Osama bin Laden is dead.
How does that make you feel?
Are you elated? Satisfied? Ambivalent? Proud to be an American? Conflicted? Devoid of emotion?
If so, you're in good company, based on what I've seen posted on forums and comment boards and op-ed pieces.
There seems to be a mood at once celebratory and sober. Even as we cheer the "bringing to justice" of a man who demonstrated just what evil looks like to our generation, we begin looking over our shoulders for a reprisal attack. Even as we feel pride in the precise actions of a SEAL team, we wonder what the right response is to the killing of another person.
There doesn't seem to be much unconditional satisfaction in this event.
I'd like to look at this moral ambiguity in more detail, from a Christian perspective, over the next few evenings. For now, I'll merely point out that it seems to exist.
We'll explore the cheering and chest-thumping in the next post.
his death does not change a thing for me. my reaction was - "Oh, really, he is dead? Are you sure its him?"
ReplyDeleteanother person's death is not something to celebrate, no matter how evil he was while living. bin Laden's death also does not stop terrorism nor does it prevent evil to happen again. His is just another death soon to be forgotten. but maybe i feel this way because am not american. as a christian i don't condemn those who are elated for this news, it's just that i think his death does nothing to improve anything at all, so i don't feel much about it.