Dec. 3, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News 

Pilgrims' lessons from 1830 book - plus 'Peanuts' - needed today

By Mike Haynes

                Kathy and I joined some of her family during the Thanksgiving weekend to watch “The Mayflower Voyagers,” part of the 1988 miniseries, “This Is America, Charlie Brown.”

                The animated program shows Charlie, Lucy, Linus and others of the “Peanuts” gang traversing the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620, dealing with disease and hunger at Plymouth and welcoming Chief Massasoit and 90 of his tribe to “the first Thanksgiving” in 1621.

  

              It’s one of many retellings of the story of the Pilgrims who landed in Massachusetts, part of the New World, in search of religious freedom. Other than the inclusion of the cartoon kids, the “Peanuts” version seems pretty accurate. It even points out how the settlers’ faith in God was a key factor in their perseverance through hardship.

                 Another retelling was published in 1830, 210 years after the famous landing. In a day when most history focused only on the men, it was titled, “The Pilgrim Fathers, or the Lives of Some of the First Settlers of New England.” The little book was printed in Portland, Maine, and was “Designed for Sabbath School Libraries.” It was reprinted in 2020 by the Dunham Bible Museum at Houston Baptist University, now Houston Christian University.

                Like “Peanuts,” its main target audience was young people.

                The last chapter of the book – “Remarks: Addressed to the Young, on the biography of the Pilgrim Fathers” – offers four lessons learned from the examples of those early Americans, including the pioneer women. Now, four centuries after they disembarked on the East Coast, we would do well to follow their advice.

No. 1: “Observe the devout spirit of the Fathers of New England. They prayed when they parted from their friends in Holland; they prayed amidst the dangers of the sea; they prayed when they first landed on these shores; they prayed when famine threatened them. They asked God the blessings they needed; and they thanked him for the favors they received.

“Let this example, dear youth, remind you to pray. You are the beloved hope of our country; learn then to pray to him, who only can give our country prosperity, and by whose favour alone you can become instruments of good to the land of your birth.”

No. 2: “Our fathers loved the ordinances of religion. … when a company of them sailed first for America, they did not go without a preacher.” The book quotes “the historian, Hubbard” on the importance they placed on Christian leaders “to direct, protect, and defend the people, and promote the cause of God and religion among them, as well as their civil rights and liberties.”

The book applauds the establishment of a college, Harvard, to educate ministers and which “formed habits, which, through the sovereign mercy of God, spread a Christian influence through each successive generation. Depart not from these habits.”

 No. 3: “Family religion flourished among our fathers. … I bless the memory of those good and generous women, whose enlightened and fervent piety contributed so much to the respectability, usefulness, and eminent devotion of their husbands and our fathers. Dear to me are the names of John Robinson, William Bradford, John Winthrop and other founders of New England, but not less dear to me is the remembrance of the faithful women who accompanied them. …

“Dear youth. Has not a mother’s lips taught you to pray? Has not a mother’s heart poured into your mind the melting truth of a Savior’s love? Has not a mother’s hand led you to the sanctuary?

“It is in the family that great benefactors to society and blessings to the church are trained up; and it is by maternal care, joined with a father’s influence and authority, that a rising race are formed for usefulness.

“Let the hours then of family devotions be dear to the youth who read these pages.”

No. 4: “An enlarged public spirit flourished among our fathers. I know of no temper which spears so disgusting in the young as a sordid selfishness. Let our youth early cultivate a generous, disinterested (impartial) public spirit.”

The book then urges young people to follow Christ’s directive to carry his Good News to the ends of the Earth. “Millions are suffering miseries from which nothing can relieve them, but the gospel which you enjoy.:

So the unidentified 1830 author encouraged the youth of his day to adopt from the 1620s Pilgrims the virtues of prayer, organized religion, family faith and public outreach. I can’t think of better ways to steer our country onto a healthier course in the 2020s.

 My wife and family even saw a hint of that outlook in Charlie Brown’s America.

Nov. 19, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Pilgrims' first landing wasn't at Plymouth Rock

By Mike Haynes

                On a rainy day this September, Kathy and I had two of the best sandwiches we’ve ever eaten. They were messy, with gobs of macaroni and cheese filling the space between two pieces of toast at a place in Provincetown, Massachusetts, called the Grilled Cheese Gallery.

                My wife and I followed that with some Lewis Brothers Homemade Ice Cream – also some of the best we’ve tasted – before getting back on the bus to continue our tour of New England.

                Until that trip, we had no idea that Provincetown was the real site of the Pilgrims’ first landing in 1620, not Plymouth Rock, more than 20 miles across Cape Cod Bay.

                Not to take away the significance of that hallowed granite boulder, but the English Separatists, looking for a favorable home where they could worship God as they believed they should, set foot on shore in November 1620 near the tip of Cape Cod, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean in the form of an arm with a coiled fist.

We Texans were surprised to learn that Provincetown, now a tourist destination, even has a 252-foot tower, also granite, commemorating that first landing. It was dedicated by President William H. Taft in 1910.

                The famed Mayflower Compact, which set out how the new settlement would be governed and which began, “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith,” was signed by 41 male passengers while still aboard the even more famous ship as it was anchored off what now is Provincetown, not Plymouth.

                The travelers decided the area wasn’t suitable for a permanent home, and a scouting party in a small boat located the Plymouth site in December 1620. The Mayflower then sailed to the location of Plymouth Rock, where all the 102 passengers disembarked.

   

               The Pilgrims enjoyed no luxuries such as mac and cheese or ice cream. They had to scrounge for food, and after a harsh winter battling disease – possibly scurvy and pneumonia – only 53 people remained alive.

                 With help from the Wampanoag native American tribe, the survivors grew corn and other crops in 1621, and they had a good yield in the fall. In October, they celebrated with a three-day harvest festival, an English tradition, attended by about 90 native people.

                Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrim leaders, wrote about “the first Thanksgiving” in a journal published in England in 1622:

                “"…our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors;

“…they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others.

“And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”

  Inquiring minds, of course, want to know, “Where are the turkeys?” Winslow didn’t mention the Thanksgiving staple, but the group’s governor, William Bradford, and a later arrival, William Hilton, both mentioned the big bird as common in the area.

Bradford wrote in “Plimoth Plantation”:

 "All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached … And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.”

 And Hilton wrote to his cousin in November 1621:

“At our arrival in New Plymouth , in New England, we found all our friends and planters in good health, though they were left sick and weak, with very small means; the Indians round about us peaceable and friendly; … Timber of all sorts you have in England doth cover the land, that affords beasts of divers sorts, and great flocks of turkey, quails, pigeons and partridges; many great lakes abounding with fish, fowl, beavers, and otters. …

“Our company are, for most part, very religious, honest people; the word of God sincerely taught us every Sabbath; so that I know not any thing a contented mind can here want.”

On our trip, Kathy and I did get to see Plymouth Rock, not far from where that 1621 celebration happened, and we went below decks of the Mayflower II, a replica ship built in 1957. It’s docked in Plymouth Harbor, a two-minute walk from the iconic rock.

I think only the most adventurous of us today would undertake a 66-day voyage in those cramped conditions with limited food and an uncertain future. The courage that allowed the Pilgrims to do it and to start a successful community undoubtedly came from their faith. Referring to the group years later, Bradford wrote:

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both met and overcome with answerable courage. … What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and His grace?”

* * *

Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo College from 1991 to 2016 and has written for the Faith section since 1997. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com for other recent columns.

Nov. 5, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Wesley’s ‘proper’ way of hymns includes singing spiritually

By Mike Haynes

                A Methodist pastor quoted part of John Wesley’s “Directions for Singing” at a service a couple of weeks ago. Along with a whole library of sermons and other Christian writing, the English founder of the Methodist Church wrote seven points on the subject.

                Some of Wesley’s instructions lean toward micro-managing; others seem as appropriate as they were when he published them in a 1761 hymn book.

John Wesley

                “Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.”

                I’ll admit I sometimes am afraid of people hearing my singing voice. The only instruction I ever had was from my dad, who sang in my hometown Methodist choir for decades and was the bass singer in the Methodist Men’s Quartet. In the few high school years that I joined him, my uncle and my cousin in the choir, Dad gave me the basics of singing the bass line in hymns.

                I usually follow that guidance when singing in church, but much modern music isn’t played in a manner that needs a bass line. So sometimes I try to sing the melody. Either way, as an introvert, I don’t sing very loud. Once when my Baptist grandmother visited our church and sat by me in the pew, she sounded surprised when she complimented my voice.

                Also from Wesley: “Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.”

                I probably sing a little too modestly, as does my wife, Kathy, who has a nice voice. But lots of people at churches I’ve attended don’t sing at all, and Wesley wouldn’t have liked that. “If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing,” he wrote.

                Wesley’s advice also included a preference for the songs in his Methodist hymn book. He wanted them sung exactly as printed. “If you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can,” he directed.

                Despite Willie Nelson’s beautiful renditions of some old hymns and his “preacher songs” in the “Red Headed Stranger” album, the country legend would not have fared well with Wesley (and my dad would agree). Wesley wrote, “Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it…”

                But I think Wesley’s annoyance with straying from the “proper” way of singing is overshadowed by his top exhortation: “Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing.”

                Hours before writing these words, my wife, Kathy, and I were part of a Sunday morning service where singing spiritually was obvious. With our church choir clapping behind them, an elementary school girl and a boy about the same age led the congregation in “I’ll praise ’cause you’re faithful, I’ll praise ’cause you’re true … I’ll praise ’cause you rose and defeated the grave,” accompanied with raised hands followed by arms waved left and right. Even my reserved personality couldn’t keep me from participating.

                Then, harkening back to my childhood, we sang “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” with the kids doing a cute “leaning” movement. “What a fellowship, what a joy divine,” weren’t just words in that hymn but a description of what was going on at that moment. Kathy and I both had tears.

                Add the boy’s and girl’s young voices – “Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so” – with just a guitar joining them, and I think Wesley’s exhortation was alive in that independent Christian church:

                “Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. … See that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.”

Oct. 22, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Tim Keller was rooted in traditional Christianity, love and grace

By Mike Haynes

                Not long after Timothy Keller died of cancer this May 19 at age 72, “Christianity Today” magazine published a commemorative issue on the New York-based pastor and writer. It had 104 pages and included 10 insightful remembrances plus an excerpt from one of his sermons called “Everything Bad Is Going to Come Untrue.”

Dr. Timothy Keller

                I don’t recall anybody but Billy Graham, the magazine’s founder and the most famous evangelist of the 20^th century, receiving such a tribute from America’s premier evangelical Christian publication.

                Before that special issue, I had heard one of Keller’s sermons online and had read just one of his books, “The Prodigal God.” And I’ve noticed some pastors that I respect quoting him in recent months. I knew from those encounters with Keller that his take on Christianity was a little different from many of his fellow evangelical believers.

My brief description of Keller would be that he was rooted in traditional, orthodox Christianity but with an emphasis on love and grace, not condemnation.

Not that he was alone in that approach, but he certainly didn’t fit the stereotype of the judgmental Christian that many people outside the church like to criticize.

In addition to his books – the best-known probably is “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” – Keller’s largest work was founding Redeemer Presbyterian Church in 1989 in Manhattan, along with his wife, Kathy.

                In a long New York Times obituary, Sam Roberts wrote that Keller was “a best-selling author and theorist of Christianity who performed a modern miracle of his own – establishing a theologically orthodox church in Manhattan that attracted thousands of young professional followers.”

                Several social ministries sprang from the church, including Redeemer City to City, a global urban ministry; Hope for New York; and Center for Faith and Work. Redeemer has spread to multiple New York campuses, but not under one large umbrella.

                In the “CT” memorial issue, writer Emily Belz pointed out that Keller didn’t want Redeemer to be a megachurch, although it had grown to 5,000 members when he stepped down as its leader in 2017. In a video shown to Redeemer churches the day he died, he said he preferred churches on a “human scale” and that “to have three churches of 800 people is better than having one church of 2,400 people.”

                Keller’s combination of intellectual thought and personal connection, his speaking skills and his best-selling books resulted in publicity that he didn’t want. Collin Hansen said in the “CT” issue that Keller believed he was called to pastoral ministry. “Even when Keller criticized evangelicals, he spoke and wrote as a pastor with love for his flock,” Hansen wrote.

                In 2017, Princeton Theological Seminary planned to give Keller its Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness and asked him to give a lecture along with the award. But because of his orthodox views on homosexuality and women’s ordination, various groups protested, and PTS rescinded the prize.

                Keller graciously gave the lecture anyway.

                Hansen wrote that Keller quoted Lesslie Newbigin, “who identified the post-Christian West as the most resistant, challenging missionary fronter of all time.” In the lecture, Keller agreed with Newbigin that “Christians must not withdraw like the Amish, pursue political takeover like the Religious Right or assimilate like the mainline Protestants.”

Keller agreed with James Davison Hunter that “faithful presence” is a better alternative, and he said one strategy of that presence is emulating the early Christians as writer Larry Hurtado had encouraged.

“The persecuted early church wasn’t just offensive to Jews and Greeks,” Hansen wrote. “It was also attractive. The first Christians opposed abortion and infanticide by adopting children. They did not retaliate but instead forgave. They cared for the poor and marginalized. Their strict sexual ethic protected and empowered women and children.

“Christianity brought together hostile nations and ethnic groups.”

Those are some of the recommendations Keller offered to a Princeton institution that had declined to give him an award. His demeanor that day certainly reflected his belief in the grace of the gospel.

In 2006, “Christianity Today” wrote, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”

Oct. 8, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Revolution began in colonies that had godly heritage

By Mike Haynes

                I must have been 10 or 12 when Mom and Dad gave me a big book called “The Golden Book of the American Revolution,” by the American Heritage Publishing Co., dated 1959.

                It had lots of color pictures, and some that fascinated me were of the April 19, 1775, skirmish at Lexington Green in Massachusetts, where British troops fired on American militiamen, killing eight before marching on to Concord in an attempt to seize weapons and gunpowder the militia had been storing there.

                The Lexington violence sparked the Revolutionary War and eventual American independence from Great Britain. The book’s Lexington and Concord pictures were done shortly after by militiaman Amos Doolittle, so as a kid, I thought, “Wow, this must be what it really looked like.”

                Last month, my wife, Kathy, and I got to see what it really looks like 248 years later as we took a tour from Boston, 15 miles away, during a fall vacation to New England. The triangular green remains much as it was in 1775 when the militia stood near a tavern and a meeting house to face the British “regulars.” The tavern still stands as well as a nearby minister’s house from which John Hancock and Samuel Adams had fled after being warned by Paul Revere.

                You would think it’s a routine public park except for the First Defenders of Liberty monument and the Minuteman statue next to Massachusetts Avenue. Three churches are visible from the green, but city leaders have done well in keeping commercial development such as Stop and Shop and Omar’s World of Comics a little distance away.

                Seven miles west is the Concord North Bridge, where more militia from surrounding towns, including those committed to being ready at a minute’s notice, confronted several hundred British redcoats. Americans on the west side of the bridge and British on the east side fired musket volleys that resulted in only three British soldiers and two militiamen killed, but that bridge is the inspiration for the lines in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 poem:

                “By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.”

                Seeing that colonists from the entire region were descending on them, British troops started on a march back to their Boston headquarters. They were harassed the whole way, suffering heavy casualties with militiamen firing at them from behind trees and fences.

                 Kathy and I rode back to Boston with our tour guide on roughly the same route, but in an SUV and no one shooting at us. I recalled a drawing in my childhood book of soldiers in red marching in formation on Battle Road between scattered groups of patriots.

                At the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, we saw up close John Singleton Copley’s portraits of Hancock, Adams and Revere, three of the key “rabble rousers” of the revolution. Revere is best known for his “midnight ride,” which has been greatly exaggerated. He was one of several “express riders” who covered the country roads the night of April 18. But David Hackett Fischer’s 1994 book, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” makes it clear that even if Revere never had mounted a horse, he should be noted in history for his significant role in organizing informers and militia. He was an active member of the Sons of Liberty and supported opposition to British abuses with acts such as creating an illustration of the 1770 Boston Massacre, when soldiers killed five residents.

                Reading accounts of our nation’s beginning, I was struck by the fact that most – not all – of the players had strong Judeo-Christian values. Yes, the revolution was caused by economic and political factors shown in the cry, “no taxation without representation,” but the rebellion happened on a foundation of biblical principles.

   

             The house where Hancock and Adams were staying when Revere alerted them that “the regulars are out” was a parsonage built by Hancock’s grandfather, the Rev. John Hancock. Its 1775 occupant was the Rev. Jonas Clarke.

                Revere belonged to New Brick Church in Boston, a Puritan-influenced congregation, and according to Fischer, he attended church “as regularly as the Sabbath came.”

                In his early teens, Revere had helped organize a sort of “youth group.” He and some Boston friends started a bell ringers’ association for the North Church in which they agreed “not to demean themselves by Roman Catholic corruptions and promised to work for their rewards,” according to Fischer’s book.

                Fischer noted that the bell ringers drew up a document reflecting “founding principles of New England,” including “the doctrine of the calling.” One calling was for a career (Revere’s was as a goldsmith, silversmith, engraver and bell manufacturer), and the other was “a general calling to do Christ’s work in the world.”

                Another of my childhood memories is having to memorize part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous 1860 poem that begins:

                “Listen, my children, and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive, Who remembers that famous day and year.”

                Like the poem, some of our history has been embellished and sweetened. We would do well, though, to remember the spiritual foundations on which the new nation was built.

Sept. 24, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

Jerry Clower's style may be different, but message of Christianity is the same

By Mike Haynes

                I suspect a lot of people reading this column are like me: equally comfortable with C.S. Lewis and Jerry Clower.

                I sometimes have to re-read one of Lewis’ paragraphs to grasp what the late Oxford professor just said. Most of his writing for the general public is absolutely clear and logical, though. No wonder the beloved, intellectual author, who died in 1963, has been called the greatest Christian writer of the 20^th century.

                Jerry Clower, on the other hand, was a down-home, Southern storyteller who talked about country roots in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and the hilarious escapades of characters such as Marcell Ledbetter and Uncle Versie.

Jerry Clower

One of Clower’s best-known tales was about his visit to a Texas Tech-Mississippi State football game. To enthusiastic laughter, he described Tech’s horse and rider mascot: “Out of a chute down in the end zone, here comes a fella dressed up, they called him the ‘Red Raider,’ and he looked like Zorro – boogity, boogity, boogity – right on that field, he’s comin’.”

                The other day, my brother David sent me a link to a 15-minute video of Clower talking at a church in Virginia. The style is the polar opposite of Lewis’ writing that explained and defended Christianity, but for me, it gets the message of Jesus across just as effectively.

                 The country comedian even sets out one of the main themes of the British author, that of “mere Christianity,” a faith that transcends denominations.

                Clower said someone asked him, “What church do you go to?” and he replied, “Oh, I’m a Christian.” “You are?” “Yeah. And I worship at a Southern Baptist Church. But if you’re a Christian and go to some other kind of church, I can worship with you.”

                He proceeded to deliver what he said would be his sermon if he could get up on a mountaintop and preach to everybody.

Point No. 1: “I’d say make for sure that you are saved.” Clower recalled when, as a 13-year-old in 1939, his mother took him and his brother to an annual revival meeting, carrying “a chicken pie and two egg custards” for lunch before the preaching.

                When the revivalist told the congregation that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death,” the young Clower said President Roosevelt and General MacArthur popped into his mind. They must be exceptions, he thought.  “And that preacher said, ‘I’m talkin’ about everybody – even the president, even generals.” the young Clower recalled that “I caught aholt of that old pew, and … I thought, ‘if that’s so, I’m in a mess.’”

                But the preacher added the literal saving grace: “If we’ll confess with our life the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we can be saved.” The Mississippi boy was convinced. “While they were singing No. 197, ‘Only Trust Him,’ I walked down the aisle and I had that experience of grace that only comes from the saving power of God.

                “And I have been a Christian ever since.”

                Point No. 2: “I’d make for sure that I could find a New Testament, Bible-believing church, and I’d put my membership in that church, and I’d make ’em a good hand.”

                Point No. 3: “Make for shore that you’re not a nitpicker. It don’t make no difference to me what color shirt a preacher wears.” Clower advised visiting an unchurched person or family and telling them about salvation through Jesus. “And when they walk down the aisle and publicly profess Christ and join the church because of your witness … (Clower let loose his signature, wide-mouthed howl that sounds like “haaaawww.”) … 99 and 44/100ths of your nitpicking will be cured. You’ll be so thrilled to see someone born into the kingdom of God, you won’t have time to nitpick.”

                Point No. 4: “Be sure and be a storehouse tither. Do not rob yourself of the blessing of giving. … I make a motion every business meetin’: Them that ain’t givin’ nothing, we post their name on the vestibule out there where you walk in the church. … Ain’t nobody gonna rob me of the blessing I get from givin.’”

                Point No. 5: “Make sure that you go to church, that you read the Word of God, that you hear your pastor preach, that you are so close to God that if tragedy hits your life, you won’t act like a pagan, you’ll act like a Christian.”

                Clower recalled when his teenage son was in a coma after a car accident. Thinking his boy was dead, he prayed, “Lord, I want you to let me be in amongst the faithful that stand up and use this to the glory of God. I’m gonna give thanks and keep going…”

                His son, Ray Clower, recovered after four days in the ICU, played football and became a coach.

                The Grand Ole Opry comedian closed with this: “I am convinced there’s only one place where there ain’t no laughter, and that’s in ha-ell. And I’ve made arrangements to miss hell.  So ‘Ha, Ha, Ha!’ I won’t never have to be nowhere where some folks ain’t laughing.”

                That’s not quite how C.S. Lewis would have put it, but I love it.

Sept. 10, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

The price of conflict: Tears flow from Irish eyes

By Mike Haynes

                June Proctor delivered her son, John, on Sept. 9, 1981, in a small Northern Ireland hospital. Five days later her husband, Johnnie Proctor, was surprised that he had been able to visit the mother and baby longer than usual, because the strict Sister Woods had been on duty when he had arrived about 6:45 p.m.

                After about two hours the 25-year-old Johnnie, who had taken a job as a local constable, said goodbye and headed downstairs toward his car. June watched out the window, hoping to see him driving away. Instead, out of sight, she heard multiple gunshots.

                Johnnie had been murdered by members of the Irish Republican Army, and his family’s story was chronicled later in the Belfast Telegraph.

                He was one of about 3,600 people who were killed on both sides of the brutal conflict between nationalists, also called republicans, who were mostly Catholic, and loyalists, also called unionists, who were mostly Protestant, from the late 1960s to 1998.

                IRA members were considered terrorists by Protestants and freedom fighters by Catholics. The same was true of paramilitary groups on the other side.

                For the most part, the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 ended those decades of back-and-forth violence that came to be called “the Troubles.” The main dispute was between those in Northern Ireland who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom as they had been officially since the 1920s and those who wanted to unite with the rest of their island, the Republic of Ireland.

                Residents of separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in urban Belfast and other northern regions hurled doctrinal insults at each other, but the main quarrel was more political and societal than spiritual.

                Catholics claimed discrimination in jobs, voting and their place in the culture. Civil rights protests evolved into violence by paramilitary groups on both sides – the Irish Republican Army (Catholic) and groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (Protestant).

                With street fighting, shootings and bombings becoming common, British troops were sent in to keep the peace; Catholics and the IRA saw the soldiers – as well as local law enforcement officers such as Johnnie Proctor – as the enemy.

                The suffering went both ways. Ten-year-old Richard Moore, headed home from school in 1972, ran past a British army lookout post. A soldier fired a rubber bullet that hit Richard in the face. He was blinded for life. In 2006 Richard tracked down the soldier, Charles, forgave him, and the two men became friends.

                Another young boy, Buddy, fares better in Kenneth Branagh’s 2021 outstanding fictional movie, “Belfast.” Based on Branagh’s childhood, it illustrates the effect of the Troubles on one family. And even more poignant is the PBS documentary, “Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland.”

                The five hour-long episodes, also available on Amazon Prime and PBS Passport, consist of interviews with men and women – including June and Richard – from both sides who lived through that chaotic period. Whether you identify more with Protestants or Catholics, British or Irish, establishment supporters or social activists, it’s hard not to empathize with the tears that still flow from Irish eyes 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement.

                One woman recalls a bomb she planted in a department store, assuming it would go off after hours. She admits that had it been set to explode when customers were there, she still would have done it for the nationalist cause.

                 Another woman, Fiona, was Miss Derry 1986. She recalls how she didn’t mention to other contestants in the Miss Ireland pageant that her brother had been murdered by the IRA.

                Religious zeal has been the rationale for many a conflict throughout history – usually resulting from distorted interpretations of spiritual teachings. The 22^nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will arrive Monday, and families, friends and politicians will memorialize the 2,977 people who were killed in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania by Islamic extremists motivated by politics but primarily by zeal for their religion.

                In the case of the Troubles, the sides that opposed each other were split more by governance issues and civil rights disparities than by their two versions of Christianity.

Sometimes, people believe in their causes so strongly that they think anything, including murder of innocent people, is justified to achieve what they consider justice.

                “Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland” reveals the personal cost of such thinking. The emotion in the recent interviews is that of people who have not forgotten their pain.

                One of my friends who is helping plan a 2025 Christian retreat in Belfast says the organizers will urge those attending not to bring up politics with the Irish locals they meet – and certainly not to ask whether they are Protestant or Catholic.

                The Irish band U2 wrote about “Bloody Sunday,” when in 1972 British paratroopers shot 14 Catholic protesters to death: “How long, how long must we sing this song? How long? How long?

                “The real battle just begun … To claim the victory Jesus won … On Sunday, Bloody Sunday…”

 Aug. 27, 2023, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

C.S. Lewis retreat to focus on 'Silver Chair,'

Amarillo author to debut new book

By Mike Haynes

                Jill Pole receives “The Four Signs” from Aslan the lion as she and friend Eustace Scrubb try to find the kidnapped Prince Rilian. Jill is told to remember the four instructions, but she is careless in following through, which almost keeps the young duo from completing their quest.

                Readers of “The Silver Chair,” one of seven children’s books in C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” series, will recognize those characters. And thanks to an Amarillo author, the plot line will figure strongly into an adult Christian retreat between Houston and College Station in October.

                Nan Rinella organized the annual C.S. Lewis Retreat at Camp Allen, near Navasota, for many years. She has stepped back from that job, but as a longtime volunteer for the California-based C.S. Lewis Foundation, she suggested that the theme for this year’s retreat should be something from “The Silver Chair” because the book was published exactly 70 years ago, in 1953.

                So this year’s theme will be “Remember the Signs: Faith, Knowing and the Real in ‘The Silver Chair.’” And though Lewis wrote the Narnia books for children, the “readers, writers and mere Christians” who will attend the Oct. 13-15 event will discuss that topic on a variety of scholarly and spiritual levels.

                Information on registration and lodging at Camp Allen can be found at cslewis.org under “Events.”

                The retreat features speakers, musicians, dancers and breakout sessions with a readers’ track and a writers’ track plus a livestream option for those who can’t attend. Main speakers will be Christin Ditchfield Lazo of Alexandria, Virginia, author of “A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia,” and Charlie Starr of Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia, author of “The Lion’s Country: C.S. Lewis’s Theory of the Real.”

                The retreat pastor will be Andrew Lazo of Alexandria, Virginia, author of “Mere Christians: Inspiring Encounters with C.S. Lewis.” Performers will include singer-songwriter-Episcopal priest Josh Bales and the Ad Deum Dance Company of Houston.

                Organizers say the event will be an “experience of faith, reason and imagination” – three strengths that Lewis used to lead people toward Jesus Christ.

                Kirk Manton, chief operating officer of Amarillo’s Sharpened Iron Studios and author of two poetry books, will lead the retreat’s technology staff, a volunteer task he has done for many years.

Nan Rinella

And in a coincidence that might correspond to the retreat’s theme of watching for signs, Rinella plans to attend and launch the second novel in her series, “The Choice.”

Inspired by Narnia characters, by Lewis and by his friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, Rinella’s first book, “Dreams in the Distance,” follows two young English women and three military veterans – one English, one Scottish and one American – who seek to reclaim dreams they put on hold during World War II.

In her second installment, “Hopes on the Horizon,” the five young people grapple with doubt, pride, guilt, fear and other obstacles, trying to determine which inner voices they should listen to and which come from a dark source.

Both novels include what might be called cameo appearances by Lewis and Tolkien in chapters set in Oxford, England.

Rinella expects “Hopes” and a revised version of “Dreams” to be available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com by October. She is working on the third book, part of which will be set around the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Her story lines include a devastating train crash, a British intelligence operative looking for moles, a humanist professor speaking with Tolkien and Lewis in the audience, romantic drama and spiritual soul-searching.

Readers can expect doses of faith, reason and imagination in Rinella’s stories. She hopes to be talking about them with fellow Christians in the piney woods of Camp Allen in October.

* * *

Nan Rinella, Kirk Manton and other supporters of the C.S. Lewis Foundation meet at 5:30 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month to discuss Lewis’s books and for Christian fellowship. Email haynescolumn@gmail.com for details.