Obama got it right!

I want to say something positive about the President of the United States.  He had the courage to give a "go ahead" to the Navy Seals, when they took out bin Laden.  Can you imagine the amount of grief he would have taken had our intelligence been wrong again, and bin Laden was not where we thought?  This was a work of military precision and years of intelligence focusing.  It was a success of the special forces we have out there protecting our country.  Thanks to all of them!

But when vengeful gore seekers demanded the publication of photos of the bloody body of Osama bin Laden, our President gave a firm, "No!"  I think he got that just right.  As long as we know we got the right guy, we don't need to prove anything to anybody else.  The President exercised his sensible judgment and presidential statesmanship when he said, "That's not who we are."  "We don't need to spike the football."  I say he got that right.

Now I hear the voice of moral confusion raising it's silly objection, "Was this murder?"  It's the same moral confusion that cannot distinguish between the heinous crime of murder and the justice of capital punishment inflicted by the state.  The Bible makes a clear distinction between personal vengeance and the vengeance of justice ministered by the state on behalf of God Himself.  When this distinction is obliterated only moral confusion is gendered.  Romans 12:19 plainly says, "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine.  I will repay, says the Lord.'"

Then in chapter 13:4 we read, "[civil authority] is a minister of God to you for good.  But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil."  The context explains that there are no authorities but those which God has ordained.  And when it is time for justice to bring punishment--even death (sword)--God expects the civil authority (the state) to be His servant in accomplishing this. 

This is why cops who shoot the bad guys are not guilty of murder.  If investigation proves that it was a "good" shoot, it was the wrath of God coming down on the one who practices evil.  And it is the same principal that applies to agents for the US government (e.g. Navy Seals) when they shot Osama bin Laden.

I salute the Seals and the President because I believe they acted in obedience to the will of God.