For all the hullabaloo in the media, you’d think the Pope had died.
No mention of Catholicism in the news these days fails to announce that it’s controversial because of the Church’s positions on abortion, sodomy and various other crucial planks of the Democratic platform — which happen to run counter not only to Catholicism, but all three major world religions.
In defense of the Catholic Church’s “controversial” position on girl priests (“controversial” meaning “contrary to the clearly stated opinion of CNN”), I wanted to return to a story from a few weeks ago that passed from the headlines far too quickly.
The actual news has provided us with a beautiful pair of bookends illustrating women’s unique skills and also unique weaknesses, in this case literal, physical weakness. The escape of Brian Nichols from a policewoman’s custody into the home of a Christian woman who persuaded him to turn himself in shows women playing roles they should not (escorting dangerous criminals) and women playing roles they do best (making men better people).
Nichols’ murderous rampage began when he grabbed a gun from a 5-foot-tall grandmother who was his sole guard at the Fulton County Courthouse. It ended when an otherwise unremarkable 26-year-old woman appealed to the Christian conscience of this same violent killer as he held her hostage, transforming him.
At 2 a.m. one Saturday night, Ashley Smith went out for cigarettes while unpacking her new apartment. Returning from the store, Smith was grabbed by a man at her front door, who put a gun in her side and told her not to scream. He asked if she knew who he was. When he removed his baseball cap, she saw it was Nichols, the dangerous fugitive all over TV who had escaped custody during his rape trial and had killed four people in the previous 48 hours. (Although he also looked a lot like of one the guys on “American Idol.”)
In Smith’s apartment, Nichols bound Smith’s feet and hands and put her in the bathtub. Later, at Smith’s request, Nichols allowed her to hop from the bathroom into the bedroom, where she began talking to him.
In short order, Smith was reading aloud to Nichols from Pastor Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Life” — in direct violation of his constitutional right to never hear any reference to God, in public or private, for any purpose, ever, ever, ever! For more on this right, go to the “People for the American Way” Web site.
After reading the first paragraph of Chapter 33 aloud, about serving God by serving others, Nichols — the man pundits were calling an “animal” — asked her to read it again.
Nichols listened to the passage and responded by telling Smith he was already dead, saying, “Look at my eyes.” But Smith looked and told him God had a purpose for him, perhaps to minister to other lost souls in prison. Smith read to Nichols some more, both from the “Purpose” book and from another popular book that’s been dropped from nearly all news accounts of this incident: the New Testament. (In the Hollywood version, Smith will be reading from the Quran.)
Smith knew all about Nichols’ violent depredations from TV. Yet she managed to see him not as a monster, but as one of God’s creatures. Most Christians — most people — have trouble seeing the humanity of people who take our parking spots. Smith could see God’s imprint in a multiple murderer, holding her hostage. By showing him genuine Christian love, Smith turned Nichols from a beast to a brother in Christ. This phenomenon, utterly unknown to liberals, is what’s known as a “miracle.” Top that, Paul Krugman!
Nichols told Smith she was “an angel sent from God,” calling her “his sister” and himself her “brother in Christ.” He said he had come to Smith’s home for a reason, in Smith’s words, that “he was lost and God led him right to me to tell him that he had hurt a lot of people.”
This wanton trampling of our Constitution lasted long into the night. They watched Nichols’ shooting people on TV. Nichols said he couldn’t believe he was that man. In the morning, Smith made Nichols eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Then she walked out of the apartment to pick up her daughter and to call 911. The last thing Nichols said to her was to say hello to her daughter for him. When the police arrived, Nichols surrendered without incident, an utterly transformed human being.
Heaven help the average liberal in such a situation! What would an urban secularist do? Come sit down and let me read to you from Michael Moore’s “Stupid White Men.” Or maybe he could put a SpongeBob video in the VCR. WE ARE FAM-I-LEEEEE! At least before he killed again, the dangerous fugitive would have warm feelings toward homosexuals.
It’s also another example of how our universities are failing students. The average college coeds would be dead: They know nothing about Jesus Christ and can’t cook a good meal.
Smith saved the soul of a man on a killing spree by talking to him about Christianity. But liberals think this won’t work with the Muslims? We ought to fly this Ashley Smith to Saudi Arabia. We could just make her a box lunch every day and send her on her way.
Liberals would approve of a nice Christian girl like Smith going to the Middle East only if she went as a Marine or maybe getting herself run over by a tank while defending a PLO tunnel for suicide bombers. Feminist lunacy doesn’t convert and transform, it browbeats and harangues. The only miracle it has ever performed is getting people to listen to Nancy Pelosi.
COPYRIGHT 2005 ANN COULTER
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