A Day to Celebrate?

It was a year ago (in a couple days) that Special Forces rolled into a compound in Pakistan and took out one of the most infamous men of our time.  People all over the world celebrated his death (or mourned it, depending on their persuasion).  At the time, I wasn't sure what I felt about all this...I was glad that Bin Laden no longer posed a threat and I felt like justice had been served, but I struggled with the idea of celebrating the death of any person (regardless of his actions).

So today, I read a random interview (click the link! it's a good interview!) with Aaron Weiss from one of my favorite bands (mewithoutYou).  I don't agree with everything said in the interview (or even in the part I'm putting below), but I definitely think it gave me something to think about, so I thought it was worth sharing.  So in my regular trend of plagiarism, here's Aaron Weiss:

I don’t know anything about who Osama Bin Laden [was.] I don’t understand any of it. But I can go inside and find that there are terrorists in my heart. I could find all sorts of extremists and religious fanatics and murderers and hiders. But to point and say “He’s the bad guy because he did that, I’m a good guy.” Well, it would undermine everything we were talking about earlier.

You say, “We’re all one, let’s all hold hands and have a potluck.” It’s easy to say when everyone’s getting along. But when somebody murders your family, are you one with them? Are you one with the murderer? Are you one with the terrorist? Are you one with the religious fanatic?

It seems like that’s where the line is drawn. “No, no, nope. That’s not me. I would never do that. I’m not like Osama Bin Laden, I’m not like… a pedophile or serial killer.” Or any other sleazy character you could imagine. It’s very easy to keep them on the outside and make ourselves somehow better. But the sword comes and cuts that too. There’s nothing that anyone’s ever done that you wouldn’t do. There’s no one that you’re better than.

I think that last line is an epic kick in the gut...there's no one that any of us is better than.  So did Osama get what was coming to him?  Probably.  But I'm really grateful for the ridiculous mercy that God offers every one of us...even those of us who are not such obvious monsters.