Questions Related to the Current Crisis

Dr. Michael Ford

26 July 2006

Someone sent me the below quote they credited to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

The quotation I found applicable to the current defensive war Israel is waging in Lebanon. The war they are fighting there is actually the world’s war against Islamic terrorism.

Each one of the questions, posed by Dr. King, men ask themselves to decide how they should respond to Israel’s actions to protect its citizens. They pose their particular question based on what their values, motives and goals are. I see this happening in countries around the world. Making a decision about how to respond based on cowardice, expediency, or vanity are shameful basis for making any sort of decisions let alone one so important.

Fortunately for America and a few other countries the response of a great many of its citizens are nobler than some of those who seek to lead them. This includes people in politics and religion as well. They would either condemn Israel outright or call for restraint as it finally seriously responds to people who kidnap Israeli citizens and blow up Israel’s cities on an ongoing basis.

You do not see those who condemn Israel pressing Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and so forth for immediate ceasefires and concessions. The reason is that would reveal how ridiculous, inept, and powerless they really are. They have always called on the good guys to give ground and allow evil to flourish. They did the same thing with America’s and Soviet Union’s friction during the Cold War. But to heed these people is to allow evil to flourish. Had the USA gone all the way with these people then, it would not exist today. Israel could not survive heeding these people either. We seem to be living when End Time prophecy is being fulfilled. I would not care to be a critic of Israel when facing God.