Martyrs?

I deliberately didn't read any of the articles about the
Christian Peacemakers Team's reactions following the
rescue of their members. I expected them to be ungracious.
The surprise would have been if they had acknowledged the
help of the British and US forces that freed them. So it was
by accident I ran across this:

Dozens of Christian Web sites and blogs — including some with critical opinions of Islam — have used "martyr" to describe peace activist Tom Fox of Clear Brook, Va., whose bullet-ridden body was found March 10, more than three months after he was abducted by a group calling itself Swords of Righteousness Brigades. His three colleagues from Christian Peacemaker Teams were freed March 23 in a U.S.-British raid.

The peacemaker teams appealed to Christians not to use Fox's death as a rallying cry against Muslims. "We ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done," CPT said in a statement.

I think that just about says it all as far as the CPT is
concerned. They set aside their inclinations to vilify
evil. Vilify US forces? Well, that's a different story.
Message to CPT - if something is wrong, it's ok to call it
wrong. Tom Fox was killed because he was American, Christian,
and naive. The Muslims you are so intent on protecting
from blame had to know that he was not a threat. They did
murder and it was wrong. It was evil. Now go hum kumbaya.

Anyway, I was reading the article because it dealt with
martyrdom. And I am still in awe of Abdul Rahman, who was
given the chance to renounce his faith to escape death. What
an amazing thing his choice was. It's easy to tell myself
that I could have done that, I'm sitting in a lumber camp
with the birdies all around. It's a different matter when
death is chilling the room, making the candles gutter. And
had push come to shove, Abdul Rahman would have been a martyr.

As to the rest of the article, I'm reminded that there are
two definitions of martyr:

1. One who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce religious principles.

2. One who makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy.

I don't think it's helpful to argue as to who falls into which
category. Suffice it to say there are too many of both types in
the middle east these days.




And also...... test driving Technorati to see if it
was getting pinged, I searched "martyr" and got this
at the top of the list:

MARTYR'S
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Well, that's comforting information.