Non-Erotic PoetryHappy Birthday, Pastor Bae Hyung KyToday, July 25, 2007, you are 42 years old.
We, the Taliban, are hosting your birthday party:
you are the guest of honor today.
We will begin the celebration with
ten scorching lead candles. Your blood
will snuff the heat and your flesh
will mutilate their form. But more
candles are needed. You’ve been in
captivity six days. Those could count.
There are twenty-two Korean Christian
hostages remaining. Those we
will count as candles for your party
also. That makes thirty eight. We
have trouble making ends meet here
in the desert, it is hard to find candles...
You have a wife and a nine-year old daughter
back in Korea, we will let that bring us to
forty, though you are dead now and don’t care.
It has been five days now, and we still need
two more candles for you, this party
is becoming tiresome. So we kill
Shim Sung Min, and are only one candle
short; but killing any others would
hurt our cause. We can't find another one.
You and your Jesus.
On July 19, 2007, 23 Korean missionaries on a ten day relief mission, traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar, were kidnapped by the Taliban. The Taliban demanded release of political prisoners in exchange for their return. The news was underreported in the United States. Six days later, Pastor Bae was shot and killed, and his body left for discovery in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. July 25th was the pastor’s birthday.
On August 30, 2007, the remaining Korean hostages were released after 42 complete days in captivity.
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