Rick Warren expands on the targeted assassination Gospel:

Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?…Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped…. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

I would like to say that this is an atypical example of misunderstanding the Apostle’s claims in Romans about obeying secular magistrates and recognizing their authority to punish evildoers, but I imagine that it is all too common. The statement in Romans presupposes that a secular magistrate has legitimate authority over those whom he punishes, which obviously does not apply to political leaders in other states. The entire discussion takes for granted that foreign political leaders are to be treated as criminals, and that they should be targeted for assassination because they are considered to be evil-doers under the authority of our government. There are several reasons why this is a dangerous claim, but more important it is an obviously false claim.