Eric Liddell vs. Josephine Bakhita

3/7/2023

My vote: Josephine
Have you seen the film Chariots of Fire? Me neither, but it’s about Olympic gold medal winning athlete Eric Liddell. He was born to Scottish missionary parents in China, refused to compete on Sundays, even at the Olympics, and died in an internment camp in China in 1945. He seems to have been a very good man, one who tried to make life bearable for his fellow internees, especially the children.
Josephine Bakhita was born in Darfur around 1869. She was kidnapped by slave traders when she was 7 or 8, and sold five times in twelve years. She was forced to convert to Islam and given the name “Bakhita” by her captors. She couldn’t remember the name her parents gave her. She was beaten and deliberately scarred by her enslavers. She was bought in 1883 by an Italian diplomat who was kind enough <sarcasm> to not beat her, and she became the nanny to his daughter. For safety, Bakhita and the daughter stayed with the Canossian Sisters in Venice. There Bakhita experienced kindness for probably the first time since her abduction. When the Italian diplomat came to claim her, she refused to leave. The Italian court sided with Bakhita, stating that technically, legally, she had never actually been a slave. Helpful. She was baptized as Josephine on January 9, 1890 and took her vows as a Canossian Sister in 1896. She wrote her autobiography, and when asked what she would say to her captors, she replied "If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today". (from Bakhita Tells Her Story by Maria Luisa Dagnino, p 113) Josephine teaches us an important lesson: vengeance, regret, and resentment do not help us move forward. These feelings hold us back. There is a painting of Josephine on her Wikipedia entry and she looks so calm and serene, I can’t help but feel comforted just by looking at her.

3 Comments

3/18/2023 03:31:10 pm

I don’t like “lent madness.” This shouldn’t be a competition for who was more saintly — or who is liked more. In my opinion, that runs contrary to the teachings of Jesus. That said, Josephine was amazing and had an amazing testimony. So did Eric Liddell, who has long been someone I deeply admire. He was more than just a “very good man.” And he did a lot more than just make life tolerable for his fellow internees in the concentration camp. He lived the life of a true saint and is among the most selfless people I have read about.

Eric was a man who consistently chose to obey God throughout his whole life, even when that obedience led him to endure unpopularity, poverty, suffering, hardship, and eventually an early death separated from his beloved wife and children.

In his college days, the 100 meters was Eric’s best event and he sacrificed his one opportunity to win Olympic gold and to be regarded as the “fastest man in the world” because honoring God by keeping the Sabbath was more important to him than personal glory. For that, he was branded a traitor to his country and was ridiculed by his own countrymen and the British Olympic committee, but he never wavered in his conviction.

Then, after winning the 400 meters which hadn’t been his favored event (but was on a weekday), Eric became a celebrity and was offered numerous opportunities to become wealthy and a household name in the UK and America. He was offered money to endorse products, write books, and to speak publicly about athletics. But Eric turned that all down and left to China to live a humble life of obscurity with very little money as a missionary teacher.

Eric helped improve the quality of life for people in China and is regarded today as a hero by many Chinese. (There is even a statue of him there). He taught science and math to Chinese youth for 12 years; and coached Chinese youth in track and soccer, including some of the first Chinese Olympians. He taught brotherhood, sportsmanship, compassion, and discipline to the youth and pushed for the Anglo-Chinese College to grant more subsidies for poor Chinese students to attend.

Then when the second Sino-Japanese war made conditions dangerous in China, Eric made another great sacrifice in obedience to God. He left his life of comfort as a teacher to go to the war torn village of Siaochang in 1937. During that time, he only got to see his wife and children once per month, but he did so much to help the peasant population. He became superintendent of the mission hospital, and as an ordained minister, he also became an itinerant evangelist with his friend Wang Feng Chou. The people called him “Li Mu Shi” (Pastor Liddell). Eric became one with the people and risked his life numerous times to smuggle in much needed medical supplies, coal, and contraband currency to help the villagers who were being killed by the Japanese and displaced from their homes. Eric was shot at several times, held at gun point, and detained, but bravely continued his dangerous journeys, even rescuing wounded men who were left for dead by the Japanese (he even saved a man’s life by carrying him in a mule cart with a Chinese friend over 20 miles by foot and bicycle to the mission hospital during war time conditions with Japanese planes circling overhead).

By 1941, the Japanese destroyed the mission hospital and exiled Eric from Siaochang The conditions in China became so bad that the British government ordered its nationals to leave. But Eric stayed in Tianjin (his pregnant wife and children went to safety in Canada to live with her parents). Eric stayed because he was obeying his calling to help the Chinese. “I can’t abandon my people when they need me the most,” he said.

By 1943, Eric was ordered into the concentration camp in Weihsien, and his acts of selflessness and love during those two years — even as he was dying — are some of the most touching I have read. Many in the camp referred to him as “Jesus in running shoes” because he lived out the Sermon on the Mount. He taught his fellow prisoners to pray for (and love) their Japanese captors. He persuaded the greedy and wealthy to share what they had with everyone, especially the sick, elderly, and children. He regularly visited the sick in the camp to uplift their spirits — even risking his life to care for a little girl (separated from her parents) and a nun who had typhoid fever and were highly contagious. They were quarantined to the camp morgue, and nobody would go near them, but Eric visited them everyday to lift their spirits and pray with them. He organized sports, games, plays, and puppet shows for hundreds of children using makeshift equipment. He shared what little he had with everyone. He helped clean the filthy, overflowing latrines, pumped water, swept the floors, and carried coal for the elderly and disabled. He m

3/18/2023 03:43:22 pm

My comment cut off, so I’m just posting the rest:

Eric also helped clean the filthy, overflowing latrines, pumped water, swept the floors, and carried coal for the elderly and disabled. He made himself available to counsel anyone who needed it. He led Bible classes and Sunday sermons for whomever wanted to attend. He taught science and math to the children with limited supplies (even writing his own chemistry textbook from memory). He was kind to everyone regardless of race, class, or nationality. When he died, a prostitute in the camp who had been exploited and judged by most, came to Eric’s funeral weeping and said, “He’s the only man who ever helped me and never asked for anything in return.”

Eric’s last words were, “It’s complete surrender [to God].”

It broke Eric’s heart that he would never see his family again or meet his third daughter (survivors of the camp remember his tears as he read his wife’s letters and stared at photos), but he touched so many lives in the process.

He’s one of the most inspiring Christians I’ve ever read about in modern times. I recommend the biographies, “For the Glory” by Duncan Hamilton, “Pure Gold” by David Macasland, and “The Flying Scotsman” by Sally Magnusson. And Eric Liddell’s own book that he wrote while under captivity called “The Disciplines of the Christian Life.” Some of the facts I presented were from other sources (primary sources), but those books are a great place to start.

Heather

3/20/2023 02:48:53 pm

The goal of Lent Madness is to educate and inspire through a silly bracket. It was never my intention to make one person seem more holy than the other, especially in this match. Eric and Josephine both had such powerful experiences and impacts and are equally important and saintly, but according to the rules of this seriously unserious system, I had to choose one.
I hope to blog again next year and give equal time to each saint, which I know I was not able to do this year. (my husband has already pointed this out and said I can do better.)

lent madness

Eric Liddell vs. Josephine Bakhita

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