Stephen Grant isn’t the only one who loves history. So, does Ray Keating, the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories. So, Keating often includes some moments from history in these books. Enjoy the following four excerpts – some of which turn out to be not so “quick.”
1. LIONHEARTS offers the most in terms of history lessons. Here’s an excerpt about the Crusades in an exchange between Pastor Richard Leonard and Madison Tanquerey, a television reporter...
Then Tanquerey asked, “Pastor Leonard, I know that you’re also an accomplished historian and professor who has written and taught about Christianity, Islam and the Crusades. I realize how close you are to this, how raw it is, but what did you think about the claims made by this Jihad in America spokesman?”
“What did I think? The atrocities committed here and against other churches across the nation were pure evil. What that terrorist said in that video was evil. There is no other word for it.”
“I understand. But what did you think of claims like ‘American crusaders’ being ‘hostile to Allah and Muhammad’? For example, he also said,” she looked down at writing in a reporter’s notebook, “‘Jihad in America is carrying out his will against infidels, just as the prophet did. Through your imperialistic ways, and your embrace of Christians and Jews, you have made clear that you reject Islam. That is unacceptable to Allah.’”
Leonard paused, and then said, “I’m not sure exactly what your question is.”
“Given your scholarship and study, how does Islam get twisted in such ways by these and other terrorists, and what can be done to correct this?”
Leonard hesitated, and then said, “Unfortunately, your question is based on a dubious premise, Ms. Tanquerey.”
“Please explain that.”
“The overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world are peaceful and embrace the aspects of their religion that emphasize peace. And I think that is especially the case here in the United States. That, of course, is a positive thing, as we all need to work together to stop terrorists.” Leonard paused, and allowed his eyes to glance briefly away from the reporter and to the camera. Uncertainty seemed to cross his expression, but then it was gone and replaced by a look of resolve. His eyes returned to Madison Tanquerey. “The problem is that the essential writings of Islam, if you will, are contradictory, as they also provide ample material to justify these kinds of attacks, and the other atrocities that have come to the forefront of America’s consciousness since 9-11. This, again unfortunately, is not foreign to the history of Islam.”
“What do you mean?”
“Consider that while Muhammad early on basically taught ambivalence toward other faiths, that fundamentally gave way to him instructing followers that Islam must prevail, saying that Allah told him to fight against all people until they testify to Allah as the one god and himself, Muhammad, as Allah’s messenger.” Leonard plowed ahead. “And following Muhammad’s death, his instructions were followed. Most people have been taught that the Crusades, for example, were offensive actions undertaken by popes and knights seeking treasure, power, to convert Muslims at the points of swords, or other nefarious reasons.”
Tanquerey nodded, and interrupted, “That’s what I was taught. After all, isn’t much of what these radicals, these terrorists, are doing today – a kind of reaction to the Crusades? Many people claim that the Crusades really are to blame.”
Leonard was in full professor mode. “In reality, the Crusades were a defensive undertaking. And by the way, they weren’t called the Crusades at the time. They basically were pilgrimages. Yes, they were military exercises, but they were undertaken as acts of mercy. They were devotional and penitential in nature. Crusaders responded by noting what Jesus said, according to John 15:13: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’”
As he tended to do during classroom lectures, Leonard started to use his fingers and hands to help emphasize points. “Specifically, the Crusades were a defensive act against several centuries of vast Muslim expansion. Think about this for a moment: By the year 1000, Muslims had conquered some two-thirds of the old Christian world, namely, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and all of North Africa, as well as Sicily and much of Spain. Remember, this is the birthplace of Christianity, and it had been overwhelmingly Christian. Later, in 1071, the Christian Byzantine Empire fell. Again, Asia Minor had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. And Jerusalem was conquered in 1073. In desperation, these conquered and persecuted Christians in the East called out to the Christian West for help. So, Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095 to essentially defend Christianity from succumbing to Islam.”
Tanquerey seemed completely immersed in the conversation, and asked, “Is this when the Christian Crusaders came to victory over the Muslims, when Christianity ascended and Islam declined?”
“Well, no, not exactly. The First Crusade was an against-all-odds success, stopping the military advance of Islam and actually regaining the city of Jerusalem in 1099. But after that, Islam resumed its role as the expanding power of the Middle Ages, and actually into the sixteenth century. There was King Richard the Lionheart of England and his successes in the Third Crusade. He took back the coast in a string of victories, and secured a peace that gave access to Jerusalem for unarmed pilgrims. But he was unable to take back Jerusalem. For other reasons, he gave up and left, though promising to return. But that never happened.”
“So, what did happen?”
“The Muslim advance proceeded. By the fifteenth century, Christianity was fighting for its very survival. And by 1529, the Ottoman Turks, who had conquered other Muslims and unified Islam, besieged Vienna. In fact, in one of those strange, fascinating moments in history, rainstorms hampered their effort; otherwise, some say, Vienna would have fallen, perhaps followed by Germany and the rest of Europe. The threat of Christianity in Europe falling to Islam was real and clear at the time.”
2. Later in LIONHEARTS, there was more history in another exchange between Leonard and Tanquerey...
Tanquerey said, “Anwar said that was analogous to Jews and Christians writing off violent passages of their scriptures to the past, as well as undertakings like the Crusades and the Inquisition. He pushed the idea that Islam needed its own Martin Luther.”
“This is where Mr. Abdullah and I would disagree.”
Tanquerey smiled on the other end of the call, and said, “I thought so.”
“You and I already spoke about the realities of the Crusades.”
“Yes.”
“So, that analogy does not really work. As for abuses and atrocities carried out by individuals during the Crusades, not to mention the Inquisition, which largely was carried out by the Spanish government, these can’t be ignored or downplayed. But they must be understood as sinful acts by sinful human beings. Such actions directly contradicted what Jesus called for and did.”
“Okay.”
“As for a ‘Martin Luther’ for Islam, I would counter that, in a very real sense, Islam needs the exact opposite of a Luther.”
“What does that mean?”
“Luther’s point was to bring the Church back to God’s Word. He wanted to correct where the Church had wandered away from, added to, or misinterpreted Holy Scripture. In a bizarre way, it seems to me that Muhammad presented himself as a kind of reformer in this sense. The Quran claims that Muhammad did not start a new religion, but instead, he was sent to reclaim the religion of Moses and Jesus that had been altered and corrupted by Jews and Christians. The Quran asserts that Allah sent Muhammad to tell the truth in the Quran.”
“Interesting.”
“It also should be understood that Luther, as he acquired more information about Islam, became more critical. He noted, for example, that while Christianity grew via miracles and preaching, Islam did so by the sword and murder. Luther also saw Islam as being invented by Muhammad, while the Gospel has been preached since the beginning of the world.”
“So, why are some looking for a Luther for Islam?”
“Unfortunately, many don’t really understand what Luther was doing. I would argue that Islam needs an anti- Luther. Martin Luther wanted to bring Christianity fully back to Holy Scripture, if you will. But in order to abide peacefully in the world, Islam needs the exact opposite of what Christianity needed.”
3. In HEROES AND VILLAINS, during an exchange with Pastor Zack Charmichael, Pastor Stephen Grant provides a little Hollywood history...
“I’m reminded of when director Elia Kazan received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999, and the reaction among Hollywood luminaries ranged from remaining seated and not applauding, to staying seated and applauding, to standing and clapping.”
“What was up with Kazan?”
“He was a great director, without a doubt. His films include On the Waterfront, Viva Zapata!, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden, Gentleman’s Agreement, the list goes on. But he had the nerve, in Hollywood’s view at least, to oppose the communists infiltrating the movie business, especially labor unions, in the forties and fifties. The Left to this very day, of course, views that as an unforgiveable sin.”
4. REAGAN COUNTRY also included bits from history, largely tied to President Reagan. For example, three young Russians listen to Reagan’s speech at Moscow State University in March 1988...
As Reagan began, Grigory leaned back in his seat. His body language oozed skepticism and even disgust. On his left, Maya sat up straight with her face expressionless. And to her left, Vitaly’s look signaled anticipation.
There were four moments during the speech that produced very different reactions from Grigory and Vitaly.
At one point, Reagan said:
Like a chrysalis, we're emerging from the economy of the Industrial Revolution – an economy confined to and limited by the Earth's physical resources – into, as one economist titled his book, The Economy in Mind, in which there are no bounds on human imagination and the freedom to create is the most precious natural resource. Think of that little computer chip. Its value isn't in the sand from which it is made but in the microscopic architecture designed into it by ingenious human minds. Or take the example of the satellite relaying this broadcast around the world, which replaces thousands of tons of copper mined from the Earth and molded into wire. In the new economy, human invention increasingly makes physical resources obsolete. We're breaking through the material conditions of existence to a world where man creates his own destiny. Even as we explore the most advanced reaches of science, we're returning to the age-old wisdom of our culture, a wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible: In the beginning was the spirit, and it was from this spirit that the material abundance of creation issued forth. But progress is not foreordained. The key is freedom – freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication.
Grigory shook his head. Vitaly’s eyes grew wider. Maya looked back and forth between the two.
Reagan continued just a bit later:
The explorers of the modern era are the entrepreneurs, men with vision, with the courage to take risks and faith enough to brave the unknown. These entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. They are the prime movers of the technological revolution. In fact, one of the largest personal computer firms in the United States was started by two college students, no older than you, in the garage behind their home. Some people, even in my own country, look at the riot of experiment that is the free market and see only waste. What of all the entrepreneurs that fail? Well, many do, particularly the successful ones; often several times. And if you ask them the secret of their success, they'll tell you it's all that they learned in their struggles along the way; yes, it's what they learned from failing. Like an athlete in competition or a scholar in pursuit of the truth, experience is the greatest teacher. And that's why it's so hard for government planners, no matter how sophisticated, to ever substitute for millions of individuals working night and day to make their dreams come true.
Maya’s focus seemed to be off the speech altogether. Instead, she was taking note of her two friends. Grigory was gritting his teeth, while Vitaly smiled.
Reagan continued to speak of freedom in ways that the three had never experienced. He declared:
We Americans make no secret of our belief in freedom. In fact, it's something of a national pastime. Every four years the American people choose a new President, and 1988 is one of those years. At one point, there were 13 major candidates running in the two major parties, not to mention all the others, including the Socialist and Libertarian candidates – all trying to get my job. About 1,000 local television stations, 8,500 radio stations, and 1,700 daily newspapers – each one an independent, private enterprise, fiercely independent of the government – report on the candidates, grill them in interviews, and bring them together for debates. In the end, the people vote; they decide who will be the next president. But freedom doesn't begin or end with elections.
Go to any American town, to take just an example, and you'll see dozens of churches, representing many different beliefs – in many places, synagogues and mosques – and you'll see families of every conceivable nationality worshiping together. Go into any schoolroom, and there you will see children being taught the Declaration of Independence, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights – among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – that no government can justly deny; the guarantees in their Constitution for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Go into any courtroom, and there will preside an independent judge, beholden to no government power. There every defendant has the right to a trial by a jury of his peers, usually 12 men and women – common citizens; they are the ones, the only ones, who weigh the evidence and decide on guilt or innocence. In that court, the accused is innocent until proven guilty, and the word of a policeman or any official has no greater legal standing than the word of the accused.
Maya leaned to her right, as Grigory whispered, “Lies.” She sat back. To her left, Vitaly then leaned toward her, and he was barely audible in saying, “Fascinating. He’s not what I expected.”
Later, Reagan touched on faith:
Freedom, it has been said, makes people selfish and materialistic, but Americans are one of the most religious peoples on Earth. Because they know that liberty, just as life itself, is not earned but a gift from God, they seek to share that gift with the world. “Reason and experience,” said George Washington in his Farewell Address, “both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. And it is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” Democracy is less a system of government than it is a system to keep government limited, unintrusive; a system of constraints on power to keep politics and government secondary to the important things in life, the true sources of value found only in family and faith.
Grigory’s blue eyes narrowed, and stayed zeroed in on the U.S. president. As Maya watched his stare, her own eyes appeared a bit sadder than usual. She hung her head slightly, but then turned to see a combination of revelation and joy on Vitaly’s face. His eyes were wide open. She looked closer, and saw a small tear in the corner of Vitaly’s right eye. She faintly smiled, and then turned back to listen to the rest of Reagan’s speech.
A little more than 20 months later, the Berlin Wall came down, and by the end of 1991, the Soviet Union had disintegrated. Gorbachev, having lost control of glasnost and perestroika, resigned.
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