Last night, we all discovered that Osama Bin Laden was killed. My first reaction was one of a surreal nature. I am guessing that you probably had a similar reaction, initially. After I got over the shock, I felt a relief--not that the war on terror was over, but that he was finally caught. I know of several soldiers that have fought in this war. I have also heard of those that lost their lives because of this war and because of the effects of what this man did to our country.
Many people marched through the streets of America and chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" to display their pride for our nation. Twitter and Facebook were a constant buzz of the news. Then, the opinions started to appear. Since last night, I have watched several people on both sides of the coin post their stance on the matter. Some are glad that he is dead and some are furious that anyone would celebrate his death.
If you are a Christian, or even if you aren't, you can probably attest to the fact that Christians tend to scream and shout what they know or what they think they know about what you should do in every situation--right? (I too have been guilty of that at times.) I have seen posts that vary from the discussion of whether he deserved to die or not because he was "born a good person" to whether or not we should be happy when someone dies-good or bad. [I am not endorsing that people are inherently good, but that is seriously another post altogether.]
I'm not going to give you a black and white answer and I'm not going to expect you to agree with me, but I am going to share my take on the issue (after all, you are reading my blog).
So, what is the correct response?
I think it is however you truly feel about the situation. I know some of you are squirming in your seats right now and questioning my theology. If we trust our feelings they could cause us to sin. If we do what we feel, it may not be the right thing because we are acting in the moment. I am not looking at it from that perspective. Yes, for goodness sake, if you are rejoicing, take a minute to think about why. If you are doing it because you hate Osama and it is causing your hatred to increase, well, that's probably not healthy and it is also causing your sin to multiply in that area. BUT if you are honestly glad that they caught him, that he got what he deserved--as far as humans are able to punish him for his wrongdoing here--then I see nothing wrong with that. Absolutely, positively NOTHING is wrong with that! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
If you are rejoicing because you are thankful that maybe less soldiers will die at his hand, then please, holler, scream, dance in the streets! Be thankful that he is dead!
If you are glad to see that he was finally held responsible for killing so many of our people on our turf, then post as many status updates as you want! Celebrate that the families of 9/11 can have some closure.
The truth of the matter is: no one can tell you how to feel about it. No one. We all remember exactly where we were when the first plane hit. We all know how we felt, what the weather was like that day, what we were supposed to be doing at that moment, the questions we had about our country's future... all of it. We remember the sinking feeling that invaded our chests as we watched the second plane hit, as we were helpless on the other end of the screen. We also remember the images we saw for the rest of the day. We remember having deep conversations with other people around us. We remember silence--lots of it.
And if you were in NYC, you probably even have a more vivid recollection of that day than the rest of us do. You probably remember the sounds, the smell, how thick the air was. You probably felt the fear more deeply than the rest of us who looked on. It was real to us, but it was actually happening in front of your eyes.
We all felt differently that day.
We all felt differently last night when we heard that Osama was dead.
Whether your reaction was silence, disbelief, screaming, yelling, dancing, or posting something online, it was your reaction. You are the only one that can govern what you say or do. Please don't do anything stupid. Please don't do something that will make your life or the life of someone else more difficult. BUT please don't let anyone else tell you how to feel about it. Don't let anyone else make you feel bad.
And if someone wants to celebrate, please don't poop on their party.
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