Friday, September 14, 2007 at 1:01am
Ignoring bin Laden
Column: God Said What?
I saw on the news that Osama bin Laden wants to lecture us again.
I've avoided the news reports about it, but apparently he sent us a video greeting specially tailored for 9/11. Odds are that it was far from a Hallmark greeting card. And he probably hoped that it would cause fear by announcing abstract plans for an ambiguous attack at some point in the future. Or by railing against some ideology that's vaguely American.
So I'm wondering one thing: Who cares?
Not American Christians and Jews. Each group has more pressing concerns than listening to a megalomaniacal terrorist. And certainly not American Muslims, who have been defamed and harmed by bin Laden's message and tactics. Not to mention by his knack for perverting God's good name along with theirs.
As far as I can tell, the only ones who should care about this new message are those charged with either stopping future attacks or catching bin Laden and breaking up al-Qaida. The rest of us should have better things to do than listen to bin Laden play the bogeyman from half-a-world away.
That's not to say that Islamic terrorism, not to mention homegrown terrorism, is not a threat. Of course, it is. But as probable and frightening as another attack is, we shouldn't let it get to us. If you play the statistics game, then we should be equally as terrified about being struck by lightning. The odds are approximately the same as dying in a terrorist attack.
For these and many other reasons, I think that we should just ignore anything else that bin Laden has to say to us. After all, will it really be "news"? Do you really think that he's had a change of heart and wants to reconcile with the Great Satan? Hardly.
I'd argue that this lack of "newsiness" means that the American media should toss any videos they get from him in the trash. They also should refuse to air any more footage, sound bites, reports or even references to his messages. And the rest of us should not obsess ourselves with his schemes.
Which shouldn't be too difficult. After all, we Americans are notorious for our short attention spans. And this would be one moment when our ridiculous obsession with "news" of stars, scandals and smut could be a minor good. At least it would distract us from bin Laden's bellowing.
Yes, I would like to see him brought to justice. We Christians are indeed called to forgive awful wrongdoings against us. But this is contingent upon the offending party repenting and asking for it. And I'm not counting on bin Laden or al-Qaida's sudden change of heart.
Because I don't have any romantic dreams about who al-Qaida is. And I don't have any fanciful hopes about invoking God's love or justice and thus changing their goals. They want to use surgical strikes to cause a maximum of casualties, terror and panic. In the process, they want to become a perverse Wizard of Oz, using a lot of smoke and mirrors to make themselves seem more powerful than they really are. So we can resist them better by laughing at them or ignoring them than by giving them an ear.
So let's make a collective agreement to cut bin Laden off. He is a media-holic who relies on us to disperse his message to the mainstream. He and his al-Qaida cronies are a tech-savvy group who will get their message out on the Internet and other places. But we don't have to give him access to the billboard of the world — the nightly news.
If you haven't guessed by now, I'm going with my gut on this one. I don't have much serious theological insight to offer. That can wait until next week.
For this week, I'd prefer to ignore al-Qaida in a way that's true to Chicago's commuters on the elevated trains. Turn him off and listen to my iPod. And I invite you to do it with me.
— — —
Kevin Considine is a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Recently he was married to a most wonderful woman who keeps him in line and reads his columns to see if they make sense. He and his wife live on the South Side of Chicago. He welcomes comments, feedback or fits of anger and can be reached at {email considkp@yahoo.com}considkp@yahoo.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Kevin Considine.
I've avoided the news reports about it, but apparently he sent us a video greeting specially tailored for 9/11. Odds are that it was far from a Hallmark greeting card. And he probably hoped that it would cause fear by announcing abstract plans for an ambiguous attack at some point in the future. Or by railing against some ideology that's vaguely American.
So I'm wondering one thing: Who cares?
Not American Christians and Jews. Each group has more pressing concerns than listening to a megalomaniacal terrorist. And certainly not American Muslims, who have been defamed and harmed by bin Laden's message and tactics. Not to mention by his knack for perverting God's good name along with theirs.
As far as I can tell, the only ones who should care about this new message are those charged with either stopping future attacks or catching bin Laden and breaking up al-Qaida. The rest of us should have better things to do than listen to bin Laden play the bogeyman from half-a-world away.
That's not to say that Islamic terrorism, not to mention homegrown terrorism, is not a threat. Of course, it is. But as probable and frightening as another attack is, we shouldn't let it get to us. If you play the statistics game, then we should be equally as terrified about being struck by lightning. The odds are approximately the same as dying in a terrorist attack.
For these and many other reasons, I think that we should just ignore anything else that bin Laden has to say to us. After all, will it really be "news"? Do you really think that he's had a change of heart and wants to reconcile with the Great Satan? Hardly.
I'd argue that this lack of "newsiness" means that the American media should toss any videos they get from him in the trash. They also should refuse to air any more footage, sound bites, reports or even references to his messages. And the rest of us should not obsess ourselves with his schemes.
Which shouldn't be too difficult. After all, we Americans are notorious for our short attention spans. And this would be one moment when our ridiculous obsession with "news" of stars, scandals and smut could be a minor good. At least it would distract us from bin Laden's bellowing.
Yes, I would like to see him brought to justice. We Christians are indeed called to forgive awful wrongdoings against us. But this is contingent upon the offending party repenting and asking for it. And I'm not counting on bin Laden or al-Qaida's sudden change of heart.
Because I don't have any romantic dreams about who al-Qaida is. And I don't have any fanciful hopes about invoking God's love or justice and thus changing their goals. They want to use surgical strikes to cause a maximum of casualties, terror and panic. In the process, they want to become a perverse Wizard of Oz, using a lot of smoke and mirrors to make themselves seem more powerful than they really are. So we can resist them better by laughing at them or ignoring them than by giving them an ear.
So let's make a collective agreement to cut bin Laden off. He is a media-holic who relies on us to disperse his message to the mainstream. He and his al-Qaida cronies are a tech-savvy group who will get their message out on the Internet and other places. But we don't have to give him access to the billboard of the world — the nightly news.
If you haven't guessed by now, I'm going with my gut on this one. I don't have much serious theological insight to offer. That can wait until next week.
For this week, I'd prefer to ignore al-Qaida in a way that's true to Chicago's commuters on the elevated trains. Turn him off and listen to my iPod. And I invite you to do it with me.
— — —
Kevin Considine is a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Recently he was married to a most wonderful woman who keeps him in line and reads his columns to see if they make sense. He and his wife live on the South Side of Chicago. He welcomes comments, feedback or fits of anger and can be reached at {email considkp@yahoo.com}considkp@yahoo.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Kevin Considine.