We're hearing more speculation these days over the security of Pakistan's 60-some-odd nuclear weapons. Recent terrorist attacks on police and military headquarters inside Pakistan demonstrate just how easy it is for terrorists to infiltrate, penetrate, and devastate what were assumed to be safe facilities and secure protocols. Will the nuclear weapons they have produced be next?

I think we need to assume that, at some point, sooner or later, Islamic terrorists are going to acquire and deploy some kind of nuclear device against Western interests. They have the pent-up hatred and a corresponding worldview to stay on task until they achieve their objective. And, while they may never fully realize their goal of destroying every last infidel, it seems to me likely that they will not easily give up their pursuit of the most destructive means they can possibly secure to aid their cause.

Political appeasement will not assuage their anger and hate. Groveling on our part won't get it done either. The heart of the Islamic terrorist is so filled with rage and hate for everything Western that he will gladly give up his own life to take a few dozen of us down with him. The heart is the problem. Something has to address the heart.

Christians know that anger and violence can be turned to love and compassion when the Gospel of the Kingdom breaks through a hard and rage-filled heart. Ask Paul. Quite literally, the Gospel is the only hope that Christians have of turning back the tide of Islamic terror. Only the Gospel can transform a hate-filled heart. And everyone nods in agreement.

So why are we not more urgent about pressing the Gospel on our neighbors and friends? We believe the Gospel could change the hardened heart of a terrorist; do we also believe it can change the anxious, sad, self-loathing, defeated heart of the guy in the office next door? And if we do, why aren't we more vocal. Why? I'd love to hear the reasons. Share them with me. Tell me why we are so reticent about the one bit of Good News that could make all the difference.

Because we'll never reach out to the radical trekking through the mountains of Pakistan, intent on our destruction, if we aren't even willing to reach out to the people we see each and every day.

T. M. Moore