Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Dancin' in the streets

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him...Prov.24:17t,18


The savage Leela, upon the destruction of an alien ship come to destroy the earth, asked the [fourth] Doctor, "Isn't it right to rejoice at the death of an enemy?" The Doctor, still patient with his companion, as with a child who has yet every important lesson to learn, answered, "we will discuss morality later."


There are two ways that America and the formerly Christian west can lose the war on terror. One way to lose is to give in to the fear and yield power to the enemy. The other way to lose is let that enemy change us. A certain feeling of relief is understandable, as is closure for family and friends of people killed by the evil plots of Bin Laden. But, parties and celebrations to rejoice at the death of an enemy is a spectacle that is wholly new to the modern western world. It is unprecedented, because those who lived in a more Christian culture knew that such behavior has no place in the customs of civilized people. 

Such public celebrations are a sight not unfamiliar, however. We have seen many times such behavior on the  news, reporting from radically controlled Muslim countries. Leela, prior to her lessons from the Doctor, would have felt at home in modern America. 

On this score, we see that the enemy is beating us.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched on the BBC the coverage of the cheering and jumping for joy of young Americans at the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden, it reminded me of the faces of the Muslim young people that do the same whenever there are strikes at Western targets.
President Obama announced that justice had taken place at Bin Laden's execution, I can only see 'retribution' not justice. We live in dark times and have created something quite evil in the human race.

BCPAnglican said...

Amen!

Anonymous said...

As I watched scene after scene of jubilation over the death of Bin Laden flash across my TV screen, I felt a growing sense of unease rise in my heart. To be blunt, I realized that writhing with joy over the demise of anyone, be it villain or saint, was intrinsically disgraceful and morally distorted. Why? Because before God, we are all guilty. Proverbs 24:17-18 - Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Susan

Anonymous said...

Even if it weren't in appropriate to cheer and jump, what's to cheer and jump about? Bin Laden's death means nothing in the wider context of the so-called "war on terror". His death does not mean Al-Qaeda's (et al.) decapitation. The #2 guy now becomes the #1 guy. The terrorist king is dead; long live the terrorist king. The jihadis still have money, sophisticated organizations, a huge land mass, and most importantly the long view of history. We'll continue to fight a mostly elusive enemy, cause more "blowback", and drain our coffers.

It's all pretty much lose/lose if you ask me.

Caedmon

AFS1970 said...

Sadly we do not need to watch TV footage of Muslim countries to see this, we could have just looked at the streets of Paterson, NJ on September 11, 2001, to see what evil looked like dancing with glee. The revisionist news media and others now claims that never happened, but it did.

I was actually more shocked by the cheering and celebrations for another reason, not just that it is unseemly and foreign to our way of life. I was unsettled by the images of a rally outside the white house on May Day. There was something very Red Dawn about that for me.

Anonymous said...

Celebrations at the defeat of an enemy have occurred for eons. This is not something new and is not limited to non-Christian nations and groups. We celebrated VE Day and VJ day, among other days.

I, for one, said a prayer of gratitude to God when I heard the news which was immediately followed by a prayer for the repose of Bin Laden's soul. As evil and disgusting as the man and his twisting of Islamic faith was, he was as much of a Child of God as am I. Jesus told me to pray of my enemies. I must say that Bin Laden's death forced me to dig deeper into my faith and put actions to beliefs.

Anonymous said...

The Children of Israel danced and sang when the Armies of Pharoah were drowned in the Red Sea. However, they were giving praise and credit to GOD for His deliverance and protections.

Interesting that the soldier who sent word of the death of bin Laden said, "For God and Country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo." He gave the code word three times and put God first.

I could not rejoice, but felt grief and sadness. Sad that he had not repented. Sad for the men who had to kill another human being. Sad for all the victims of this man and his followers. Sad for Pakistan under the grip of Mohammed's religion.

Anonymous said...

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam [1] of David.

58:1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? [2]
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.

6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away! [3]

10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

Fr. Robert Hart said...

So, a mob of beer guzzling morons is equal to the rejoicing of the righteous on the Day of Judgment? And, what is the allegorical meaning of the Psalm as it pertains to the saints, if not rejoicing at having been spared by God's mercy, and at the destruction of evil itself, and the devil himself?

Anonymous said...

"a mob of beer guzzling morons"? I think that is a bit of an over simplification and is factually wrong.

David