To start off, congratulations to the US military for its daring, bravery, and successful completion of its mission. Those guys were the real deal, and I can't imagine what they go through as part of their "day job." So thanks to them for risking their lives to make us all safer!
On a more philosophical and spiritual note, though, I have to admit that I'm a little ambivalent about bin Laden's death. Sure, he deserved it. Sure, he was an awful man.
But his death really is not the best ending -- that's what our faith teaches us.
Bin Laden's evil -- and he truly was evil -- was an opportunity for God's grace. As Christians, we have to believe in the ability for evil to be transformed into good, and for human capacity to be converted.
What a story that would have made! Imagine if his heart could have been remade. Imagine if he could have been struck by the same spirit that reconfigured Saul the persecutor of Christians into Paul, their apologist.
This is, of course, an irrational daydream. If I were in a position of political authority, I surely would opt for the more Machievellian approach as well. Government and military do not have the luxury of hoping for our enemies to undergo epiphanies. Real life special forces do not have the luxury to play Batman or Superman, sparing the evil villain's life on the grounds of such niceties as personal codes of conduct.
Still, there is something unsettling about our failure to capture him alive, and the idea of jubilation over the possible perdition of a soul.
On the one hand, we are called to love our enemies...so we ought to pity bin Laden's destruction.
On the other hand, the call to love one's enemy still (linguistically speaking at least) acknowledges them as one's enemy. It's not like Christ said "There are no such things as enemies, just people whose motivations you don't fully understand." Yet, if we believe what we believe, Christ laid down his life for bin Laden as well as us. Bin Laden just refused to take Christ up on his offer, as far as we know.
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