Sympathy for the devil

I have had it up to here with self righteous professional religious folks who are dissing the average American who is happy--who dares to be happy--- that Osama Ben Laden, who arranged the killing of thousands and inspired the murder of tens of thousands, has finally met justice.

Oh, it looks bad when Americans rejoice, say these people. Oh, it's against international law, say others. Christ said turn the other cheek and to forgive, say even more.

Time out.

They are mistaking personal revenge/vendetta and personal forgiveness with justice, which is meted out by the state.

And they are implying that when the state uses necessary force to stop a criminal, that somehow it makes those doing this as guilty as someone who kills the innocent.

Time out.

So I am happy that the Dalai Lama notes the difference:

As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader. But, he said, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. … If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures."

Heh. Imagine that: A religious leader with common sense.