Reflections on Justice and the Death of Osama Bin Laden
I was sitting on the couch tonight eating a burrito and chatting with my wife about the weekend ahead when a friend texted me asking, “Are you watching the news?” Within moments we learned the news that had captured the world’s attention. Osama Bin Laden had been killed.
In the midst of this news Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with celebratory comments, some even making a claim that this was a victory for God himself. In all of this I began to wonder if God was as happy as those who were celebrating the death of Bin Laden.
In response to this, we immediately want to talk about what happened on 9/11 or point to the horrible atrocities this man masterminded as justification for his death. We claim that his death was warranted or “just” because of the blood that was on his hands. We believe that “justice” was served.
However, I wonder, is there another response that in no way lets Bin Laden off the hook while at the same time honors those who were victims of his evil crimes?
Marietta Jaeger-Lane is a woman who can give some tremendous insight into this. Her young daughter was kidnapped and brutally murdered during a family camping trip. Yet, she mustered the will and strength to ask the man who killed her daughter the first time she ever spoke to him how he was feeling. She told him that she was sure his actions had placed a heavy burden on his soul.
How does a mother of dead child ever come to the place where she shows mercy to her child’s murderer? For her, it came from her understanding of Jesus and a renewed sense of justice - not vengeance with justice slapped on it to make it work - justice that restores.
We often live with a mistaken notion of justice. When someone hits us, we believe that we have a right to hit that person back. The problem is that we rarely hit the person back with the same force - we hit them back harder. In the moment that we hit the person who has hit us we become like them, for in that moment we have both hit.
More than that, the person we hit back is bound to hit us back - harder. And when they do, we will want to hit them back – harder. On it goes, the never-ending, downward spiral of violence. It is a myth that violence can produce peace. As Dr. King said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence.”
The good news is, there is another way. Jaeger-Lane, a woman who endured the pain and heartbreak of violence against her daughter, teaches us about this. She recognizes that “victim’s families have every right to the normal, valid, human response of rage.” She believes, however, that to let those emotions devolve into “blood-thirsty revenge” is disastrous for everyone.
She believes this, because, as she states, “We violate and demean our own honor and dignity by taking on the same mindset as the person who caused our grief.” Which makes me wonder. When we raise our hands in the air and cheer when a person has been killed, do we begin to resemble that person? Do we stoop down to their level and like them end up only desiring blood-shed and the loss of life?
Jaeger-Lane believes this is the case. In her understanding, justice for the life of victims does not and should not come by way of killing those who have killed.
She says, “Concerning the claim of ‘justice for the victims’ family’, there is no number of retaliatory deaths which will compensate to me the inestimable value of my daughter’s life … In truth, to claim that the execution of any offender will be ‘just retribution’ is to insult the immeasurable and irreplaceable worth of the victim.”
Lest one think that she has gone soft on perpetrators of violent crime she adds, “I am not advocating forgiveness for violent people and then release to the streets ... there are people who should be separated from the community in a humanely-secured manner for the protection of all.”
While her ideas may seem like nonsense to some; she is able to speak this way because of her understanding of justice. Justice is not about retribution but about restoration.
She says, “I believe that real justice is not punishment but restoration, not necessarily how things used to be but how they should be. In both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, from where my belief and values come, the God who rises up from them is a God of mercy and compassion. A God who seeks not to punish, destroy, or put us to death, but a God who works unceasingly to help and heal us, rehabilitate and reconcile us, restore us to the richness and fullness of life for which we have been created.”
It has now been a few hours since I finished that burrito and have learned of Bin Laden’s death. As I consider the events of today, and reflect on the words of Marietta Jaeger-Lane I wonder if we are celebrating restorative justice or if we are simply drunk on revenge.
I wonder if the killing of an evil man is in any way “just retribution” for the lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters that were slaughtered by him.
I wonder if in cheering at the news of his death we are in some way believing that his death will in some way compensate to us the immeasurable worth of lives lost.
Perhaps we ought not waste our energy celebrating the death of the one who ended their life. For we must always remember, no death of any human being should ever be cause for celebration. Maybe a proper response would be to honor the memory of those whose lives were ended because of this man, not by cheering his death, but by honoring their life.