Friday, April 02, 2010
President Obama’s daughter on death-row?
Khalil Sheikh Mohammed has recently been apprehended by US authorities- a big catch, considering that he is believed to be the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. He has threatened all that is precious and holy to the American people, and it is likely that he will suffer for it, possibly even the death penalty.
But a recent development is still baffling both papers and the courts. Malia Ann, the elder of the US president’s daughters, has volunteered to take Khalid’s place. “If a penalty needs to be paid, and there probably has to be”, she said to the New York Times a few days ago, “then I’d rather pay it myself. That would mean that justice is done, while our relationship with the Middle East nations might become normalized”. The reporter then turned to president Obama to a
sk whether Malia was serious and- if so- what he made of that. The president was teary-eyed when he responded: “She seems serious, and I fully support her wish”
Fact or fiction? Madness? Monstrosity? There is nothing to believe that the Obama family is going to lose one their daughters soon, and the whole story is fabricated…yet it has a point. It seems absurd that a ruler, when he finally has his enemy pinned to the wall and can at long last mete out justice, would suddenly find himself confronted with the wish of his child to take the place of the guilty. But this is exactly what Christians claim that happened at Easter. A rebellion was underway and a few kingly emissaries had already been killed. The ruler had all reason to send an expeditionary force to beat sense into his disloyal subjects. Instead he sends his own son- well-knowing how previous messengers had been treated. Even so the son volunteers to go, and gets murdered.
What looks like defeat reveals itself as a stroke of genius. The rebels had been guilty of treason, hence deserved capital punishment. The son dies and so the debt gets paid, but the rebels survive. Some of them consider such a step folly, others are overwhelmed by such clemency and become more loyal than they would have ever been before. Peace is established, while justice is done. Analogies always break down somewhere, but the above story shows how unreasonable, not to say monstrous, such a move would be on the part of Obama and his family. He would be sacrificing an innocent person for the sake of somebody who is clearly guilty. Yet that is exactly what God did, thus turning our understanding of justice on its head. After pronouncing us guilty the judge steps into the dock and takes the place of the condemned, thus freeing the guilty one.
We do not advocate such moves as a tool for international relations, and we wish Malia long life and good health- but Easter can only be understood in light of such divine folly.
