A Hate-filled Man is Dead

I am not entirely happy.

I am happy that the figurehead of a massive terrorist organization has been destroyed. As the face of global terrorist, Bin Laden is no more. This is a good thing.

But as I listened to newscaster's ecstatic vocabulary last night, as I read this morning about how this will make Obama politically bullet-proof for 2012, I felt sad. Caryn and I had just finished talking to high school kids about bullying, about what they could do to stand up for those who are picked on by those would are more powerful. Bin Laden was a global bully, I don't doubt that. But with his death, the United States can stand on top of the school-yard hill, the undisputed king-of-the-hill.

Osama Bin Laden was not outside the reach of God's grace. He was hated by many people both in the United States and in the Arab world. He was also respected by many people for his passion and religious fervor. But this was how people saw him. I'm confident that God has a different view of him. I don't claim to know how God viewed him, but I know that he would not smirk, giggle, or rejoice if he was a news reporter who has to tell the world that Bin Laden had been killed.

I don't want the world filled with people who are willing to kill other people. But even less do I want the world filled with people who first de-humanize their enemies to make it easier on their conscious when they do kill them. I am not a pacifist, but I am a Christian, and that requires me to pray for my enemies, go the extra mile, and to feed and care for those people who seek to do me harm.