Posted on 12/27/2001 1:35:48 AM PST by Ada Coddington
The Things That Are Caesar's
by Joseph Sobran
Nutty boy, John Walker Lindh. But why is everyone so furious at him?
By now you've heard all about him. Born a Catholic, he lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington until he was ten. His family moved to crazy Marin County, Calif. His mother dabbled in Buddhism.
A bright, likable boy and a superior student, with a good sense of humor, John became a Muslim in his teens and went off to Yemen, changing his name to Suleyman al-Faris. He found the Muslims there disappointingly lax in their observance of Islam, so he migrated to Afghanistan and joined the Taliban, fighting in a local war under the name Abdul Hamid.
His parents, who eventually divorced, lost track of him until he turned up as a prisoner of war in early December. He was wounded in the leg during the prisoner uprising that killed one American CIA agent who had interrogated him.
His parents were shocked, both by his role and by his strange appearance – Islamic costume, beard, dirty face, long matted hair – but they defended him as well as they could. That is to say, awkwardly. How do you explain "my son, the Taliban"?
Newsweek reports that his parents "tried to be nonjudgmental, even supportive, about his conversion"; last week, in interviews, his father still "steadfastly refused to be judgmental."
Meanwhile, everyone else called John a "traitor." Many are demanding that he receive the death penalty. The US government wants to throw the book at him. But there are also doubts as to whether he is legally a traitor; though technically still a US citizen, Congress hasn't declared war as prescribed by the Constitution. And there may not be the two required witnesses to confirm that he actually made war against the United States.
I guess I understand the indignation, but I don't share it. What is all the uproar about a single eccentric? Is it amazing, or shocking, that a country this big should produce such a freak, or even a few more like him? Letting him off is hardly likely to encourage hordes of young Americans to follow his bizarre example. There is no need to make an example of a unique case.
No, Lindh's significance is purely symbolic. He affronts prevailing notions of American patriotism. But he effectively renounced his citizenship, even if he didn't do the paperwork, and he transferred his allegiance to another country. How was he supposed to know it would be attacked by US forces? If Cassius Clay could become Muhammad Ali, why can't John Walker Lindh become Suleyman al-Faris? "In the U.S. I feel alone," he once said. "Here I feel comfortable and at home."
Of course, he has also said outrageous things, defending, for example, the 9/11 attacks and general terrorism against the United States. But to me the most interesting fact is the dog that hasn't barked. Nobody seems to mind that Lindh renounced Jesus Christ.
You can repudiate your Savior, but not your nation-state. Your religion is a private affair, which nobody else can judge, not even your family; but political loyalties are indissoluble.
If Lindh had stayed here, become an abortion provider, and attached a little American flag to his Mercedes, he would still qualify as a good American.
Even his parents don't mind his change of religion. Why should they? They abandoned the faith themselves. It evidently wasn't a serious commitment for them; neither was their marriage. They were typical modern Americans – indeed, Californians – and they believed in doing your own thing.
John's thing just happened to be Islam. He is reported to have complained that Americans were so busy pursuing their personal goals that they had no time for their families or communities. He seems to have been generalizing from his own parents. And he had a point.
It looks as if what he was really trying to escape was the soulless relativism that was his real religious heritage. Did he ever receive a true Catholic education, or did he, as we say, just "happen to be" a Catholic? Did he encounter the faith in its fullness, or did it appear to him just one more feel-good, nonjudgmental denomination in the great American smorgasbord?
Maybe he felt closer to God in Islam than in liberal Catholicism. And maybe he was right. The Taliban is pretty far from God, but perhaps not as far as lukewarm Christianity.
In his odd way, Lindh was looking for stable truths that were not to be found in Marin County, and he didn't care if his search led him to conclusions that seemed insane to the apostles of pluralism.
Given time, he might even have come back to the true Catholicism he probably never knew. It's not impossible even now. I'd be more surprised if his parents came back to it.
But in the media, Lindh the Traitor has upstaged Lindh the Apostate. Politics matters, religion is incidental. If the logic of Lindh's adoptive religion leads him to political heresy, he is condemned for following his religion – just as pro-lifers are blamed for refusing to subordinate their religion to a court decision.
So the strangest story to emerge from the War on Terrorism throws a revealing light on what America has become. The message of the press and public reaction is clear. We have the secularist culture's full permission to rebel against God, but not against Caesar.
Nobody seems to see sin, or pathos, in John Lindh's estrangement from Christ.
But at least Lindh realized that he had a soul. This explains just about everything the media and the public find baffling about him.
Reprinted from the December 20, 2001, issue of The Wanderer.
Joe Sobran is a nationally syndicated columnist. He also edits SOBRAN'S, a monthly newsletter of his essays and columns.
He invites you to try his new collection of aphorisms, "Anything Called a 'Program' Is Unconstitutional: Confessions of a Reactionary Utopian." You can get a free copy by subscribing or renewing your subscription to Sobran's. Just call 800-513-5053, or see his website, www.sobran.com. (He's still available for speaking engagements too.)
Copyright (c) 2001 by Griffin Internet Syndicate. All rights reserved.
And what do you base that opinion on?
If he can convince the third worlders that he didn't turn on OBL like he turned on the States, maybe he'll be fortunate enough to pick up an AK, and maybe a Marine/Seal/Green Beret will see him and finish him off for good.
In God We Trust.....Semper Fi
There are some fellows that age who want to join the Foreign Legion. Some actually do, I suppose. He just picked the wrong army to join, so strip him of his citizenship and forget about him.
That would seem to be the case. If Taliban Johnny had piloted a plane, he would have been guilty of a criminal act but not treason.
I suspect he already has a religion.
You can repudiate your Savior, but not your nation-state. Your religion is a private affair, which nobody else can judge, not even your family; but political loyalties are indissoluble.
This is really silly. A crime is rare, so it shouldn't be punished. Cannabilism is too, so why were we so harsh on Jeffrey Dahmer?
Crimes are punished because they are crimes, not to "make an example."
Maybe he felt closer to God in Islam than in liberal Catholicism. And maybe he was right. The Taliban is pretty far from God, but perhaps not as far as lukewarm Christianity.
Baloney. "Lukewarm Christians" don't crash hijacked aircraft into office buildings.
Is secularism rampant because people were pulled away by our unprecedented material prosperity (as Mr. Sobran, and many of his admirers on FR, seem to think), or pushed away by churches more concerned with their own earthly sovereignty than with the doing of the Lord's will? I don't know, but the instinct among people like Mr. Sobran to refuse to look inward is all too common these days, and all too unfortunate.
Physician, heal thyself.
It would seem that requiring a state of war to exist at the time of the alleged traitorous act would require a constriction on the Constitution not in the original document, added by any amendment nor ever implied in the document. Indeed, the lack of a statement requiring a state of war to exist implies that one is not required.
Comments?
No, Joseph. He is not technically still a US citizen. Read page four of your passport again.
Your point about turning his back on Christ before turning his back on America, however, is well taken. America will judge him in the secular realm now. Spiritual judgement is out of our hands, but it WILL come in the near future.
Best thing to do with little John is to make his ID, fingerprints, etc. known to the world governments and ship him back to Afghanistan to let the new government deal with him. I imagine they're not very happy with him right now either
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