Cartoon images footnote

Not surprisingly, the same Arabian blogger who defended censorship of the internet now weighs in with a dark, pessimistic post inspired by the cartoon flap. A few writers in the comment thread echo some of the same sentiments. In December I empathized with the writer. His point of view was understandable. Something he said made me remember the words of Steven Carter whose extraordinary sensitivity to the variety of religious expressions was articulated in his book, The Culture of Disbelief.

This more recent post, however, leads me to believe the author, despite a good education and exposure to a multicultural world, is frozen in bleak isolation. (As well as those who agree with him. Remember, he speaks for a population, not just himself.) He seems not to have internalized hope, that uniquely human expectation setting human beings apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.

It is very sad. I want to find words to provide hope, but I doubt that anything I say will be able to penetrate that shell of isolation. There seems to be no understanding that by giving man free will, God provided him a tool for freedom. We know from many stories of prisoners of war and other survivors of manmade and natural disasters, that even in the midst of the most terrible conditions free will enables us to embrace hope, even to the moment of death. And the strength that we derive from that final remnant of human will is often the salvation that saves us to endure living through what later is revealed as a transitory moment.