History recalls someone else who believed in his immunity from bullets...Crazy Horse, warchief of the Sioux. After engaging in his ritual purification and donning his Medicine clothing, he led his cavalry into battle. In several battles in the Fort Fetterman area, Crazy Horse rode his pony nearly to the line of the soldiers, taunting them and exhorting his men. Even massed volleys failed to touch him.

He was eventually killed, bayonetted by soldiers who surprised him during a surrender negotiation at a fort. Horse was a very religious man, his visions leading him to the forefront of his people. Because he and his people indulged in such things as self-mutilation they were looked on as barbarians. Yet they also believed in the "Sacred Hoop", the seamless integration of man and nature that insured the survival of both, a concept which we as a civilization are late (hopefully not too late) in coming to. If we would question aspects and rituals of a particular faith, then we should also question our own belief systems. For many years, Christianity has erred by elevating spirit to the point of despising the flesh, by valuing the next world to the detriment of this one. In God's infinite wisdom, might He not have filled this world with Holiness, as well?

Perhaps Crazy Horse had something to teach us after all, if we had but listened.