What Can We Celebrate – and What Ought We Not to Celebrate – About Osama bin Laden's Death

Last updated on: May 4, 2011 at 3:53 pm by Timothy Dalrymple

What Can We Celebrate – and What Ought We Not to Celebrate – About Osama bin Laden's Death 2011-05-04T15:53:21-04:00 Timothy Dalrymple

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As I noted in Part One of this series, a controversy has blossomed in the blogosphere and on social networking sites over the “Excessive Celebration” of many young people in DC, New York, and just about every college town once the news was confirmed that Osama bin Laden had been killed. The first part considered whether there was any reasonable moral parallel between the 5/2 (the day on which Osama bin Laden died) celebrations and the 9/11 celebrations in many anti-American places around the world. While the optics are indeed disturbing similar, I argued that there is, on a moral level, no compelling parallel here. To celebrate the wanton slaughter of 3000 innocent men, women and children by a terrorist network is, morally and spiritually, worlds apart from celebrating the just killing by a duly elected government of the man most responsible for that slaughter.

Now, the question is, Was it wrong to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden? See the first post for background. Before addressing the question, there must be a few provisos here:

Most of the revelers were college students and college-aged young people, who generally look for any reason to party. Presumably many came down to their campus centers, or to places like the White House and Ground Zero, because they heard there was going to be a rockin’ party.
It’s not clear to what extent the responses of those young folk are representative of the responses (a) of Americans generally and (b) of Christians in particular. Presumably there were some Christians amongst the revelers, but these were not Christian celebrations per se.
Also, it must be admitted that there are some amongst the liberal intelligentsia (trust me) who find any Public Displays of Patriotism that involve flag-waving and chants of “USA! USA!” distasteful. This is not because those members of the liberal intelligentsia are not patriotic; it’s because they have a different vision of what patriotism looks like, and they think that the kinds of folks who drape themselves in flags generally have a lot to learn about the faults of the United States and all the rotten things we’ve done. There is even more distaste when those PDP’s have to do with the successful prosecution of a war effort. Again, I’m not questioning anyone’s patriotism, but I am sharing my honest observation, from having spent many years amongst people who do feel this way.
Finally, I feel that we need to have a little more grace with one another. People respond in different ways, and the “Right Reaction Police” would want everyone to respond in the same way that they did. But we are human beings, imperfect and different, and I don’t know whether this is a situation in which every variation can be adjudicated. Still, I do think we can have some spiritual guidelines.

What can we say, then? What is it permissible to celebrate, morally and Christianly? And what is not permissible to celebrate? I would say that it would be wrong to celebrate two things:

FIRST, Christians do not celebrate the loss of a soul. Osama bin Laden did not enter the world as a terrorist. He entered as a child of God, created in the image of God. The story of the loss of his soul is tragic, and it is not what God willed. God desires that all should be saved. So we do not celebrate the loss of a soul, but I would add this proviso: many people would argue that bin Laden’s soul was lost long ago. His death only took him to the judgment for which he was fated ever since he cast his lot so fully and finally against the God who is Love. This is a subject on which reasonable Christians can disagree, but I believe that Obama had cast his lot. And while it is important theologically to hold open the possibility that even Osama bin Laden could convert and take refuge in God’s grace, we have no reason to believe that he did so. Again, these are delicate theological matters, but we can bracket them for the moment, and (I hope) agree that there is nothing to celebrate in the self-damnation of a human soul.
SECOND, I don’t think that Christians should celebrate Osama bin Laden’s death in itself. There is nothing joyful or laudable about taking a life. It is tragic that such a thing, in this case, was necessary. Life is sacred, and even when it is rightly taken, there may be some sober satisfaction in the fact that it was taken but there ought not to be, in my view, a celebration that minimizes the importance of life and the gravity of death. In itself, abstracted from context, there’s nothing to celebrate about killing someone. I agree with the Catholic Church that a Christian ought not to delight in the taking of a life.

What, then, might be rightly celebrated about 5/2?

I think it is perfectly permissible to celebrate that justice was finally done. We do not celebrate that we live in a fallen world, and do not celebrate that people do thinks in wars that merit their killing. But given this context, given that there was just cause to kill Osama bin Laden, it is possible to celebrate this justice. Martin Luther once commented that the only thing really worth celebrating is that the will of God has been done. If the will of God has been done in the killing of Osama bin Laden, then we may celebrate the fulfillment of God’s will.
I also think it’s perfectly permissible to celebrate the consequences of Osama bin Laden’s death. The world was made safer. The al-Qaeda network was weakened. The morale of terrorists around the world took a hit. In the short term, there may be an increased risk of retaliatory attacks. But the symbolic victory of killing Osama bin Laden is huge. This is not the way in which a hero or a martyr dies. Make no mistake. This is a significant blow — if not operationally (and perhaps operationally, if some of the reports about what was discovered at the compound are true) then at least symbolically and psychologically — against al Qaeda and against the cause of jihadist terrorism. At just the moment when another model — the model of peaceful uprising in the Arab Spring — is rising to take its place, we can all celebrate that the world is probably safer now for our children.
Finally, I think it’s possible to celebrate that America has accomplished something difficult and complicated, something that spanned at least two Presidential administrations and that involved many thousands of people, civilians and soldiers, working together. Even though the result of this activity is grisly, there is something worth celebrating in the fact that we finally accomplished a worthy and important goal.

Again, I am hesitant to say that there is a single right way of responding to this news, and I do find a certain holier-than-thou attitude in people who instantly judged the “hooligans” for their “patriotic frenzy.” But I do think there are some general moral and spiritual guidelines, if we observe the above distinctions.

Killing Osama

Previous Post

May 4, 2011

Now It's Getting Ugly: Was Obama Essentially Sidelined on the Osama bin Laden Raid? - UPDATED

Next Post

May 6, 2011 Tiger Moms and Black Swans

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abortion adoption Africa Aging AIDS America Worship American history Americolatry An Open Letter to a College Freshman animals Apologetics art Atheism Authors Barack Obama Bible Biblical Scholarship Billy Graham Blogging Bono Book Review Books That Change Lives Breakfast Links Bulletin Board Business Children Christian Approach to Politics Christian Media Christian Right Derangement Syndrome Christianity and Homosexuality Christians in Government Christmas Chuck Colson CLS v Martinez Comic Creation Creativity and the Arts Cross Examinations Cross Investigations Daily Fragment Daily Trinity Death debt Deep Thoughts on Fatherhood depression economy education Election 2012 entertainment Environment Epistemology Erik Campano Euthanasia Evangelicalism Evangelicals and Gays Everyday Transcendence evil evolution Facebook Jesus faith Faith and Politics Faith and Politics Faith and Politics Faith and Politics Faith and Politics Faith and Politics Faith and Politics faith and reason family Feminism foreign affairs Franklin Graham Future of Evangelicalism Galen D. gay marriage George W. Bush Guest Posts Guns Gymnastics Harold Camping Heaven Hell Holidays Hollywood Homosexuality iam2.org Illegal Immigration immigration Immigration Reform Injustice Inspiration Interviews Islam Jeremy Lin Jesus jesus christ John Mark Reynolds Johnnie Moore Judgment Day Just War Theory Killing Osama Link of the Day Lists of the Week Mark Goldblatt Marriage Military Missions Mitt Romney Modern Western Thought Monastic wisdom Mormonism Morning Hash Morning Report Motherhood Movies Obamacare Old Testament Orphan Care Palin Parenting Pastoral Resources Patheos Peace Between Religions PEPFAR Persecution Peter Wehner Peter Wehner Philosophy Political Quotes of the Day politics Politics and Economics Pornography Prejudice Prisoner Rape Question of the Week Race Radical Faith Rapture Ravi Zacharias Rick Santorum Russia Salvation Sarah Palin Scandals Science Science and Faith Separation of Church and State Series sex sex slavery social justice Social Justice Ministry Spiritual Disciplines sports Steven Tyler Suffering Suicide Sunday Funnies T. Dalrymple Tea Party Technology terrorism The Christian Media Files The Daily Trinity The Electorate The Ethics of Rhetoric The Future of Seminary Education The Middle East The Obama Presidency theological Theological Renewal Theology Uncategorized Understanding Evangelicalism Vocation war War and Peace With Distinction Word to the Wise Writers

Select a Month October 2015 June 2015 May 2015 March 2015 December 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz