The juxtaposition could not have been more jarring. I opened TikTok only to be presented with a clip of provocateur Candace Owens ranting to Tucker Carlson about her growing hatred for Israel and its demonic behavior. I closed that app, only to open X and be greeted with this headline:
Hamas Forces Emaciated Israeli Hostage To Dig His Own Grave
Speaking of demonic, Ms. Owens, the day I saw your video, Hamas has held this young man for a hellish 666 days in captivity. A man buried alive in tunnels of terror for the profound crime of going to a music festival. His continued, pitiful existence is not being leveraged by Hamas; it is being used as a symbol of humiliation and control. It isn't a strategy. It isn't resistance. It is evil.
Evil that we have seen before, of course. The images of Jewish hostage Evyatar David are indelible: gaunt, shrunken, nearly starved to death. A son and brother reduced to brittle bones wrapped in a thin layer of worn, ashen skin. They are scenes that I saw this summer as my family toured the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
During World War II, Jews were forced to dig their own graves before being murdered by SS paramilitary guards. Today, Jewish lives are again being destroyed in calculated, dehumanizing ways. Let's not casually dismiss this as "history repeating itself." It is far more tragic. This is humanity willfully forgetting.
One need not, as voices like Owens often suggests, debase themselves at the altar of Zionism to condemn these atrocities. Even more troubling is when those who bear the name of Christ, those regularly taunt-tweeting "Christ is King," prove unwilling to denounce evil or mourn alongside the grieving.
It is nothing if it isn't biblical to not just analyze or observe suffering, but to enter into it. The prophets of Scripture wailed over violence in their cities. Godly kings wailed and groaned when the innocent were cut down. Why professing believers today would feel obligated for tribal or geopolitical purposes to offer mere sanitized statements over the expression of holy grief is thoroughly unbecoming.
No, Evyatar David is not a brother in Christ. Instead, he is a man who stands on the precipice of entering a Christ-less grave. Torture aside, if that fact does not motivate fervent and urgent prayers from the redeemed, we have utterly and completely lost the plot. At least the one that is to define our earthly existence.
May the Church of the living Christ never become desensitized to human suffering, numb to familial grief, capable of merely scrolling past injustice on our way to offering yet another socio-political hot take. May we never forget that behind every hostage is a face, a family, a future for which we are to advocate - to weep for, witness to, and walk with in truth.
Count me as one thoroughly disinterested in discussing the subtleties of international relations and American diplomatic priorities until the tunnels are empty and the hostages are home.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
