by Curt Kovener 
Osama bin Ladin is dead. Dead as a doornail as Charles Dickens wrote about Jacob Marley in “A Christmas Carol”.
What is peculiar is that in the supposedly Christian nation, a week following Easter when many messages from the pulpit focused on a passage of faith-that of the disciple Thomas who was not present when Jesus appeared to 10 disciples. Thomas, according to the Scriptures, said that “unless I touch His hand and thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe”.
Thus the term ‘Doubting Thomas’.
So why at this time after the celebration of the resurrection are there so many in this Christian nation obsessed with viewing a photo of the shot in the head bin Ladin before they will believe?
As one who grew up in the funeral industry, one who held death and reluctantly its body parts in my hands when necessary for preparation for burial, it troubles me…and should you and as well…that there are those who want to view the gruesome and grotesque.
Where are those in the community who protest the obscene? Or does obscenity extend only to matters of sex?
I have seen shot up, cut up, dismembered bodies and do not need to see a terrorist with a hole in the head to believe that he is deceased.
I remember the shot down US soldiers in Somalia whose bodies were dragged through the street by its citizens. And we were angered.
I remember the videos of Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl’s decapitation by al-Qaeda. And we were angered.
And what do you suppose a graphic death photo of a terrorist leader would do to his followers?
I rather think that the motive behind viewing a bin Ladin death photo is more “Ha! Take that” vengeance.
And what about that Scriptual passage admonishing us that “Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord”?
There are those…including those in my own journalism industry…who say we need to see the dead body.
In this Christian nation we are instructed to “live by faith”. Here is an opportunity to practice what we preach.
