Thank you for these words, Peggy.
 

This is so true. But it's still hard to bear. And harder still to know that some who call themselves Christian are vilifying him and his action.
 

I fortunately have not heard anyone, Christian or not, vilifying him. Don't really wish to either. The clerk of his meeting was on CNN saturday night, and I think he did a good job and Anderson Cooper did a good interview. They did not seem to feel the need to present any other 'side'. I was grateful. I have submitted a longer version of this for my UPI colum tomorrow.
 

I know Tom, and I know that he has endured significant fear, isolation, and suffering to serve the families and communities in Iraq. His courage and commitment to advance the Peaceable Kingdom are a heritable legacy only if we can endure the human struggle and human pain that he – and his master – chose to endure.

I am dismayed by the omnipresent reports calling Tom a "peace activist." If you did that work anywhere else on earth, you would be called a "social worker," or perhaps a "friend." In our community, Tom was a musician, a baker, a dad, a 1st-day-school teacher, a youth leader, and a friend to all, quietly mentoring and fostering the best in all of us. The practical means of feeding, serving, healing, and loving reveal Tom's concrete commitment to peace in every community.

Without the baker, there can be no communion. Without sharing meals, there is no community.

warmest regards at a painful time,
john paul
--
Free the Captives
 

Thank you john paul for taking the time to write here. Our sincere prayers are with your community as they are with the three still held.

Tom embodied the word "friend" - truly it is all that we can be to people.

When I said he was 'unbound by fear' it never occurred to me to think that he had no fear. I have known CPT'ers - they are not stupid. But Tom was obviously not paralyized by his fear - he was not bound by it.

He did not let his fear keep him from being a true friend to the world.

for his example, I am grateful