Thought for the Day, 29 November 2005

The Rt Rev. Tom Butler

It is reported that a lion cub and two parrots have been kidnapped from a zoo in Gaza. Hopefully they'll be returned safely, perhaps after the payment of a ransom, and that too must be the hope for the four Christian humanitarian workers kidnapped recently in Iraq, but the outcome isn't at all certain: the members of the lay leadership team of St. George's Church Baghdad disappeared four weeks ago and nothing has been heard of them since.

Should the aid workers still have been in Iraq? I was struck yesterday by the different perspective of those commenting on the kidnapping. The spokesman for Care International, another aid agency, was quite clear. For him, the answer was "No". His priority in a dangerous environment was the safety of his staff. Canon Andrew White, much involved in the Iraqi conflict, was reported as taking the same line; indeed, he'd warned the group a year ago that if they didn't leave they risked being kidnapped.

So were the group irresponsible in staying, and by so doing, putting their own life at risk? A local bishop, Bishop Riah, Bishop of Jerusalem, took a very different line. He was glad that they'd stayed, because their presence demonstrated that the Christian community is not merely a part of an occupying force. Their presence demonstrated that they were on the side of the Iraqi people. Their's could be a reconciling presence articulating the voice of the voiceless.

"Yes, but is it worth the possible sacrifice?" the bishop was asked. "Definitely," was his answer. "Reconciling partners may always risk their lives, but that is the right thing to do in a worthy cause."

Martyrdom lies deep in the Christian and the Muslim tradition and the conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Iraq have produced many men and women willing to sacrifice their lives, but of course we must make a separation between the noble martyrdom of a person sacrificing his or her own life for the good of others or the cause that they serve and the person taking into their death, the deaths of many others who had neither been consulted nor involved. And of course we must not naively confuse the nobility of a person willing, though not wishing, to sacrifice themselves with the martyred way of life which effectively has the result of putting everyone else in the wrong.

In the present situation, whether or not the kidnapped aid workers were right to ignore the advice to leave given them by responsible people, we must pray that what they have done for the good of others will not rebound fatally upon themselves.