Love Your Enemy

Bin Laden is dead.

And "Justice has been served" or at least that is what Obama said. But I have to wonder what kind of justice was it? I am not trying to degrade the work of the women and men in that armed service. I have a great respect for Navy SEALs. But I do have a problem with this form of Justice. This does not bring any kind of closure for me.

Back in 2001 I would not have written this. I would have been happy and felt very patriotic about Bin Laden getting what he deserved. I would probably be outside with others waving flags smiling. Yet if I had imagined this moment before, this is not how I would have pictured it. Yes Bin Laden deserved death, he deserves worse then death, but are we the ones to decide that?

Over 2000 years ago a man walked this earth and asked his followers, a poor rag tag group, to love their neighbor. And a neighbor is not just the person we want to love, someone who is easy to love. For Jesus' followers it was the taxes collectors and Romans. For me it is Bin Laden. And I'm praying for my enemy's soul today. Why? Because I've realized that he is not that much different or worse then myself.

Sure I have not been the mastermind behind any terrorist attacks. Sure I'm not the leader of a radical group that had killed thousands of innocent lives. But then again I'm not all that much better. Think about it. There are millions of thousands of people in this world. I have clean water that will not make me sick. I have enough status to be in thousands of dollars worth of dept (mostly from a College education). I'm healthy. And most of all I'm totally unfeeling about the suffering of my fellows, even if they live on the same block. I'm sore still from the 12 hour day I worked on Saturday (creating a community garden at my church). Work that alot of the worlds population do every day of their lives, just to survive. Sure Bin Laden was worse, a lot worse. But we are still called to love him.

I guess what really bothers me is not that he was killed, I supose it could be argued that many other lives will be saved by him being killed. What really bothers me is that this is suppose to cause some sort of closer for 911. I found closer for that years ago, trusting in God's love and power. Sure I'm still very sad that so many lost their lives that day and I'm grateful that people I know did not die that day (namely an Aunt who just happened to not be at work that day). Why should death of the 'bad' person bring us closure. Should it not be the life that is created after the destruction, the will and soul of the people who stand up against wrongs?

When did we become so blood thirsty and justified?