No One Mourns the Wicked?

“Let us be glad
Let us be grateful
Let us rejoicify that goodness could subdue
The wicked workings of you-know-who
Isn't it nice to know
That good will conquer evil?.....
No one mourns the Wicked!
Now at last, she's dead and gone!
Now at last, there's joy throughout the land….
No one mourns the wicked!”

Ok, first let me start off by rejoicifying over this, my first Wicked! posting. Wicked! is amazing and let be honest that sometimes when I listen to the soundtrack I get teary eyed just hearing it and thinking about it. No need to say that it’s my absolute favorite musical! Well actually this isn’t a post about Wicked… it’s a post that was inspired by the lyrics quoted above.…

Last Monday Bin Laden “lived by the sword and died by the sword.” (Cardinal Francis George) There is no need to question how wicked and evil his actions were, and yet when I logged into Facebook I was faced with a question that I had never considered before. When I heard the news, I was on the phone, and I was completely shocked. I couldn’t believe that our armed forces had finally caught the monster that had terrified so many and murdered so many. Excitement echoed in the voices of two of my best friends as we understood the importance of what had just happened. My roommate and I quickly turned on the tv just in time to see Obama walk up to his podium and give the world an extremely important and monumental speech. The sight outside the Whitehouse was reminiscent of the sight outside Buckingham Palace just a few days earlier, but on Facebook, it was evident that not everyone was excited and rejoiceful about this man’s death.

I was almost as surprised at other people’s reactions to the news as actually hearing the news. Some of these people were clearly upset and speaking out against those who were happy about Bin Laden’s death. Before reading those statuses I never would have believed that there were people in this world who were not happy that this man, who was responsible for the murder of thousands and sowed so much hate, was dead. It shocked me. It took me a little bit to understand why someone would not be happily excited about this event, even though I continue to disagree with most of the FB postings (some of them just made no sense what so ever!).

After some time to think about it and read different quoted reactions, the response that we as Christians should have to this man’s death is something to the effect of being happy about the end of a terror, but we should not rejoice over the man losing his life. The Vatican’s official reaction was this: “Osama Bin Laden - as everyone knows - has had the gravest responsibility for spreading hatred and division among people, causing the deaths of countless people, and exploiting religion for this purpose.
Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of everyone before God and man, and hopes and pledges that every event is not an opportunity for a further growth of hatred, but of peace.”

Personally, I think the Vatican, in taking their time to release an official reaction, said exactly what needed to be said. To say anything more on this subject I think would not only be over kill, but also dangerous- it is so easy for us to trip over our words. It is important though that we know what our own opinions are, but remain able to understand other people’s perspectives. We don’t have to agree with them, but just understanding them can help us grow and further our understanding in other matters too. That goes for lots of different situations. For now though, I’m going to leave you with some more food for thought;

“Are people born Wicked? Or do they have
Wickedness thrust upon them? After all, she had
a father. She had a mother, as so many do…” ;)

Love and warm wishes!