Source: GodReports, February 2, 2015
Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, beheaded by ISIS in a newly released gruesome video, also happened to be a devout Christian.
A reporter seasoned in war zones, Goto traveled to Syria hoping that Japan’s pacifist stance would grant him relative safety, unlike other journalists from nations leading airstrikes against ISIS.
He failed to take into account this new brand of terrorists is breaking all previous norms, with no apparent limits to their depravity.
“You, like your foolish allies in the Satanic coalition, have yet to understand that we, by Allah’s grace, are an Islamic caliphate with authority and power, an entire army thirsty for your blood,” a masked militant says in the video, while holding a knife to Goto’s neck.
In his reporting, Goto focused on the human cost and suffering of war, not on who was winning or losing. An Associated Press report quoted his former pastor, Hiroshi Tamura, who cited his Christian faith for inspiring his reporting.
Goto accepted Jesus in 1997, which was somewhat rare considering only two percent of the population of Japan is Christian. Christ’s call to reach the poor and broken in spirit seemed to motivate his journalism.
“I have seen horrible places and have risked my life,” he told ChristianToday.com. “I know that somehow God will always save me.”
But instead he joined the ranks of Christian martyrs who have given their lives for a higher cause—the cause of Christ. Terrorists may have taken his physical life, but they could not rob his soul of heaven’s joys.
While he focused on refugees, poverty, and innocent victims of war, his reporting also yearned for a world of peace and wellbeing, according to his mother, Junko Ishido.
Goto, 47, traveled to Syria in October 2014 to report on the war and to liberate an old friend, Haruna Yukawa, who was first captured by ISIS in August when he was peddling arms. Instead of negotiating Yukawa’s release, he himself was grabbed by the terror group.
» Read full story. See also Japanese Christian Lays Down Life for Friend ISIS Captured (Charisma News / Reuters).