unsure.

The news media is so interesting and spurs such fascinating commentary on the world around us. We float from one news story to another – storms, royal weddings, and now dead terrorists. We flit from one emotion to another, never landing long enough to wonder where those deep feelings come from.


I am not sure about how I feel about all of this excitement and joy over the death of another human being. Before you jump all over me and tell me what a horrible person he was and how many Americans he helped kill and how he was the September 11th mastermind, let me assure you – I get that. He deserved to be punished – I believe that there should be a consequence for your negative actions, just like there can be rewards for positive ones. Yes, Osama bin Laden was a bad man who encouraged his followers to do harm instead of good. But do I get to judge him? Do I get to say that his sins were worse than my daily sins of unforgiveness, or jealousy, or anger? Does God see sin like that – different levels of heaven or hell, depending on how heinous your crimes might have been? I don’t really think so. Do I have the right to dance in the streets because one man was brought down by some brave men in our military? Do you honestly think that killing one man will bring down an entire terrorist organization or solve all our problems? And do you truly think that those radical members didn’t dance in the street when thousands of our citizens died?

I am a peace loving person. I deeply wish we could finally get to the place where we beat all of our swords into plowshares and where nations will no longer train for war (Isaiah and Micah got it right!). But, I also know we aren’t there yet. I understand the concept of “an eye for an eye”. And I do believe that a punishment was in store. But I can’t bring myself to be excited about it.