Viewpoints on death of bin Laden

The day after bin Laden’s “capture” (I mistakenly called it that in class, and a student corrected me—yes, I said, they captured his dead body) a debate, or more hissy fight, broke out on Facebook between what I call the realist and the overspiritualists.   One side, in my view, was honest about their feelings—a mass murderer is dead and justice has been done.  The other side felt guilty about their feelings and felt the need to hide and find proof texts for that need:  The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  I am a Christian before I am an American.  I cannot celebrate that a soul is in hell.  I cannot rejoice over the death of anyone, even my enemy (quoting Dr. King.)

Obviously, I am in sympathy with the first group.   I feel the second group misses the overriding message of scriptures.  That governmental authorities exist to punish evildoers.  That justice is more important than their oversensitive feelings.  That this “execution” might mean the saving of many in the future (did they really think someone like Osama would turn around, or that Al-Quaeda wasn’t planning to attack any more targets?)  Yes, there is a verse that says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but there are plenty others that says God is glorified in justice.  And as Obama pointed out, bin Laden killed or was responsible for many Muslim deaths, so this is not about Islam.  Those Navy SEALS have done us all an immeasurable favor.

Now there is all kind of soil for criticism from the news media.  The SEALS shouldn’t have used Geronimo as a code name.  Did the SEALS give him a chance to surrender? Etc.  Both of these topics involves debates that could probably go on forever, and I respect the person, but not his/her position, who says we should not rejoice over bin Laden’s death.  What should we be?  Rejoice does not mean dancing in the streets; it may just mean thanking our service personnel for what they did, thanking God for protecting them while they did it, and thanking both that we have one less mass murderer stalking the earth.

I asked my son what he thought, and what his peers were saying, and this was his articulate (his mother thought) and probably more even response:

There are two groups right now. The first is the overtly joyful that he has been killed. Others are taking a self-righteous path of saying that killing an evil man is wrong and should not be rejoiced. I feel that both views are not completely coherent with Christ.

I have the personal view that it is good he has been killed, but I am not rejoicing in the death of a human because we should not rejoice in death of an enemy or any other human (Proverbs 24:17), but I am reminded of Romans 13 speaking about authority and its provision to exact justice on evil in which his death his justified.

In a nutshell, I am saddened that we live in a world where we must exact justice on a man by killing him, but I rejoice that justice has been served and a murderous tyrant will no longer hold power or fear over his fellow man.