Much has been written over the last several days about the daring raid that took down the world's most wanted terrorist. I've read a lot of commentary from ordinary citizens, officials, military analysts, and even a few of my clergy colleagues. Having had a few days to digest it, I figured it was a good time to add my own brief remarks from a pastoral perspective.
Of course, before I can give the pastoral perspective, I am tempted to wash something like this through my life prior to answering the call to ministry. As a former infantry officer and military historian, I am fascinated by the operational aspects of this raid, which has to be one of the most audacious and risky in military history. I will want to read the book about it when, if ever, it comes out.
But the sober reality of any military operation is that people get killed. Sometimes they're the bad guys, sometimes the good guys, usually some of both. While the public may rejoice at the death of a terrorist madman, and understandably so, the truth is that this is a grim business for those involved. A "just war" is still war nonetheless, with all the accompanying horror that goes with it.
As I watched the "celebrations" around the White House and read some of the posts on Facebook, it made me a little uneasy–certainly not because I sympathize with bin Laden, but because my Christian faith doesn't allow me to celebrate the death of anyone, even if that death will save thousands of lives. I feel more a sigh of relief that the business is finally done, tempered even more by the fact that it really doesn't change much of anything in the short term. I was reminded of that yesterday when, in the middle of Little League practice on the Air Force Academy, an officer came to tell us that we needed to leave the base because the threat level had increased. We may have killed the symbol, but the threat of terrorism is still very real. I suspect that it always will be until the kingdom comes.
In 1879, William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War general, famously said to a graduating group of cadets from the Michigan Military Academy (the record varies on the actual verbage):
"I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!"
I think it best that we always remember that. God certainly does. "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). If God takes no pleasure in the death of even the most wicked man on earth, then neither should I.
Yes, I do believe that, as the President said, justice was done–at least justice as we humanly understand it. I do not agree with the President on every issue, but I do believe that he led decisively here and that his speech struck the right tone. I also believe that God is a righteous judge, and that bin Laden will be judged for what he has done. Justice always comes at a price, however. I know this because God's own justice for the world is always understood through the pain and agony of a cross. For me, the proper response to news like this thus isn't whooping it up, but a soberness in the presence of a God who, in Christ, was himself a victim of a particular human perversion of justice.
I'm proud to have served my country in the armed forces. I took an oath to defend it, giving my life or taking another if necessary. I'm also thankful that, for me, neither was necessary. For many of my friends and brothers in arms, it was. The combat veterans I know will not be the ones out there cheering "USA" as though war and killing one's enemy should evoke the equivalent of a drunken frat party after a football game. They know that war is indeed hell and they hope to never see it again. Perhaps we should honor them, and our faith, by spending our energy praying for war to be over, for everyone to come home, and to live in peace.
In the meantime, we should pray for those who will take bin Laden's place. Yes, it will be necessary to continue going to war with them in order to protect innocent lives. But, I wish it wasn't.
After all, war is hell no matter how you slice it.
