Did you ever hear the expression, "When you're knee-deep in alligators and copperheads, it's hard to remember that your primary objective was to clean out the swamp?" That's how I imagine John the Baptist must have felt as he stared at those damp, cold walls of Herod's dungeon, day after day, knowing in his heart that only a miracle would allow him to leave that place alive. Wouldn't you be scared in that predicament? Wouldn't you begin to question your "core beliefs" if you knew that those very beliefs were responsible for your impending doom?