I will apologize now and simply say that what you have written is way to deep for me. I am simply not up to sifting a response to John’s original posting and the letter within it through Palanhiuk’s Haiku. That’s probably just me reacting negatively because I didn’t like Fight Club-the book or the movie. What exactly are you saying?

To be perfectly honest my “natural” reaction (my carnal nature-if anyone holds to the foolishness that we have such a thing)was/is anger, no, rage at the savage actions of committed Islamists whose evangel is done at the point of the sword, in the flash of a nuclear weapon or through the ravages of a bio-terror holocaust. Given that Islam spans many tribes and tongues and has as great a global reach as the global Christianity you write about, it seems to me that a depiction of the murderers of these Christians as some sort of isolated, poor, backward tribe paints a false picture of who the murderers are and what they desire.

None of which actually matters in the context of John’s post and his question. I think the answers for John and for all of us can be found in the responses of the martyrs’ loved ones. Pray for the persecutors. Pray not for persecution to cease but for the ability persevere. Pray for the young persecutors to come faith in Christ. That kind of love, I believe, is the response Jesus has set by his own example for his global Church. I believe the letter John shared is reminding the Church that faith in Christ at times has a fierce cost and that love (the active verb) is faith in action.

Reading these responses from the brothers and sisters in the trenches who are risking their lives and do not have the protection of world wide web anonymity in the practical application of their theology and Christianity gives me some small hope that I can move past foolish rage and tears of anger and sadness and into something resembling a Christ-like response and attitude like the love demonstrated in that terrible (in the old sense of that word) letter.

“The language of the New Testament was shaped with this sort of experience in mind. These men were re-living and re-dying - in a limited sense at least - the formative experience of the church of Jesus Christ. The emerging church must understand where it comes from - and who its Lord is.” Thank you for that bit of wisdom Andrew. I found it edifying, comforting and bracing.

Thank you John for sharing this with us and bringing us to our senses.

Alario