Dear Editor,
 
After a long battle with cancer of the esophagus, hardened atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of "God is not Great", finally went to meet his omnipotent "Maker".  To the end Hitchens held steadfast to that human pride that for many years made him a hero in the eyes of the world's atheists.  He was unable to find it in himself to reach down and acknowledge to all humanity - and most probably himself - the truth he knew about God before his time was up and God's mercy ran out.  He failed to heed the "voice of conscience" before it was too late.  Herein lies a lesson for us all to "stay awake" (Mark 13, 33).
When we tumble with the grip of dark forces and then start to defend our false obsessions and compulsions, we inevitably come to regard our conscience as an enemy.  We then feel compelled to silence the "voice of conscience" - not just the one inside of us, but the one in other people, which can revive our own conscience with which we are at war.
Hitchens had a certain courage.  But there is a different kind of courage, the kind that's born in heaven.  It's not the courage of heroics or bravado but the kind that you and I and God know about.
 
- Paul Kokoski

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