Spiritual Crisis.

Osama bin Laden is dead, and while we've been rid of one of the greater focal points of evil in the modern world, it's provoked a massive crisis of the spirit. The rehashing of the actual political and militarist processes leading up to the moment we ended his life has been nonstop, but underneath all that chatter is the massive, roiling, uncomfortable spiritual issue of the deliberate end of a human life.

I do not support the death penalty. Like Rebecca Woolf, I don't believe in an eye for an eye. Like Grace, I think about the fact that each so-called monster held up for us to revile and stone was once a tiny helpless infant, and I feel sorrow for that wasted life. And like Anne Frank, I still believe that people are good at heart. More to the point, I believe that when the good in a person is overshadowed by evil, it ought to be our duty as a society of connected individuals to work ceaselessly to uncover and nurture that seed of good, and to reassure that person of his or her union with us all, and above all to love that person at every turn. It seems to me that is what Jesus calls us to do.

I also recognize the need for a judicial system and laws and consequences, but don't all of those go hand in hand with the concept of due process? Where was the due process in this situation? As my friend Tonya pointed out, wasn't this revenge, rather than actual justice? And though I firmly believe that a better way would be to focus all our energy on loving those who hurt us, who's going to put dinner on the table?

Like many whose opinions I've read, I don't have a tidy conclusion to this. I will say that the rejoicing and jubilation in the face of the loss of a human life has left me with a feeling of deep unease. Fundamentally, humanity let bin Laden down when he was allowed to continue on the path he chose. His actions were evil, but was he evil? Did he-- does anyone-- deserve to be put to death?