David Warren writes something about the recently released Fox News journalists that is harsh, but needs to be said:
[T]he large is often most visible in the small.
The degree to which our starch is awash is exhibited in the behaviour of so many of our captives, but especially in these two. They were told to convert to Islam under implicit threat (blindfolded and hand-tied, they could not judge what threat), and agreed to make the propaganda broadcasts to guarantee their own safety. That much we can understand, as conventional cowardice. (Understand; not forgive.) But it is obvious from their later statements that they never thought twice; that they could see nothing wrong in serving the enemy, so long as it meant theyââ¬â¢d be safe.
I assume they are not Christians (few journalists are), but had they ever been instructed in that faith, they might have grasped that conversion to Islam means denial of Christ, and that is something many millions of Christians (few of them intellectuals) have refused to do, even at the cost of excruciating deaths. Christianity still lives, because of such martyrs. Not suicide bombers: but truly defenceless martyrs.
You donââ¬â¢t necessarily have to be a Christian, to be Western. Two years ago, an heroic Italian captive, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, asked to make whimpering statements as part of the video of his execution in Iraq, ripped at his hood and instead declared, ââ¬ÅThis is how an Italian dies!ââ¬Â to his contemptible captors. He must have upset them: for they shot him instead of sawing off his head. In making his stand for human dignity, he also turned one of their propaganda videos, into one of ours.
But Quattrocchi had three friends, who all successfully begged for their lives. And the two Fox journalists, whom I will not stoop to name, begged for their lives even though, in retrospect, their lives probably werenââ¬â¢t in danger.
Why did Fatah bother to make the video? Didnââ¬â¢t they realize conversion under duress means nothing? That no one, East or West, would take it at face value?
They didnââ¬â¢t make it for face value. They made it to show the whole Muslim world, via satellite television, what wimps these Westerners are. That theyââ¬â¢ll do anything at all to save their lives, that they donââ¬â¢t think twice about it. That is the substance of most Islamo-fascist propaganda: that the West consists of straw men, of men without chests, of men easily pushed over.
There are many causes to this degraded situation, but the most important one is the rise of materialism, the heretical belief that the material world, what we can see and measure and feel with our senses, is all that there is. No heaven. No God. No soul.
If you believe that, then there is no higher value than saving one’s skin and maximizing one’s pleasures. We see this on the political left, but we see it on the right as well. For the left, the manifestations are obvious: we need to prolong life at all costs, even at the expense of the lives of the unborn. We must create heaven on earth because this is all we have. If we consider the matter, we also see this tendency on the right, such as in the belief of an absolutist notion of economic freedom that makes no provision for the poor or in the endorsement of any injustice so long as it is aimed at the enemy in war time. The notion that justice might require us to risk lives and treasure to protect noncombatants (even those of another civilization) is dismissed as so much drivel.
And if you are a materialist that doesn’t believe in God and Jesus and Divine Justice, I suppose that’s a reasonable standpoint. It is, after all, the end point of the high pagan morality of Ancient Rome; unlike Christian civilization, it did not expand the orbit of moral responsibility to strangers and even one’s enemies. Christianity releases us from the closed circle of materialism and, at the same time, provides supernatural guidance and strength so that men like St. Sebastian, St. Valentine, and St. Maximillian Kolbe, and women like St. Philomena, could go to their deaths even in the face of tortures and certain death rather than endorse a lie. I have been blessed without having to face this kind of trial. But I hope if I do I won’t give up my dignity and deny the Faith of my Fathers.
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Wait a minute. Just because someone agrees to convert to Islam with their mouth doesn’t mean they convert to Islam with their heart. I like what the Italian did, and I’ll bet Islamists would have some second thoughts about things would every captured American act in the same way. But I’m not going to fault someone who has a family (especially kids) that rationally decides that life at the expense of a lie is better than a widow and bereft kids.
If those journalists were now praying to Mecca each day, well, then maybe you’d have something. But I really doubt that they are.
You’re undoubtedly right that the pro forma confession to save one’s life was done here under durress and may have even been rational when the merely earthly interests of one’s own life and family life are taken into account. I definitely have sympathy for them, but I think there is a broader point to at least consider: what things are worth dying for? What actions are so degrading and dishonorable that it is better to die than to perform them? For Christians, blasphemy is pretty high on the list.
You’re undoubtedly right that the pro forma confession to save one’s life was done here under durress and may have even been rational when the merely earthly interests of one’s own life and family life are taken into account. I definitely have sympathy for them, but I think there is a broader point to at least consider: what things are worth dying for? What actions are so degrading and dishonorable that it is better to die than to perform them? For Christians, blasphemy is pretty high on the list.
I wonder, too, about just what would be considered worth dying for. I’ve noticed that many people are saying they, too, would do whatever was necessary to stay alive. But where is the line there? Is betrayal of others OK to stay alive? Collaborating with enemies? Where is the line to be drawn?
And of course Christians, who believe that we are just passing through this world will see things differently than the agnostic or atheist. But I’ve just been troubled by the seeming lack of will to resist that has emerged in the discussions of this incident.
In the words of John Stuart Mill, ”A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
How is it blasphemy? Isn’t God able to look at the situation objectively and know that the “conversion” is a fraud?
The real question is why the double standard? Why with one breath do we exclude journalist from being “American” or “Western”, attacking them for being…well…journalist. And then say they are a representation of us and should just do what the good little Italian did?
I think that we have to face the facts…that America and by definition the “West” is not made up of card caring patriots forming a single-minded front. But instead it is the “lumpy pot” of un-melted ideas, religions, and philosophies that preclude us from ever forming a central front against such a strong ideology as Islam.
I am not surprised that the two Fox employees did what they did. I would expect, to be honest, that that would be result more seen…then the opposite. We are not a country of Christians. We are not a country of patriots. We are not what the neo-cons say we are. We are not even what the enemy says we are.
We are a country of diverse ideologies, religions, philosophies, life-styles, politics, and values. It is because of that we can not accomplish much. And why when push comes to shove we cannot put forth a single-minded strategy that is shared from the administration to the way a citizen of this country will respond when captured and coerced into converting while on camera.
And to be honestââ¬Â¦I prefer it that way. But it sure does make it hard to fight a single-minded ideology sometimes.
cl
We can’t accomplish much? We’re the most dominant and successful economy and culture on the planet by a very wide margin!
James: forget about religion for a sec. The propaganda value could be huge for the terrorists. Might prospective jihadists look at these two reporters as products of a weak, decadent culture and religion–thus encouraging more of the same.
With respect to religion: If you’re a Chrisitan, you’re required to witness the faith. That’s why we celebrate Pentecost and the martyrs. Yes, anyone can say anything in a moment like that; those guys were scared to death, and that’s forgivable. But if they were Christians, they were still wrong. Again, easily understood, but still wrong.
cl: “good little Italian did.”
Those adjectives are pretty freaking callous.
I agree that if we all acted like a bunch of Spartans, with a damn-the-torpedoes “you get my name, rank, serial number, and an invitation to go to Hell” attitude, radical Islamists would be thinking twice about messing with us. Instead, they eat Big Macs, wear Levis, and think we’re weak and decadent without realizing that they’re slowly becoming just like us. We are like the Borg only with a much more insidious bedside manner.