Imprisonment After Freedom//Raygan Boster

     Yet another not so happy ending. Obviously the fact that the priest ended up apostatizing was disappointing but not surprising. I really was rooting for him all the way until the end. I say this without judgement though because I cannot even imagine what it is like to go through all of that. I do think it admirable that he did not fear any personal harm. Only when it came to others being tortured did he choose to apostatize. He was faced with tough questions and excruciating mental pain on top of physical pain. However, I would like to focus on what happened after the fact. He was promised freedom from imprisonment and torture. However, he did not get to just walk free. From then on he was basically a servant or slave to the government. Everyday he had to further inhibit God's movement through the country. It wasn't just one event of apostatizing, but a daily thing. Even though he endured no more physical torture, he still was their servant and had to go through the mental and emotional pain of putting down the Christian efforts that he used to support so heavily. Once he was free from the temptation of apostatizing, he then was under the rule of the government for the rest of time, becoming one of them as he did. I feel that it is the same with temptation of sin now, although not as extreme as this. Once you cave into temptation of sin, you are under its rule and become more and more like it everyday. Is caving in worth being a prisoner in sin?

I commented on Emily Otts and Josh Navi's posts

Comments

  1. Emma LandryApril 18, 2022 at 5:00 PM

    I was personally surprised when Rodrigues's apostasy led to a long-term imprisonment. I should have known, though, with the ruthlessness that had been displayed by the Japanese officials. Even though Rodrigues was assured that he would not even have to genuinely apostatize, the Japanese never allowed him to freely practice his faith again or to go back to his home country. Forcing the apostate priests to write books refuting Christianity is a cruel and unusual form of punishment. I wonder if Rodrigues fully understood at the moment of his decision that he would be giving up his entire life for Christ by apostatizing.
    -Emma Landry

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  2. Joshua NaqviApril 18, 2022 at 5:28 PM

    It never ends well. One must love the modern period literatures brutal predictiveness. I wish that the story would have ended differently with him perhaps dying as a hero rather than living to see himself become the villain. By the end of the book, Rodrigues was no better than the people he constantly judged. Such is the tragicness of modern literature. One is either a tragic hero or a weak survivor.

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  3. Haylee LyndApril 18, 2022 at 5:45 PM

    I liked the end point of this. I felt like he apostatized to prevent the suffering of three Christians hanging over the pit, and ends up being forced to identify the forbidden Christian items the Japanese may have, likely resulting in them enduring some sort of suffering them as well, although the book does not really describe it.

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