I cannot bring myself to weep over the murder of Tom Fox by the forces of terror in Iraq. Instead, I rejoice.

Some of you might find this statement shocking. If you do, I hope you read to the end of this post for an explanation.

Tom Fox, the Virginia peace activist who was taken hostage last year in Iraq, has been found dead, a State Department spokesman said last night. The FBI verified that a body found in Baghdad on Thursday morning was that of Fox, according to the State Department. It was not immediately clear last night when he had been killed or how. Nothing was said immediately about the circumstances leading to the discovery of the body.

Concern for Fox, a 54-year-old resident of Clear Brook, Va., who was kidnapped in November, had risen this week after he was not seen in the broadcast of a video of three fellow kidnapped Christian peace activists.

On Tuesday, al-Jazeera television aired the footage of the three other activists purportedly appealing to their governments to secure their release. A January video, in which Fox had appeared, said all the captives would die unless U.S. and Iraqi authorities released all prisoners held in Iraq.

Noel Clay, a State Department spokesman, said he had no information on the three other hostages. Clay said that "additional forensics" on Fox's body "will be done in the United States."

Fox disappeared Nov. 26 in Baghdad, along with Norman Kember, 74, of Britain, and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada. The four worked with Christian Peacemaker Teams, a Toronto- and Chicago-based group that opposes the Iraq war and has criticized treatment of detainees in U.S. and Iraqi jails.

All four had appeared in two earlier videos released by their captors, a little-known group called the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group has accused the four of spying for Western governments.

In Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said early Saturday that he had no information on the discovery.

Tom Fox was a Christian -- a Quaker who lived out the pacifism his reading of the Bible called upon him to live. He saw himself called to spread a message of peace and reconciliation. I admire that in him, even as I disagree with the belief that such radical pacifism is the proper response in the face of an implaccably violent foe. But Tom Fox was consistent with his beliefs.

Fox had recognized that his peace activities entailed possible danger. He had left instructions as to what should be done if he was kidnapped. "Under no circumstances did he want any violent efforts to rescue him," Maulden said.

Again, there is something to be admired in such a response to danger met in the service of Christ. It is similar to the Franciscan ethic in the Catholic tradition. I admire it, even as I do not believe myself called to it. I respect the commitment to non-violence that Tom Fox had, even though I reject the wishy-washy leftist view that it is the US and Britain who are responsible for the violence in Iraq, not the deposed dictator or the outside forces of terror who have flooded the country in an effort to sow murder, violence, and anarchy.

Ultimately, Tom Fox laid down his life as an example for his fellow man out of what I believe to be a profund and sincere commitment to Christ. In my book that qualifies as martyrdom, every bit as much as the deaths of those who died in the Colosseum nearly two millenia ago. And so I cannot bring myself to feel more than a passing sadness at his death, for I believe that the words of Christ to the Good Thief have also been spoken to Tom Fox -- "This day you will be with Me in Paradise."

How, then, can I do other than rejoice in the great reward that awaited Tom Fox as he passed from this world of tears into the eternal joy that is life eternal in the presence of our Heavenly Father?

It is my prayer that the martyrdom of Tom Fox speaks loudly to those who would otherwise take up the murderous false martyrdom urged on believers of Islam.

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