With the news that U.S. Navy Special Forces had hunted down Osama Bin Laden and killed him in Pakistan, spontaneous celebrations erupted all around the country. People gathered at Ground Zero in New York and outside the White House in Washington, D.C. to rejoice. Festive chants of USA…USA…USA erupted on college campuses, in bars, at military bases, and wherever people gathered. Bold newspaper headlines, such as “Rot in Hell” (New York Daily News). “We Got the Bastard” (Philadelphia Daily News), and “Got Him…Vengeance at Last” (New York Post), trumpeted the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist. While many people publically celebrated Bin Laden’s death, a few found the reaction repulsive. “By celebrating death, even of someone as evil as bin Laden,” wrote Jonathan Zimmerman in the Christian Science Monitor, “we let our worst impulses trump what Abraham Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature.’ We look petty, juvenile, and small,” he concluded. The headline for Zimmerman’s opinion piece claimed that the peoples’ joyous reaction was “not very biblical,” and moreover, the sub-header cautioned that key religious scriptures warn against giving in to such dark desires. The key religious scripture that Zimmerman quotes is from the Tanakh: ““Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.” (Proverbs 24:17) Unfortunately, Zimmerman – and many others who are shamed and embarrassed by the exuberant response to Bin Laden’s death—overlooks other verses in the Bible that teach the opposite viewpoint; for example, Proverbs 11:10, which says, “When the wicked perish, there is glad song.” How do we reconcile these two perspectives? BabagaNewz has developed a lesson plan to help classroom teachers address the issue. - http://babaganewz.com/teachers/the-death-of-osama-bin-laden
