The United States government must make a
formal apology to secure the freedom of two Americans who remain imprisoned in
North Korea, North Korean legal experts
(try to say that without laughing)
said Thursday, October 23rd. Earlier that week North Korea released
erstwhile American prisoner Jeffrey Fowle. Fowle, who had not yet been tried in
a court, was flown out of North Korea on a U.S. military jet on Tuesday,
October 21st, after being
detained for six months for leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the city of Chongjin, where he was visiting with a
foreign tour group.
Getting
Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae out of prison, however, will likely require an
official statement of apology and formal request for their release from Washington,
according to the two North Korean law
experts. Though nothing is known for sure, there is speculation that Miller
and Bae were also detained for carrying Bibles and engaging in activity
potentially detrimental to the officially atheist state.
Two
main points must be brought up here. One: consider what the reaction of former
presidents might have been if Americans abroad were detained- let alone imprisoned for 6 months- for the
“crime” of carrying a Bible/believing in Christianity? Teddy Roosevelt? Harry
Truman? JFK? Ronald Reagan?
Point
number two: truth be told, we may soon be imprisoning our own citizens for
carrying a Bible or leaving one in a nightclub…and almost surely for
“proselytizing.” Already any clergy member that dares cite a Biblical reference
that isn’t pro homosexuality, for example,
is risking censure…or worse. In Canada these “wayward” priests or
pastors can be banned from their pulpits and actually face criminal charges.
Yes,
Pyongyang is demanding Washington,
D.C. apologize.
What
would (our first president, the “Father of Our Country”) Washington, the man,
have replied?
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