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This post is going to be my collection of thoughts on the news story that happened a few weeks ago, regarding the shooting of the UHC CEO and more specifically the reaction to that event.

Let’s start with some basic information. Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthCare (a health insurance company) was killed in NYC. A couple days later, Luigi Mangione was arrested as the suspect in that shooting.

At first, people were shocked at the shooting of an executive in plain sight in a public space. But then as people realized why the shooting occurred and why Thompson was the target, public sentiment shifted to start supporting Luigi Mangione.

And then other people started reacting to that reaction, by wondering what was wrong with people who would support a killing.

So now I’m going to react to that reaction to a reaction.

First up, are you allowed to be happy when a bad guy gets killed? Proverbs 11:10b says “And when the wicked perish, there is joyful shouting.” And in general Americans were rejoicing when Osama bin Laden was killed. I don’t remember anyone saying the shooter was the bad guy and the victim was not the bad guy in that case. But that doesn’t make it right, the Bible is saying there what happens.

Second up, it is believed that Thompson was the target because he was the head of one of the largest (and worst, in terms of denying claims) health insurance companies. And that’s enough for some people to consider that Thompson was not an innocent victim.

Third up, the government is allowed to take out bad guys, but can individual people? That question is left as an exercise for the reader. I would argue it is not.

Let’s consider the various evil guys that everyone is glad are gone – Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, etc., etc. You should be able to get a pretty good consensus that those were bad guys. But as far as you know, did any of them personally kill anyone? No, they were bad guys that the world was glad to be rid of, because they led their organization and directed others to cause people harm or to suffer or to die.

Now if we take that statement and apply it to health insurance CEOs, you can say they haven’t personally harmed anyone, but they lead their organizations and direct their subordinates to cause people to suffer or to die.

“No,” you may say, “their organization is meant to help people.” Which is ostensibly true. But CEOs don’t get profits and bonuses by helping people, they look out for the well-being of the company, which means directing their employees to find ways to charge more and pay less. And we saw that with lawsuits and such against UHC for increasing their denials of claims. More claims denied = more people suffering, the leader of the organization causing an increasing in the suffering of people is a bad guy = UHC CEO was a bad guy. And that’s the thought process by which people thought the killing was not all bad.

And one could argue that the CEO is helping all the employees in the company by making the company perform better. But does that excuse the CEO from harming other people, or does that make the company’s employees complicit in the harm?

I will argue that both people did wrong, in that both were doing things that God does not like.

Proverbs 3:27 – Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it.
The UHC CEO certainly had the power to provide good to those who deserved it, or at the very least provide the services that people paid for, and yet he withheld it.

Proverbs 6:16-17 says that the Lord hates hands that shed innocent blood.
This one is a stretch, as I just argued that Thompson was not innocent. Ok, how about this verse?
Romans 12:19 – Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
I suppose one could argue that Mangione was the method by which God exacted His vengeance. That would be a tough one to prove, and I’m not even going to try. Because my point in this post is to show why people are siding with Mangione, not to agree with what he did.

In summary: he took out a bad guy, heroes take out bad guys, therefore he is a hero to the people.

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