Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World

Lela Gilbert
Monarch Books (2008)
ISBN 9780825461644
Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Reader Views (3/09)

People suffering from brutal regimes, oppressive tyrants, religious persecution and violent mobs is far outside of the scope of most Americans and Westerners. The majority of us work hard at cushioning our consciences by ignoring or avoiding the terrible things going on in our world.  That’s what makes Lela Gilbert’s biography, "Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World,” an alarming, discomforting, inspiring read.  In this short 235-page paperback, Gilbert describes one brave woman who chooses not to shield herself in the sanitary and safe environment of England’s elite House of Lords, but who instead elects to actively be a voice for the voiceless.

This story about Caroline Cox briefly begins with her father, Dr. Robert McNeill Love, who served for a time in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Middle East during World War I. The author then passes swiftly through Caroline’s marriage to Dr. Murray Cox, on to her professional career as a nurse and then the head of the Sociology Department at Polytechnic of North London (PNL). It was during her stint at PNL that Caroline’s metal was first truly tested. During the 1970s, hardliner communist faculty and students, along with other Marxist-based ideologues, disrupted the college with student protests, verbal assaults, violence, intimidation, and repeated character assassinations. It was during this time she wrote her highly acclaimed “Rape of Reason.” 

Gilbert then takes the reader to the shocking moment when, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, appointed Caroline Cox to life peerage in the House of Lords in 1982. The rest of the book shows how Baroness Cox has refused to sit on her laurels, but rather used and uses her position to move among those who are being oppressed by tyrannical governments, hounded by vicious mobs, and brutalized in religiously and ethnically based military assaults. As it becomes clear throughout “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” the Baroness is a woman of deep Christian faith. It is that faith which fuels her actions and propels her into dangerous environments, so that she may gather eyewitness facts about the brutalities going on in numerous regions.

Though most of Baroness Cox’s work is done on behalf of oppressed Christians, her fairness and evenhandedness comes through. She has risked her safety to collect firsthand testimony from the people who feel they have a right to attack Christian minority groups. But she has also stood up for abused members of other faith groups afflicted by governmental bullies. As “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” shows, she is truly a voice for the voiceless.

The last half of “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” by Lela Gilbert reveals an alarming trend in the world of violence. Whether in Indonesia, East Timor, Nigeria, Sudan, or Northern Uganda, the biggest perpetrator of terror and brutality is religious. To be more specific, the major religious architect is a radical Islamic-inspired viciousness.  Baroness Cox is careful to show that there are many moderate Islamic leaders who are opposed to the bloodshed. Nevertheless, she is forced to acknowledge that there is a growing global trend toward Islamization at gunpoint. The last chapter of “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” contains her factual analysis.

Gilbert has done an exceptional job in pulling together a fast-paced biography on an exceptional woman. On the one hand, this is a troubling work that will bring the reader face-to-face with the ugly realities going on in many other parts of the world. On the other hand, “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” will stir up and inspire many people of faith to take a more intelligent and compassionate stand on behalf of those who are weighed down with systemic discrimination and abuse. I highly recommend “Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World” by Lela Gilbert.

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