Buried Alive

Buried Alive recounts the experience of American contractor Roy Hallums while working in Iraq. In November of 2004, Hallums was in his office when a group of individuals burst into his office, bound and gagged him, and threw him into a car as they sped away from the compound of the company for which Hallums worked.                                                                                                     
Like hundreds of other foreigners working in Iraq and thousands of Iraqi citizens, he was kidnapped. Hallums continues to tell his story of being moved from safe house to safe house until he was finally placed in a small house literally in the middle of nowhere. At various points, other hostages were brought in to the safe house for keeping as well. Eventually, he and the other hostages were moved into a cellar-like room and were only allowed to come out once a day. The room was not tall enough to allow the hostages to stand; it lacked good ventilation, and the room was kept completely dark for most of the duration. Hallums and the other hostages were beaten as their kidnappers demanded to know details of their life so that they could determine how much ransom money to place on their hostages' heads.

Hallums was the last to leave the room beneath the ground, but no one paid his ransom. Special Forces rescued him nearly a year after his original abduction. At the time of the printing of the book, Hallums was the only hostage to have been rescued. Many others remain unaccounted for.

The book was well written and read very easily, but other than that I was disappointed. It was advertised as a story of faith; Hallums mentioned God maybe ten times in the book. It didn't seem to me that his faith played an integral role in surviving the experience; in fact when he was later giving advice to a pilot about what to do should she ever find herself captured, he didn't say anything about faith in our great and merciful God. This lack of discussion of the importance of faith left me wondering, "Why Thomas Nelson? Why not some other publisher?"

I also have concerns about the way in which he paints Iraq and many of the Iraqi people. At one point, he does paint with a broad stroke, explaining that many of the Muslims he knew were good, honest people whom he was proud to call friend. But that's where it stops. I cannot imagine what my feelings would be if I found myself in a similar situation, but we are called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Hallums never discussed this command from our Messiah, and it leaves me wondering if it crossed his mind at all. Because most of the American public is fairly ignorant to what the Muslim faith is, we too often stereotype all followers of Islam as members of jihad. Books like this one concern me because they, even if inadvertently, can easily perpetuate this misunderstanding, fueling hatred of all Muslims. We must remember our great and sovereign God wants all people to come to know him, including Muslims.

I no doubt have respect for him for surviving through this horrible ordeal; I would not wish it on anyone. However, if you want to read about a believer who was imprisoned multiple times, enduring beatings and torture, and remained focused on the love of Christ, I suggest reading Brother Yun's The Heavenly Man. That book is good for the soul.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”