That is not how Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams views it. During a question and answer on the death of Bin Laden he stated, "I think that the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn't look as if justice is seen to be done, in those circumstances. I think it is also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help here."

Dr Rowan Williams is the titular head of some 70 million Anglicans worldwide. He criticized the White House for repeatedly changing its account of the raid on the al-Qaeda leader's compound in Pakistan.

By killing bin Laden when he was not carrying a weapon, meant justice could not be "seen to be done", the Archbishop suggested.

US lawyers and senior figures from politics and the military indicated that Dr. Williams was not living in "the real world". Relatives of 9/11 victims expressed outrage at his remarks.

A senior Government source described the Archbishop's comments as "very unwise", adding, "One has to give some thought for all the unarmed people that bin Laden killed. This was a very silly thing to say."

Indeed it is. Dr. Williams' leftist views on just about everything from wealth, interpretations of Scripture and sexuality issues has earned him a reputation as the purveyor of a "shadow gospel" - the substance of things hoped for but never seen.

British commentator Julian Mann said the failure to grasp the gravity of the Jihadist threat would seem to be behind the Archbishop of Canterbury's description of Osama Bin Laden as "an unarmed man". To be fair to Dr Williams, he did go on to describe Bin Laden as a "war criminal"; still his "unarmed man" epithet is less than morally accurate.

Bin Laden was shot as a combatant in a just war against the evil terrorist organization he led. Whether he had a weapon immediately at hand in his bedroom when his military compound was penetrated by US Special Forces does not alter that fact.

Williams' concerns were echoed by fellow Anglican Bishop of Winchester Michael Scott-Joynt, who criticized Bin Laden's killing as "an act of vengeance" that might provoke reprisals against Christians. When St. Paul wrote that that civil "rulers" are the "ministers of God" who "beareth not the sword in vain" and who are a "revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil," was the Apostle advocating "vengeance?" Of a sorts, yes, since he declared that rulers, when performing properly, are divine instruments for God's legitimate vengeance upon evil doing. But religious leftists are uncomfortable about talk of human evil, preferring to spin their utopians dreams from ecclesial palaces, seminary campuses, and insulated, endowed pulpits.

What took a lot of conservatives by surprise was evangelical New Testament scholar Dr. N.T. Wright who called President Obama out, alleging cowboy vigilantism. He accused the world of giving America a free pass for violating Pakistan's sovereignty and killing an unarmed man during the recent attack.

The former bishop of Durham sent a short statement to " The Times" in which he pointed out that Americans would be "furious" if Great Britain's military had staged an unannounced raid against hypothetical Irish Republican Army terrorists and killed them, unarmed, in a Boston suburb.

The only difference, Wright says, is "American exceptionalism."

"America is allowed to do it, but the rest of us are not," said Wright, who is now the research professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "By what right? Who says?"

President Obama, Wright says, has "enacted one of America's most powerful myths," the vigilante hero going outside the law to execute "redemptive violence" against an enemy who has rendered the legitimate authorities impotent. "This is the plot of a thousand movies, comic-book strips, and TV shows: Captain America, the Lone Ranger, and (upgraded to hi-tech) Superman. The masked hero saves the world."

While this myth may have been a necessary dimension of life in the Wild West, Wright says, it also "legitimizes a form of vigilantism, of taking the law into one's own hands, which provides 'justice' only of the crudest sort."

Really. When Winston Churchill bombed Dresden was that an example of British exceptionalism? This was not about killing Hitler or even Nazis. It was later learned that Dresden was of little or no military significance where 250,000 people died. Churchill wanted to make it clear to the Nazis that they were vulnerable and he proved it. What would Dr. Wright have to say about what the British did in the US in the 1700s.

Furthermore, the US has been going after bin Laden for a decade and has done so with a $25 million dollar bounty on his head. Did anybody really think he would be taken alive? What fictional world is Wright living in?

Ironically we have not heard from US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori regarding the death of Osama, largely, we suspect, because she has a daughter in the US Air Force. Any negative comment could be viewed as a betrayal of the military of which her daughter is a part.

Liberal Episcopalians have offered cautionary statements regarding Bin Laden's death. "I am not sorry that Osama bin Laden is dead ... But I don't celebrate his death, either," the Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson wrote on his blog.

"That distinction, though subtle, is an important one for Christians who claim to be an 'Easter people,'" Johnson wrote, noting that the al-Qaeda founder's death came one week after Christians marked Easter. "Easter celebrates God's decisive victory over death. We taint that celebration if we find anyone's death a cause for celebration and jubilation, and perhaps especially when that death is violent."

Johnson, who teaches at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, co-chairs the theological resources subcommittee of the Episcopal Church's Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music.

Diocese of Southern Virginia Bishop Herman "Holley" Hollerith told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that "my initial reaction was relief."

"Then I found myself feeling very solemn about the whole thing," Hollerith continued. "I think the death of any human being is not to be joyfully celebrated. At the same time, I do believe that justice was done in this regard."

Diocese of Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith wrote on his blog that "justice may sometimes involve violence; vengeance is always directed by violence -- of one sort or another. And the desire for vengeance lies close to the surface in everyone."

"I am deeply uneasy with the gloating and the cheering outside the White House, and elsewhere, as if this was a Super Bowl victory," the Rev. Jim Richardson, rector of St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, wrote in his blog May 3.

Diana Butler Bass, a writer and educator, asked on her Facebook wall, "What if we responded in reverent prayer and quiet introspection instead of patriotic frenzy? That would be truly American exceptionalism." Fifteen minutes later she wrote, "Sometimes I realize that I'm really a biblical literalist at heart: 'Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.' (Proverbs 24:17)"

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said in a May 3 statement that those at the cathedral "share with our fellow Americans a sense of relief that Osama bin Laden's life of hatred and violence is over."

"As followers of the Prince of Peace, however, we Christians regret profoundly the necessity of this killing," Lloyd added.

Diocese of Central Pennsylvania Bishop Nathan Baxter said that while he understands the desire to celebrate bin Laden's death, he urged caution "lest we lose [sight] of the most important work of peace and understanding in the politically named 'War on Terrorism.'"

"The work of everyday Americans, especially Christians, is to live into the best of our faith teachings, resist extremists' abuse in any religion, and guard the dignity of our neighbor, especially Muslims," he wrote.

In Maine, Bishop Steve Lane wrote on his blog that he was having trouble sorting out his emotions about bin Laden's death until he woke up May 2 to read that a mosque in Portland had been vandalized with graffiti equating the al-Qaeda leader with Islam. That act, he wrote, put his feelings in sharp focus.

Saying he is a pacifist as well as a Christian, Lane wrote that "every person, however sinful, is a child of God for whom Christ died."

"I trust that God is attending to bin Laden in a manner that surpasses my understanding," Lane wrote. The bishop called for "prayerful reflection on Jesus' call to love our enemies" and "prayers for peace and for all the victims of the spiraling violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all across our globe."

The Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of the gay parish of All Saints' Pasadena and who is on sabbatical, sent a statement on behalf of himself, the wardens and the vestry to the parish saying that bin Laden's death "presented an important moment of reflection, prayer and action for peace-loving people around the globe."

"We understand and share a sense of relief and visceral satisfaction that bin Laden's physical voice is silent," it said. "A mass murderer is dead." The statement noted that "Jesus calls us to a new way of being" that involves praying for enemies.

"The nature of the global network of care demands that perpetrators be captured and brought to trial under the rule of law," it said. "The rule of law must prevail over the rule of war... We must see today the dangers and distractions of triumphalism and celebrations of another's death."

However Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe took a firmer line, undoubtedly echoed by most Episcopalians, saying, "I do not believe that Christians, who are enjoined by our Master to 'pray for our enemies' can rejoice at the death of even the most heinous of criminals. But I think there is much misunderstanding in many quarters regarding Jesus' admonitions to turn the other cheek, walk the second mile, love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. These are all responses that believers may choose to make when they themselves are the recipient of abuse. These are not responses we can choose when others are the recipients of such abuse. We have a responsibility to protect those who are being abused, and the state, in particular, has the responsibility "to punish those who do wrong." (1 Peter 2:14)

"Osama embraced and epitomized a form of radical Islamist ideology that made him not only the master-mind of 9/11 but of many other terrorist murders before and afterward. The President made the right decision to have him killed when the opportunity was at hand. According to all reports, the Navy SEALS treated his body respectfully, and disposed of it where there will be no shrine for his followers to visit.

"I pray that President Obama's upcoming speech, calling upon the Muslim community to renounce terrorism, will resonate deeply across the globe."

Christians need to be absolutely clear: if al-Qaeda gained control of a European country or could infiltrate or subvert the Constitution of the U.S., they would impose Sharia Law and that would see churches bulldozed, the Bible banned, and the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ driven underground.

Liberals like the Archbishop of Canterbury need to reflect upon that.

END