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"The courage to hold our spiritual fortress"
by David Warrenh/t Kathy Shaidle The column I wrote Wednesday ("Chestlessness"), on the two Fox News journalists who were captured in Gaza, and agreed under duress to make a propaganda video, in Arab garb, taking new Muslim names and announcing their conversion to Islam, has got a lot of response. I know Ive hit a nerve when my inbox overflows. Let us be clear on one fact. Such videos have serious consequences. They are used as a powerful propaganda weapon across the Muslim world, to show aspiring fanatics how spineless Westerners are. And that video in particular was priceless, for the degree of prostration it exhibited. We cannot dodge this issue. Most of my correspondents were favourable to what I wrote, but many, including several who said they generally agree with my views, were horrified by the tone of that column, which they found merciless and uncharitable. This is as it should be: I meant it to be hard. I meant to cut with a dull blade through the glibness with which we accept treason and apostasy, as a small price to pay for ones personal safety. I refused, in that column, to take the easy way out, to lard it with empathy for the captives plight, and other concessions to moral relativism -- let alone to add the excuses the captives themselves have made, on behalf of their captors and the society that encourages them. Nor did I find space for this worthy sentiment, echoed by many readers: I hope that you and I are never in such a situation, for neither you nor I, though hopeful, can be particularly certain that we would stand. Others said gloatingly they look forward to when I am captured by terrorists -- a few even volunteered to perform the experiment -- to see how courageous I will be, when I am asked to deny everything I believe in. To which I reply, that I cannot know how I will behave in such a situation, until I am in it. But if I capitulated, from fear of pain and death, I would be deeply ashamed of what I had done. And this shame would haunt me for the rest of my life. I would not be appearing all smiles on TV, I would not be accepting the accolades of my colleagues, and I would surely have the decency to contradict anyone who dared call me brave for saving my own skin. And if I had, in that moment of cowardice, denied Christ, Id be praying for forgiveness as Judas should have prayed. Unless, like his, my soul had been broken by the gravity of my act. This is no mere ethics quiz: I invite my reader to ask himself what he would do in the situation those Fox journalists found themselves in. Not what I would do -- I am just the messenger -- but what you would do. And before you give any quick or clever answer, recall that our whole civilization stands or falls on what you decide. Do you, do we, have the courage to hold our spiritual fortress? Or will we, in the time of trouble, give everything away? Go read the popstscript at the link while you're at it. Posted by: Mike 2006-09-03 |
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