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Orbis non sufficit


Monday, June 25, 2007

Hmm

The power of inner strength drawn from a coherent belief and values
system is no better illustrated than by the recollections of SignallerHubert
(Bert) Joseph Head, 8th Division Signals following his liberation after
three and a half years as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II.
Bert barely survived Changi and the dreaded ironworks in Osaka, Japan.
He variously described the latter as 'Dante's Inferno' and 'hell on earth,’ far
worse than his experience at Changi.2 In his book, which is a graphic and
disturbing account of survival in the midst of misery and human
suffering, Bert reflected on how his ordeal had focused his perspective on
life's basic beliefs:

"In pre-war years I had what might be termed an 'accepted' view of
Christianity. I had accepted the beliefs of Christianity without
giving them much, or any, thought. I had believed in a vague way
that Christian teachings were the only worthwhile ones. I still feel
that I would be a far better man today had I obeyed all the 'do's and
don'ts' I had to listen to from the pulpit in my youth.
It is my firm belief now, however, that it doesn't matter at all
whether a man is a Christian, a Jew, a Mohammedan or anything
else. For each and every man on earth is answerable to his maker, not
through his race, nor by the sect or religion by which he worships
Him, nor by his sincerity in his faith in the precepts of his religion or
church, but by his own individual spiritual and moral life. God is all
merciful, irrespective of what a man's beliefs may be. And whatever
our race and our creed, we all know deep in our hearts just how
worthy or unworthy we are of being truthfully known as Christians,
Jews, Mohammedans, or what you will, and thus of eventually
meriting God's blessings."

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