"Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling." - the apostle John (1 John 2:9-10)
Dear Friends in Christ -
Osama bin Laden is dead. Today, his family and friends and followers mourn his loss; to them, he was husband, father, friend, leader. Many, many others do not mourn his death. For military and intelligence personnel, this is "mission accomplished." For people who lost loved ones on September 11th - and for all who have felt less secure since those terrible acts of terrorism - yesterday found them feeling relief . . . closure . . . celebration.
Personally, I feel a sense of relief - though I'm not exactly sure why. I don't believe that terror will end with bin Laden's death. Perhaps the relief I feel is connected with my longing for justice; now the one who killed - and gloated over it - has been killed, silenced forever. But my relief is tinged with feelings of confusion: his one life doesn't seem like fair exchange for all the lives he took.
I can't bring myself to celebrate bin Laden's death. Not because of what today's Scripture reading says; at such emotional times my heart isn't convinced by bland moralistic assertion, true though it may be. I can't celebrate because following September 11th, I spent a good deal of time as a chaplain at St. Paul's Chapel at Ground Zero. There, I experienced grief with relatives who lost loved ones, anger with fire-fighters who lost friends, and agony with recovery workers finding body parts. Through connection with these people, I came to understand the HUMANITY more deeply - our fragility and strength, our wisdom and failings, our fears and hopes. BECAUSE of my encounters with the tenderness and hardness of these people, I now see the HUMANITY of people first - and ideology, and even action, second.
Yes, bin Laden is responsible for his actions - and I do trust that he has now seen God face to face and experienced God's own judgement. That's right. That's good.
But consider this: if there was no fear, if there was no hate, none of this would have ever happened. Wouldn't that be better?
Faithfully wrestling,
Janet+
”I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
