When someone dies, it is never a good thing. To be sure, the ending of life is inevitable. For the Christian, death is gain. However, these facts do not make death good. There’s no way to escape it, some will gain from it, but death is a perversion of the design of God.  

Sometimes killing may be justified. Capital punishment and self-defense are examples. However, the good in these actions is not found in the killing. The good of capital punishment is justice and the protection of society. The good in lethal self-defense is the courage needed to fight and the protection of one’s family. Nonetheless, the killing is bad. It is not morally evil as just noted. However, there is always the metaphysical and ontological evil in death. God is Life and the giver of life. Because of this, death will always be inferior to life. 

Of course, it does not take a philosopher to understand the value of life. Most people believe or act as if life is valuable. Indeed, it is inherent in the consciences of all men. Yet, there are some who simply do not value life as an inherent good. Examples are abortion and euthanasia advocates, of course. Though there is another recent example of the widespread disregard for life.

The late conservative radio host, Rush Limbaugh was buried today, 03/02/2021 in his home state of Missouri. Many conservatives lamented the loss of the Father of Conservative Talk Radio. At the recent CPAC 2021, a moving tribute video to Limbaugh was shown. (Watch it here.)

However, many on the Left have actively celebrated Limbaugh’s death. One social media post said, “When a terrible piece of scum who caused immeasurable harm to millions dies, there is no sympathy. Only a desire that they suffered until their last breath.” Many others echoed the heartlessness in other posts.

There is a time to celebrate death. However, death is never celebrated by itself. Tragically, sometimes death is a means to a righteous end. It was not wrong to celebrate the death of Hitler or the death of Bin Laden. However, it is vicious to celebrate death as if it were a desired outcome. The Christian can rejoice in the Wrath of God (Prov 6:16–19; Rev 6:10), but the primary desire should be for repentance of the wicked (2 Pet 3:8–9). Vengeance is the Lord’s. When an evil man is killed, it is both a victory and a tragedy.

However, Rush Limbaugh was not a Hitler, nor was he a Bin Laden. He was a voice of one of the major worldviews in America: Conservativism. Conservativism seeks to promote life, liberty, and property and Judeo-Christian values. The conservative person has a standard to which to appeal regarding morality, ethics, and values. These sources are the Bible first and foremost as well as the Christian tradition, Western philosophy, and the Constitution.

The Leftist who rejoices in the death of Limbaugh as if death were a good to be sought after has no basis for his hateful values. If you are going to call someone evil, you need to know what good is.  

While not all on the Left take such hedonistic pleasure in Limbaugh’s passing, the fact that it is socially acceptable to behave in such a tribalistic, immature, ands bullying way needs to be a warning sign to those who would preserve a decent culture. At the same time, Christians must remember to pray for enemies and be kind to the evildoers. “By doing this you will heap burning coals on his head” (Rom 12:20).

Douglas Phillips is a native Texan, having been born and raised in the Lone Star State. He writes on political philosophy and current events.