The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton

Trump is the most anti-war president we've had in at least five decades and sees through the now absurd notion of NATO.  Anti-war folks tend to get killed or shot at -see Jesus, Pope John Paul II, Robert F Kennedy, MLK, Trump...

We can probably add to the list Thomas Merton, whose death is convincingly shown as a homicide in a book whose title shares this post's title. 

In 1962 one of Merton's most popular books came out: "New Seeds of Contemplation". Perhaps there was a sense that this monk had some "juice", some influence, and he was writing against the Vietnam War. In those days he crossed the rubicon into the political and prophetically wrote, "[I'm] walking into a known and definite battle. May God protect me in it." He later said that non-violence is "not a tactic that allows you not to be dirtied with blood." Also prophetic, as he himself was dirtied with blood and likely killed for his anti-war views. 

From the book:

In The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton we identify four men who have been most instrumental in imprinting upon the public mind the wholly unsupported notion that Merton died from accidental electrocution...Merton, with his trenchant observations about the propagandistic nature of the American press—observations that were far ahead of his time—would not have been at all surprised to learn that two of those men were professional journalists.

Arriving in Thailand, Thomas Merton landed, in effect, in the middle of the Indochina War that he opposed. The Thai government was closely allied with the United States in pursuing the war [including allowing US military bases]. Thais were on the CIA payroll and collaborating with the agency that ran the Phoenix Program training camps in Thailand...

Before any investigation, Dr. Nakvachara concluded that “cardiac failure” had caused “accidental falling into the fan.” When investigators know the result of an “investigation” before it even begins, there is a better word for it. That is “cover-up.”

There was every reason to suspect criminal causes. Even without de Grunne’s extremely suspicious behavior, Merton’s violent unexpected death per se is reason enough to suspect homicide. The defective electric cord installed in the fan appeared to be evidence of a crime. The unnatural position of Merton’s body prompted the first witnesses not to touch anything and to take photographs to preserve the evidence of foul play. The conflicting statements of witnesses, as well as one very nervous witness whose actions and statements were peculiar, to say the least, amounted to compelling evidence that something was badly wrong.

What could be more ridiculous after all, than the notion that a person should have a fatal heart attack and then fall into a fan that happens to be short-circuited?

It was such a joke, in fact, that virtually everyone reporting on Merton’s death in the English language has chosen either to misconstrue it, to ignore its contents, or, what is most common, to pretend that it doesn’t exist.