Reaction to (the reactions to) Bin Laden's death

I haven't posted anything on this blog about the death of Osama Bin Laden. It isn't because I haven't been paying attention. Quite the contrary. I've devoured news articles since the news broke about the Navy SEAL team's May 2nd raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

My lack of posting is also not related to any qualms I have over Bin Laden's demise. I'm not an absolute pacifist when it comes to issues of war, and I have not forgotten what September 11, 2001, was like. Bin Laden was a cold-blooded killer and one, indeed, whose crimes were not limited to that one day ten years ago. He and his organization have always made it clear that they believe they are are at war with the West generally, and the United States in particular. Given the alternatives the U.S. military could have used, I think the surgical strike by the SEAL team was clearly the most prudential, "proportionate" choice of the various options that were considered. (News reports mentioned the option of dropping large bombs on Obama's hideout in Abbottabad, an act which would have killed perhaps dozens in the urban area in which the compound was located. The Obama administration considered and rejected that option in favor of the SEAL raid.)

I believe the commentaries over the nature of the firefight and whether some type of arrest could have been employed (rather than the use of deadly force) are worth hearing - especially since some of them are coming from Christian theologians who are calling us to think critically about the incident as a moral issue. But I also think there is a strong element of "Monday morning quarterbacking" in those views; I imagine the actual participants in the engagement would - if they were ever allowed to do so - tell of an experience that played out like an assault on an enemy position where the number and capabilities of the enemy within were not fully known. The only potential factor that would cause me to question the soldiers' judgment during the raid would be if it became clear that Bin Laden attempted to surrender and was shot with his hands in the air. And while theoretically possible, I simply have a hard time believing that happened.

The actual reason I've resisted posting on Bin Laden's death until now is because I've felt so conflicted over the reactions of many people in our own country. There was an attitude of outright celebration in many quarters, and the quotes gathered by news reporters made it clear that the celebration was not just relief but rather a kind of revelry in the killing itself.

I am not only skeptical of such celebrating. I am convinced that it is a deeply misguided reaction for Christians, and even those Christians who believe the killing of Bin Laden was a permissible act of just war.

The easy response to people skeptical of the revelry over Bin Laden's death is that they are either out-of-touch, or else morally squeamish at a time when such squeamishness has no place. Another approach, taken by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in a recent New York Times column, is that such collective celebrations are simply rooted in human nature-as-lived-in-society and thus socially healthy expressions of collective patriotism. (A similar story by Benedict Carey also in the NY Times can be found here.)

But the easy response is also the lazy response. It is weak and shows a decided misalogia in favor of joining the crowd (on more than one level). I think the biological arguments offered in the linked Times columns noted above are lazy and weak as well, though the intellectual context out of which they are made means that they are simply unintelligible outside of an atheistic framework.

Instead of writing something longer myself on this issue, I'm going to stop here and just point any interested readers to two reflections that I think are worth reading. The first is a blog post by Dr. James Howell of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC, which he wrote within a day or so of Bin Laden's death. Howell offers a good reflection on the celebratory reactions to Bin Laden's killing.

The second reflection is a sermon preached this past Sunday by my brother, the Rev. Barkley Thompson, who is the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Roanoke, VA. His sermon is as good a meditation on the Christian attitude toward Bin Laden's death as I've seen. You can find the sermon text at this link. An audio file is available online here.