Justice or vengeance? The killing of bin Laden: The killing of bin Laden

"For
God and country. Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo!" These were reportedly
the words the commander of the Navy SEAL team uttered in signaling that Osama
bin Laden had been killed and his body captured. In a televised speech
announcing this news, President Obama asserted that "justice has been done,"
and he concluded with lines from the Pledge of Allegiance, along with a parting
"May God bless America."

Earlier
on the same day, the second Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy
Sunday, Roman Catholics and others around the world celebrated the beatification of Pope
John Paul II.

I
write neither to cheer nor to jeer about either the killing of bin Laden or the
jubilant response by many Americans to his death. I pray that my identity as a
baptized Christian takes precedence when the ways of the nation—including
actions by the government and the military but also attitudes and activities
among many of my fellow citizens (and, alas, many fellow Christians)—are in
tension with the ways of God as revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Is the God
being invoked by the commander and the president the same God invoked during
the beatification ceremony? What kind of justice was done in the killing of bin
Laden?