THE MARCH 30 RELEASE OF JILL CARROLL

UNCOUNTABLE have been the cumulative prayers and pleas, the messages of support and tears of concern shed for Jill Carroll over the past three months. Today, we cry tears of joy for her release.

Along with you—the millions of compassionate individuals representing so many faiths and nationalities, and especially the readers of The Christian Science Monitor and its website who've stood with Jill during her captivity—our hearts are full of gratitude to God for this breakthrough. We cannot help but think of the opening line of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by the Monitors founder, Mary Baker Eddy: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (p. vii).

And yet, the immense efforts to secure one reporter's release ultimately must be for some larger cause, for something beyond the one news bulletin we've longed to hear every day since January 7, when Jill was captured and her translator was killed. Anyone who is being held captive, out of any willful passion or purpose, should be freed. Those who have been kidnapped before and after Jill must have their freedom, too. In fact, even kidnappers themselves deserve freedom from the kind of imprisonment their lives represent.

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