“Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love”
After the dust settled tonight on the Osama bin Laden subject, my heart became heavy. The man whose name was merely a good punchline or reference to days past is now back in the American vernacular for the final time. It’s a touchy subject that can offend a lot of folks but it boils down to this. A man was murdered, no matter what the circumstance he was murdered. Emotional involvement, patriotism, or pride in the matter can make murder seem to be a viable solution. The truth of the matter is that we murdered a man 10 years after he allegedly orchestrated an attack on our country. I say allegedly because we murdered him before he was allowed a trial to answer for his crimes, therefore making a martyr out of him. He may be dead but the thousands of other extremist group members are heralding him as a hero, and this just gives those terrorist organizations all the more reason to attack us because we murdered their poster boy. In the eyes of the average American this man orchestrated an unwarranted attack on our country, killing thousands of innocent people. Now take off your American eyes and put on your Human Being eyes for a second, read a newspaper or an unbiased news outlet and see how many innocent civilians we’ve killed as a result of our war-time actions in other countries. The body count may not stack as high, or you may discard that argument as ‘collateral damage” in a war that we’re fighting but to those people, we’re coming in guns a blazin’ and killing their children, their wives, and their husbands. Today we bombed a house in Libya suspected to contain Gaddafi and ended up killing Gaddafi’s 29 year old son who is a civilian that holds no political office or power and his 3 children. I bet that man’s wife would love to hear Obama was shot in the head. Would I expect those brave Navy Seals to lay down their weapons as they approached bin Ladens compound and just pray? No. Was there another solution in that situation? Possibly but not when you’re already entrenched in a firefight. War is hell, it’s kill or be killed and I understand that. I’m not discrediting the folks that die for this country. They made a choice that I will never make. I just think we as Christians need to scale back the ticker-tape parade and raucus celebration over a man that was murdered. Those soldiers did not go into Pakistan, score the winning touchdown and save Mr. Geoffrey’s Ice Cream Shop. They went into Pakistan and shot a man in the head that has the same sin in his heart that the rest of us have. That is not a cause for celebration, that is a sobering thought that should be reflected upon with a heavy heart. Did he deserve to die? Yes, just like you and I do. Did Jesus die so that his sin could be forgiven? Absolutely. Is war anything BUT terrorism, just with a different title? It’s all about perspective people.
“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” Ezekiel 18:23
“Thou shalt not murder (unless he’s a really really bad dude)” Opinions 4:13
