Celebration?

I've had a really hard time processing my feelings over bin Laden's death.

On one hand, there is a certain, odd sense that it is finally over. We've caught the "mastermind", the "evil" guy.

On another hand, there is a very real feeling that our country is on a high of vengeance. We are dancing in the streets as if we've somehow done God's work for Him by bringing this man to justice. As if God didn't already have His eye trained on the atrocities under Osama's reign.

Maybe I am reading this all wrong, these groups of people outside President Bush's house and in D.C., wearing flags and chanting "USA!" as if we've just won some elusive basketball championship and claimed victory after ten, hard fought, difficult years of searching for the winning point.

The headmaster at Nickel's school found the one quote that sums up how I feel the best. I quote Mr. Queal here...

Consider the words of Pope Benedict XVI in response to this development:

“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.”

As a country, and especially as Christians in this land, we have to step back and realize that there is a real cost to our celebratory behavior.

When we wave our flags and shout "USA!", it implies that we are victorious, happy, and celebrating the death of one of Christ's own. Someone who no longer has the chance to repent and move toward a proper heavenly home. Someone who is now lost. Forever.

I, for one, can't stomach celebrating that.

Now, before you try to peg me a pacifist or anti-military or whatever other label you might see fitting, understand this: I realize my head doesn't hit the pillow while others sacrifice for my good night's sleep.

I realize there is a long line of people who have given more than I've been willing to give in order to preserve my ability to express this very opinion.

I also realize that there is evil in this world that must be stopped. And that there are laws that, when broken, demand justice. And, in order for our world to continue to be orderly, that justice must be doled out.

It's what has happened after that justice was served that is just bugging me to the core.

And, maybe, I take an unpopular stand on this one. But, truly? I see that every life matters, even those that we figure can't be redeemed or aren't worth the cost of the bullet that killed them. Rolling around in my mind are so many "What ifs" that it makes it almost impossible to understand justifying the planned death of anyone.

And, ultimately, that is what drives my sadness. I just don't see it as our place to celebrate or make merry or dance around when it seems to be rejoicing in the death of a child of God.

Whether that stand is popular or not, it is mine. I can equally stand beside those who undertook this mission and bin Laden's family and say that I'm very sorry it had to come to this. I wish this world was a place of peace and contentment where our divisions didn't drive us to the point where murder seemed to make sense. God bless us all as we move forward. God willing, toward peace.