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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2006 Gary Hardaway
665 words

FOX REPORTERS BRUTALIZED DURING CAPTIVITY

By: Gary Hardaway

By now the world has become used to atrocities inflicted on journalists covering tensions on the international scene. In Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan, and other war zones, victims have been subjected to unspeakable indignities and torture. Daniel Pearl, of the Wall Street Journal, was beheaded in Pakistan in February 2002.

When Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig were recently released after two weeks of captivity in Gaza, members of the media were understandably relieved. Reports often stated that the men were returned “unharmed.” Evidently they came back in one piece. But “unharmed?”

Centanni told Fox News the two had been forced to convert to Islam – at gunpoint. With guns pointed at their heads, ordered to embrace Islam or die, the two chose to parrot words of allegiance to Allah and Mohammed. That ostensibly meant they were renouncing their previous faiths. As soon as the two were free they recanted their “conversion.”

When a human being is seized, bound, and held captive for two weeks, no one can rightly describe him as “unharmed.” He or she has been violated and terrorized. When that person has been commanded to renounce his God and embrace another god or die, that constitutes brutal harm to his or her spiritual core.

Physical pain, even torture, does not alter the essential identity of a man or woman. But denying one’s God inflicts severe damage to that identity. I don’t know if either of the newsmen were Christians or Jews, but if they were they have suffered an especially grievous injury to their being.

Scriptures recount how the prophet Daniel and three Jewish colleagues were faced with such a choice: bow to a pagan idol of Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar or be thrown alive into a roaring furnace. Their valiant reply is immortalized in Scripture. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it . . .. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3: 16-18).

If placed in a similar situation, with life on the line, every observant Jew hopes that he too would gladly stand true to Jehovah. Disloyalty to the Creator and faithful Sustainer of life brings deep shame and guilt. It mocks the fallen worshipper who desires to affirm: “I will sing of the LORD’S great love forever; with my mouth will I make know your faithfulness to all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself” (Psalm 89:1).

For the committed Christian, denial of Jesus is fraught with unbearable sorrow and failure. He cherishes and adores Christ precisely because Christ willingly went to the cross and laid down His life to save the believer from sin. John, speaking of this total sacrifice, says, “This is how we know what love is” (I John 3:16). Knowing such overwhelming love, how tragic when a Christian disowns his Savior.

Church history provides countless examples of heroic Christians who steadfastly paid the ultimate price for loyalty to Christ. Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John, chose to burn at the stake rather than utter the three words, “Caesar is Lord.”  He declared, "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

Bohemian reformer Jan Hus proclaimed, “I shall die with joy today in the faith of the Gospel which I have preached." A commentator wrote, “As the flames arose around him, he sang twice: ‘Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me.’”

The kidnapped reporters did what they felt necessary. In comparable circumstances, none of us can know for sure that we would have chosen differently. But let us never regard such spiritual agony as harmless.

Gary Hardaway has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. He holds a Ph. D. in foundations of education. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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