Posted on 08/28/2006 9:47:01 AM PDT by Grig
The release of the Fox News personnel brings up what I think is an interesting moral question. If you give in and 'convert' so you can get back to your family etc., are you violating your true faith?
I don't think anyone can say for sure what they would do under such prolonged duress and I wouldn't judge someone harshly for having a breaking point, but I hope I would resist even to death any effort to force me to deny my faith.
I started a poll on this at FreeDominon, and thought you might want to have a go at it too. There is no poll function here, so you can either register and vote there, or just post a reply here, or just think it over.
The Poll:
You have been kidnapped by radical Muslims who will torture and kill you unless you publicly convert to Islam and participate in a propaganda video with them. Do you intend to....
a) Refuse to convert to help them in any way, even to the point of death by beheading.
b) Resist for as long as you can, but when no rescue comes, go ahead and do it. Everyone (including God) knows you don't really mean it so it doesn't matter.
c) Resist as long as they don't hurt you too much, but when no rescue comes, go ahead and do it. You're not sure there is a God to offend so who cares.
d) Resist for as long as you can, but when no rescue comes, go ahead and do it. God will not be pleased, but you can repent later after you are back with your family.
e) Forget this 'resist as long as you can' stuff, just do it and get the heck out of there.
f) Resist for as long as you can, but when no rescue comes make the video but not 'convert'.
g) Resist for as long as you can, but when no rescue comes 'convert but refuse to make the video.
h) I'de be the one doing the kidnapping you infidel dog!
i) Other (post and explain)
One night several years ago, a drunk Moslem holding a machine gun, approached me. I was in the passenger seat of a van with my husband driving and all my children in the vehicle. He demanded to know if we were Christians.
It did flash through my head to say "no."
I did not.
I tried to think how to say yes without upsetting him. I tried to think how to deflect his question.
While I was thinking, my husband started off the van, as the family to whom we were giving a ride had just left the vehicle.
We drove off without me ever giving the moslem man with a gun an answer.
FWIW, the gun was never pointed at us.
He did. And the rest of his life, including the way he died, proved a complete repentance from those denials.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I found a good article on that subject by Spencer W. Kimball, deceased president of the Church, called Peter, My Brother. Even if you don't believe Spencer W. Kimball was a prophet, as I do, you might find the article interesting anyway.
I never said such a denial was unforgivable, but certainly a big no-no. Though no man knows before the actual test what he will do, I certainly will not plan ahead to deny Him to save my life.
Yeah I'm calling you a keyboard hero.
BTW people who think they can use past military service as a weapon have forgotten why they served to begin with.
"BTW people who think they can use past military service as a weapon have forgotten why they served to begin with"
People who can't honour the sacrifice of those who fought for them forgot where their liberty comes from. I'll throw my hat in with a real hero like him rather than a real (and keyboard) jerk like you.
Anybody saying "A" as a kneejerk answer is full of it.
Once you have your privates threatened for real you will not be thinking the same.
I for one have no idea what I would do.
If God gives me the strength I would do "A".
In my own flesh I would do what it takes to survive.
I don't think God would hold it against you for "converting" under duress.
The worst thing it is is lying.
Sounds like the question, Do you love your own worldly life more than God? I sure don't...
I will never forget that I am an American fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.
Even if you "convert" you can't trust this scum to let you go. I don't know what I would do in that situation because I haven't been in it or plan to be in it.
I wouldn't blame anyone who has experienced it. They do what they have to do. Such is life.
Now we need to keep going until we wipe the people that force such decisions on others at gunpoint off the face of the earth. That is the important thing to remember here.
I don't think spitting in someone's face is a very good witness.
Just saying. If you want to go the martyr route, submit to it completely.
SD
We drove off without me ever giving the moslem man with a gun an answer.
lol...it sounds as if you and hubby drove off and left a family standing next to a drunk muslim with a gun. You didn't, did you?
I don't know ... Jesus took the time to sit down and actually braid the scourge he used to go into the temple and whip his own people out of it because they were making a mockery of his father's house.
I'm quite sure He wasn't humming .. "I love you, you love me .. we're a Ha pee fa ma lee ... " while he pulled the braids tight before going in.
y'know?
Yes, I guess we did exactly that. LOL! It's not as bad as it sounds. I didn't give enough details, I guess. I've been accused of being to wordy.
The family was moslem, too. The father of the family, when he saw what was happening, had come around the van and was trying to distract the gunman. Apparently they knew each other. As we were driving off, I saw the father, with his arm firmly around the gunman's shoulder, walking away from the road. I have a vision of the gunman trying to look back toward us and the father pulling him back to look toward the neighborhood. I can't say for sure if the last actually happened or I am remembering that part wrong.
The family was in our "debt" as we had just done them a "good deed." It had begun to rain as the family was walking and we offered them a ride which they gratefully accepted. It then became the father's responsibility to return the hospitality by defending us. There were a lot of cultural events at that point.
CMS, thank you for your service and sacrifice. I sleep safely at night because of heroes like you.
Well let's just watch threads about Kerry and Murtha for the coming double standard.
I am all for telling their side of it and reporting from Palestine but the "beautiful people "part was a bit too lick spittle for me. Still I am glad they are back.
I'd like to think that I would fight tooth and nail to avoid being captured in the first place, even if it resulted in my death. If captured, I'm not sure what I might do in the face of the torture that would be sure to come. Perhaps McCain could shed some light on this.
I send my thanks and high regards for your courages service to our country. My son has begun his first tour and is at his fob now. He will be engaged in combat ops somewhere in the Baghdad area and will see action. His faith is strong, and I suspect he feels much the same way as you. I would be over there too, but the military thinks I am too old to serve. As for me, I'll take liberty or I'll take death. I'd rather die fighting than be taken prisoner by such thugs.
The Apostle Peter said he would die before denying his Lord, and look what happened. When Muslims speak of Allah as being "The Merciful," that mercy is contingent upon obedience. When we speak of the mercies of God, however, we should reference the innocent suffering and death of the incarnate Christ on behalf of all people for all time, even those who, out of fear for their own lives, deny Him. It is not our obedience, but His and His alone, that has any value, both now and forever.
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