Celebrating Death?

I watched last night as the media shifted focus from saddened, devastated communities in a country grieving the loss of hundreds of lives in the wake of monstrous tornadoes to people in the same country breaking out into mass celebrations and holding loud street parties to celebrate the death/killing of one man. The contrast between these scenes struck me.


We moved so quickly from a “one for all” focus to a divided “us vs. them” mentality. But the dividing lines between ‘them’ and ‘us’ don’t appear as clear as we might expect them to be—especially with the déjà vu reflections of Middle Eastern street parties over the killing of Americans years ago now mimicked in the shouts, noise makers, and choruses of ‘God Bless America’ that rang out in Washington D.C. and New York, among other places through the night and into the next day.

It isn’t that I am sad to hear of the death of Osama bin Laden, but I am certainly not going to pull out the grill and invite the neighbors over to celebrate. I just question what lies within us that moves us to such behavior. Just yesterday I was part of a Sunday school class in which the leader focused on the example of Jesus in turning the other cheek and not seeking vengeance. So the irony of a ‘Christian nation’ bursting into impromptu parties to celebrate the killing of a man—even a murderous menace—is striking. Where were the party hats and noise makers last Sunday when we held celebrations of life?