A Twist of Faith in Brutal Captivity

NY Times ^ | 21 Feb 2015 | JIM YARDLEY

[NRx]

VATICAN CITY — The Islamic State’s beheading in August of the journalist James Foley stirred global outrage, fury and despair. But for many of his fellow Roman Catholics, Mr. Foley’s death in Syria transformed him into a symbol of faith under the most brutal of conditions.

One Catholic essayist compared him to St. Bartholomew, who died for his Christian faith. Others were drawn to Mr. Foley’s account of praying the rosary during an earlier captivity in Libya. Even Pope Francis, in a condolence call to Mr. Foley’s parents, described him as a martyr, according to the family.

Then came an unexpected twist: It turned out that Mr. Foley was among several hostages in Syria who had converted to Islam in captivity, according to some freed captives. What had been among some Catholics a theological discussion of faith and heroic resistance quickly shifted to a different set of questions:

[NRx]

Caveat: This is the NY Times... forewarned etc.

[SMCC1]

I mean it’s not like he was under any physical or mental duress at the time....

[avenir]

When you think about Rahab the harlot lying to her own people—committing treason!—so as to aid the Israeli spies, and then being COMMENDED by GOD for her faith, this business of even trying to judge hidden motives of the heart in these scenarios becomes murky.

I remember in Dreyer’s JOAN OF ARC a line in which Joan tells her accusers that they could torture her physically to the point of possible surrender, but once she regained her strength she’d be right back to where her heart really was...standing with GOD and against them!

What we cannot see in these moments is the leading of God for the individual at that moment. He gives the grace and wisdom for such crisis when needed. Maybe Foley was right, or Joan was wrong. Who really knows?

[MDLION]

“The Cross cannot be defeated for it is defeat.”
- G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)