Getaway Pilots and Kidnapping Plots

When crimes of robbery or kidnapping are committed, the getaway driver is often found to be of equal fault and culpability. Their participation in and facilitation of the crime marks them as guilty of the same larger crime. They are part of the violence and criminality.

Interestingly when Nicolas Maduro and his wife were kidnapped in January 2026, because it was a military operation - it's deemed legitimate. Because the soldiers involved wear the American uniform their actions are moral and justified to most of the public - and sadly most of the Church.

And yet if they were simply acting in some other capacity or for some other vested or political interest - then they would be considered criminals, and rightly so.

The legitimacy is granted simply because the state is perceived as having the monopoly on violence - which then seems to imply and grant a moral legitimacy that many Christians are willing to accept.

I will grant via Providence that the state is violence and while I wouldn't say it has the 'right' - I would say it fulfills that role. It's not the same thing. To grant it the 'right' gives it a moral rectitude the Scriptures do not give, because that would imply a right relation to or charter from God Himself. That's not how the role of the state is revealed either in Romans or Revelation. It's role is Providential, not covenantal - and while it serves a purpose, like the bestial states in the Old Testament, its motives are self-serving and idolatrous.

But the 'legitimacy of action' argument should not persuade or convince Christians. We can say, 'Yes, this is what states do. This is how they operate and function and it serves a purpose,' but we wouldn't (or shouldn't) say 'this is right', let alone this is something as Christians we should sanction or participate in - let alone celebrate.

Eric Slover was the getaway driver in the Maduro kidnapping. It just so happened that he was driving a helicopter and he was shot up in the process. According to the logic and moral code of the state - since he was wearing the state's uniform, this makes him a hero.

Why would Christians embrace such thinking? Why would they sanction it?

If he was simply a driver in a kidnapping and got shot - would anyone even pity him?

For my part, Slover was a getaway driver in a kidnapping. He invaded another country to kidnap their leader and was shot in the process. In other words, he had it coming. The Venezuelans (according to the logic of both the nation state and war) had every justifiable reason to shoot him, and kill him and the kidnapping-death squad that came to steal away their leader.

This is not to suggest that I think Maduro was a good person or anything like it. He is evil. Trump is evil. Hegseth is evil. The men who defended Maduro were undoubtedly evil as were the kidnappers - including the pilot Trump chose to honour with a medal. That's a Christian assessment of this event.

So while I might expect Babylon to award those who mindless carry out its dictates with medals - I fail to understand why Christians would be moved by this or consider it something to celebrate.

He was a getaway driver and he got shot while perpetrating a crime. The fact that his mafia recognizes his service - what is that to me? (Luke 16.15)