Although forced to live in exile, Daniel and his friends remained faithful to the one true God. But they did not simply treat their devotion to God as a private matter; they maintained a high-profile witness in a pluralistic society highly antagonistic to their faith. That is why their story has such a powerful message for us. Society tolerates the practice of Christianity in private and in church services, but it increasingly deprecates public witness. If Daniel and his compatriots were with us today they would be in the vanguard of debate about the role of religion in public life.

What was it that gave that ancient foursome, Daniel and his three friends, the strength and conviction to be prepared, often at great risk, to swim against the flow?