Several years ago, an American contractor was captured by radicals in the Middle East. He was beheaded and the video posted for all the world to see.
Previously, when I imagined a beheading, the thought was of the French guillotine or of a Middle Ages ax man chopping off the head on a wooden block. I also thought of a samurai sword cutting cleanly through flesh and bone. I had been told by someone or another that beheading was a swift and virtually painless, though gruesome, method of execution. Then I saw the video of the beheading of the American contractor.
As soon as I began watching the video, I began to regret my decision. The murder of this victim was neither clean, nor swift, nor painless. It was also more gruesome than I could have imagined.
The victim was obviously terrified and had been forced to his knees. Facing the camera and held helplessly in place, the masked butcher standing behind him began to saw through the front of his throat. The victim screamed in panic and pain until the knife cut through his airway and his sounds ceased. The sawing continued through muscle, flesh, and, finally, through bone. Blood was everywhere. The killer held the lifeless head high like an athlete with a trophy. It was on that day that I began to understand who the enemy was.
Over time the killers have become much more brutal and indiscriminate in their butchery. Targeted are Christians, children, Jews, and other Muslims with whom the masked men of ISIS disagree.
Recently a captured Jordanian pilot was burned alive for the cameras. Just days ago, 21 Egyptian workers, not soldiers, were beheaded at the same time, again for the cameras. Following the murders, the heads of the victims were mounted on stakes. All were Coptic Christians and were murdered for no other reason than their faith. In retaliation, both Jordan and Egypt launched airstrikes.
On Monday, Pope Francis weighed in, calling the murders a “barbaric assassination.” The next day the Pope held a Mass in honor of the 21 Coptic Christians “… whose throats were slit for the sole reason of being Christian.” The Pope declared the men to be martyrs of the Christian faith and denounced man’s capacity for evil and destruction. For their part, the so-called “Islamic State” announced its intention to conquer Rome, the seat of the Catholic Church.
The title of the video of the beheadings was, “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross.” The Islamic State narrator says, “Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of Al-Sham and Dabiq’s plain, chopping off the heads that have been carrying the [Christian] cross for a long time, and today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message … And we will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission, the promise of our Prophet, peace be upon him.”
In 1925-26, Adolph Hitler published “Mein Kampf.” In it, he warned the world what his intentions were. He was, for the most part, ignored. And then, 13 years later, the flames came and engulfed the world and over 72 million people perished.
The Islamic State has clearly announced their intentions. They intend to unleash a holocaust. Only fools would disregard them.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
