No Virtue, No Valor: Are Suicide Bombers Martyrs?

Steve Curtis, Cape Fear School of Discipleship

Abstract

It is likely that within the next few days – whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other quarter of the world – there will be a suicide bombing. It is a wretched consequence of the global conflict against terrorism that the frequency of such attacks can cauterize our collective conscience. We read or hear of another terrorist, another bombing, another killing, and we chalk it up as an unfortunate yet unavoidable cost of such an unconventional war. As a result of this numbing of our sensibilities and the attendant blurring of our perceptions, this most outrageous and wicked manifestation of terrorism is subtly penetrating traditional ideas of warfare – gaining forbearance if not even pardon. Consider the indirect honor we bestow upon these radicals whenever we say that they have, at least, the courage of their convictions. Do our own passions help us to understand and, to some degree, even empathize? We must not give credit where credit is not due; the answer must be an emphatic “No!”

We must resist such a lethargic analysis and, instead, critically examine the clear distinctions that delineate them from us, and there are several. Chief among these is the foundational tenet of sacrifice as an expression of love, as opposed to sacrifice as an expression of hate. And this distinction is based on one even more properly basic: Truth, as opposed to a lie.