who had lost friends; we counseled EMTs who had seen horrible things; we celebrated Mass in the rubble; and we emerged covered in the gray dust of Ground Zero every day.
So I am not blind to the death and destruction caused by Osama bin Laden.
Yet Christians are in the midst of the Easter Season, when Jesus, the innocent one, not only triumphantly rose from the dead but, in his earthly life, forgave his executioners from the cross, in the midst of excruciating pain. Forgiveness is the hardest of all Christian acts. (Love, by comparison, is easier.) It is also, according to Jesus, something that is meant to have no limit. No boundaries. Peter once asked him how often he was supposed to forgive. Seven times? "Not seven times," answered Jesus, "but, I tell you, seventy-seven times." In other words, times without number. "Forgive your brother or sister from your heart," he said. Judgment and punishment, says Jesus, is up to God. [Emphasis ours]
So the question is whether the Christian can forgive a murderer, a mass murderer, even — as in the case of Osama bin Laden — a coordinator of mass murder across the globe. I'm not sure I would be able to do this, particularly if I had lost a loved one. But as with other "life" issues, we cannot overlook what Jesus asks of us, hard as it is to comprehend. Or to do.
For this is a "life" issue as surely as any other. The Christian is not simply in favor of life for the unborn, for the innocent, for those we care for, for our families and friends, for our fellow citizens, for our fellow church members or even for those whom we consider good, but for all. All life is sacred because God created all life. This is what lies behind Jesus's most difficult command: "I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." [emphasis ours]
The questions will continue and they should. What exactly is the Christian mission? This is the question that is central to US Christians today. No one knows the mind of God. No one knows if Osama bin Laden is in hell. No one knows. Pope John Paul II forgave the man who tried to assassinate him.
Christianity Today notes the confusion over what exactly Christians should do:
It wasn't long before some Christians began tweeting about Rob Bell's ideas by wondering whether Osama bin Laden is in hell. Here's a sample of some other Christian pastors, bloggers, tweeters' reactions on Twitter along the themes of celebration/justice:
Derek Webb: don't celebrate death, celebrate justice
Jared Wilson "the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies." (2 Chron. 20:27). #prooftextingiseasy #theologynotsomuch
Ed Stetzer: Now that bin Laden is gone, can we have our civil liberties back, send home the #TSA and restore the 4th Amendment?
Esther Fleece: What's up with Christians tweeting verses like they are fortune cookies? This is not a simple discussion.
Eugene Cho: May the world be united in pursuing peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Jordan Sekulow: Crank this up as you celebrate the termination of bin Laden http://t.co/N7K9X8u
Cameron Strang: I was with the president in the East Room 13 days ago with some Christian leaders. A tad less significant than what happened there tonight.
Caryn Rivadeneira: Proud to be an American. Proud of the US special forces. Glad to see justice served. Not a fan of the cheering crowds.
Abraham Piper: Osama Bin Laden is dead? I want to see the long-form death certificate.
Rachel Held Evans: Trying to keep in mind that how I respond to the death of my enemies says as much about me as it does about my enemies.
Mark Driscoll: The cheering crowds remind us that justice is glorious & comes ultimately through Jesus cross or hell. Justice wins http://ow.ly/4KUXP
Comments on this article also noted the confusion:
We should never celebrate the death of another human being. Certainly, feelings of relief are appropriate. However, I would argue that as a Christian we should never have felt anxious or revengeful in the first place. Although his death was of top priority in this war and consequently seen as a victory, Christians should remember that whether or not Osama was of evil nature, God created him. Let us not rejoice in taking the life of God's creation for that is savagry. Nor should we take pride in a nation; our citiizenship is in Heaven.
Posted by: Teresa at May 1, 2011
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” – Mark Twain
Posted by: Mark Twain at May 1, 2011
This is a tough place to draw a line…on the one side, a man's life has been taken. On the other hand though, a man who murdered hundreds and led many to follow him in these killings is now no longer a threat- not only to the U.S. but to the world.
I feel at peace with this news; and while I will not cite a memory verse like a "fortune cookie," I will say that I believe God wants us as Christians to take a stand against evil; to support, protect and care for the poor and orphaned. To guard those who are unable to guard themselves. In this act, we have done that. I congratulate the men and women who served this country in bringing that man to justice.
I do however, not agree with the way one newscaster explained the news this evening…He said that vengeance has been served. I do believe that vengeance is the Lord's and that we shouldn't have solely been seeking Osama out in order to enact vengeance. Again, he needed to be stopped, so that his thoughtless genocide did not continue.
Posted by: Multnomah Mel at May 2, 2011
And finally, the Muslim response from the Washington Post:
“Everybody’s celebrating,” Jurdi said Monday as he talked to Mike Qader outside a Falls Church shopping center popular with Muslims. “This guy spoiled the reputation of the whole Islamic world.”
Qader, a Falls Church resident and native of Kuwait, said bin Laden’s death was good news: “Hopefully it puts the pressure on somebody else” other than Muslims.
Both leaders and regular Muslims stressed that they believe bin Laden was not a true Muslim and followers of the faith are thrilled to be rid of him.
America has touted itself as a "Christian nation." Today is the day in which the eyes of the world are upon us, to see if, like our enemies, we rejoice in the death of another human being who did terrible things in the name of his God. We have given lip service, and a lot of it, through the mouths of our politicians about how "Godly" we are. When the rubber hits the road, and being Godly means being forgiving, we will today define ourselves by whether we act Christian, or not.
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