On August 14, two Fox News journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, were kidnapped as they performed their duties in Gaza City. (Read more here.)Both men "converted" to Islam at the business end of a gun. Since their release on August 28th, there has been quite a bit of discussion across the blogosphere about these shotgun conversions.
Plenty of people toot their own horns, claiming that in the same position, they would never think of denying their faith. Most of the people who make this claim are my brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm sure some of these people are speaking the truth, but it's an easy claim to make given the improbability that most Americans will ever be placed in such a situation.
One commenter on La Shawn Barber's blog pondered, "I wonder what an atheist would do if forced to convert with a gun pointed at their head?" I'm not an atheist, and I'm sure someone out there could refute what I'm about to say, but I assume the answer to this question is that an atheist would fake it. He or she would fake a conversion to Islam in order to expedite his or her release, just as Centanni and Olaf did.
Knowing myself as I do, I can't help but think I would do the same. Perhaps it's cowardly, perhaps I need to be more passionate about my faith than I am, but I'm not terribly interested in dying at the hands of extremists who are willing to put a bullet in my head for no other reason than conflicting beliefs.
So, my faithdul readers, what do you hope you would do? What do you think you would do?
h/t Mary Katharine Ham
1 comment:
I decided back around the time of Columbine that martyrdom would be a really suck and pointless way to go, and resolved never to be one.
On a cynical note, martyrdom is a great way to establish a cult of hero worship amongst your followers, making them even more zealous and compliant than ever.
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