| OCR Text |
Show SUNDAY The Satt LakeTribune OHE THOUSAND YEARS MARKING THE MILLENNIUM 1,000 Years of Religion TIMELINE BY BOB MIMS In closing his Gospel, St. John hinted at thefrustration inherentin re cording history in general, and in particular recountingthelife of Jesus of Nazareth: “There are also many other things whichJesusdid, the which,if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the worlditself could not contain the booksthat should be written,” the apostle wrote in John 21:25 (KJV). If that be trueof the founder of one of the world’s majorreligions,the task can be noless imposing in trying to represent them all over the spaceof the past 1,000 years. With apologies, then, for events andpeopleleft out and recognizing scholars may differ with specific dates — The Salt Lake Tribune offers this necessarily truncatedtimeline for religion in the secondmillennium, compiled froma variety ofsources: ce.D.1053-54 (Also referred to as “or “Common Era”): The “Great he orfinal split between Latin (Roman) and Greek (Byzantine) C) tians, resulting in today’s Roman Cath- olic and Eastern Orthodox churches. 1098-99: Called by Pope Urban II to free the Holy Land from the Muslims, thefirst of the Crusades succeedsin capturing Jerusalem. 1135-1204: Life of Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), Jewish scholar. 1147-1149: Second Crusade proves Take Tribune dismalfailure for Christian armies. 1150: Angkor Wattemple in Cambodia completed by Khmer ruler SuryavarmanII. The largest Hindu templein Asia spans 12 miles and featuresa 200foot tower. 1181-1226: Lifeof St. FrancisofAs: sisi, Catholic saint and mystic. Founderofthe Franciscanorder, dedicated to a life of poverty andpreaching. 1187: Crusaderssuffer series of mil itary defeats by Muslims, ending with surrenderof Jerusalemto the Muslim armiesofSalladin. 1189-92; Third Crusade provides somevictories for German, English and Frenchforces, but the grandprize ~ Jerusalem remains in Muslim hands. 1202-04: Fourth Crusadenever makesit to Holy Landas western Euro pean armies, underVenetian influence, divertedtosettle a score with Con: stantinople. See TIMELINE, Page J-6 What They Mean Depends on WhoIs Reading Them BY BOB MIMS signed todivert cargoonanas-needed ba sis for the Marines, CHAPTER 18 ‘Thetask forcedestinedfor the Guam invasionholed upat Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands for 27day: tions officer of the 2ndE Jackson, Exceptforletter was almost nothing to do. Wewere re ‘ ied for mortal combat and damn near dy: ing of boredom Occasionally, the Jackson filled land. ing craft with Marines and dumped them onthe sands of Eniwetok. There they were free to sun themselves, swim, play volleyball and drink beer not neces. sarily in that order. The sand was hot ‘The volleyball was fun for the hour you were allowed to play. The com pulsoryexercises wereboth exercisal proaches12 million, some400,000in the UnitedStates for a megadoseoffear. Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwandaand East Timorgush riv ers of blood, long-standing hatreds unleashed anew with bombs, bullets, machetes, clubs and stones. Cit ies shudder and crumble as the earth convulses from below, while murderous storms and funnel clouds The USS Missouri Under Attack — By Beer-Can-Flinging Marines Last week, Capt Cracroft was reas shatter buildings and lives from above. Meanwhile, the AIDS death toll worldwide ap- THE SALTLAKETRIBUNE Warsand rumorsof wars, killer earthquakes, hur ricanes and tornadoes, rampant crime, moral confusion, famine anda raging epidemic cutting down mil. lions worldwidelike a cosmic scythe. It must be THE END. Youcanread about it in dozens of tomeslining the shelves of Christian bookstores, or catch the head lines on supermarkettabloids trumpeting the coming apocalypse. Just scan the daily newspaper headlines alone. More will dieas efforts to find a cure befuddle thefinest medical minds. is the planet Earth about to burnto a cinder under the glowing wrath of the heavens? predictions of 16th century mysti Then again, maybe what is coming is the “Day of the Lord” foretold by the Hebrew scriptures, the ad And what of the calendar of the extinct Central American Mayans, which archaeologists noteends in 2012? vent of a Jewish messianicage. Andwhat of Islam's prophecies of the coming Last Judgment, to be preceded bythearrival of the Mahdi, or “rightly guided one,” whowill topple an evil ruler the United ONFESSIONS_ °F 4 sational, likegliding through nt aquariumofcrazily shaped and colored their eyesight, trigger fingers and bow. els, It being our national holiday, we had es Navy. Marines hardly everdo. We didbitch some about the Navyas Marines often do. We reminded ourselves that the swab jockeys called us Previous chapters of “Confessions of a Na live Utahn” are available through Utah On line al www.sitrib.com. Click on “City Lights" once youreachthe Website. ordered its coxswain to return us to the USS Jackson. We had many live beers left as the LSTgot us off the beach and headed into the lagoon. About 2,000 * away sat the US uri, Ameri cries of “salvo”and“splash,” eight hits onthe starboard sideof the ad pepeterts the impressive symbol of the awesomelygrowing armed might of the United States. She was above all ves. sels the pride of the Navy, anobject of (The hilarity of this action was somehow lost on the bridge whose subsequent sig: nal saw it ouly as the “drunken, childish hurling of trashat the flagship.”) ewest and biggest battleship, near reverence. The late Laurance W. Cracrott penned the manuscript for a book on his life in Utah, a humorous look at its idiosyncrasies, its joys and its tribulations. We are present ing weekly serialized excerpts fromit over the summer. Finneranordered the coxswainto a couple of celebratory beers in honor of the Constitution, the Declaration of In world’s greatest warship, And we swung under her bow andgot aboutadozenhits onher port side, accompanied byour hollers of “salvo” and“splash,” Wecrossed the battlewagon’s stern andat near-idling speed were preparing close with the Missouri andpass her for our secondstarboard attack when we were hailed by a bullhorn, The Missou ri’s officer of the deck addressed us as a live Pabst from his bellowed “sal vo" and threw the beer can at the pride of the Navy. It hit gray steel pla n cried “LST238." Hetold us that by orderof “TheFlag” all personnel aboard our slowly. As wepulledclose to thebattle ship's starboardside, Finneran grabbed oncethat Finneran had Marines on Saipan. And thoseon Tinian. And to ships of Task Force 57, oneat a tle ditty in which we invoked a curse on See SIGNS, Page J-6 mandeeredthenearest landingcraft and the United States.) Wetoasted our wives. and compulsory. The swimming was sen some predictions. Books, articles and papers on apocalyptic and sea-going bell hops and gyrenes and other disrespectful names. Still in our anti-Navy mood, we com: beenclose friends in California and had searcelyseen each other since leaving Weknockedoff a couple in honor of the Japanese on Guam and madeupalit and population arede tated by the elements? Orperhaps reports ofra bino buffaloes being born are true, fulfilling th ar-old “White Buffalo Calf Woman” prophecy of the Sioux and other northern Plains Indians. Don't forget the periodically revived doomsday the late Edgar Cayce of this century end coming by 2001, according to unsaved, TheTribulation. beer ontheatoll. Andwetoasted each other. Wetoasted our reunion. (We had time as weidentified themin thelagoon. whenthe Earth’s surface faithful even as he lets slip a time of terror for the Onthe4th of July, 1944, Capt. Frank Finneran and| found ourselves in possession of two cases of cold, free, canned was Finneran, We drankto my old com mand, Easy Company. Wedrank to the Could this be the Hindus’ fourth andfinal 1,000. yearperiod of mankind, theapocalyptic Age ofKali, warn that he is coming back soon, redeeming the fish, most of whom displayednofear of us and demonstratedan intense,persis tent curiosity. We toasted the daughters our wives had borne during our absence. Wetoasted the armedforces of the United § who hadbut lately landed in Normandy. We drank to Charlie Company oftheist Battalion whose commanding officer From tent meetings andelectronic pulpits, some say yes. Marking 2000 years from the birth of Jesus, end-times prophets and convert the worldto the truth faith? and good, inspired, magnifi. cent, historic deed. This perception came to me with dazzling clarity. (At about the dependence, the Spirit of '76 and the United States of America same time, as it turnedout, a dissimilar interpretation was developing on the Although the Marine Corps is part of the Navy, wedid not drink any toasts to bridge of the USS Missouri.) Of course,I joined (he battle, With craft wereto proceed directly to our ship or ships and report immediately to our commanding officers. Hesaid that all ships lad been signaled that we were to be placed underarrest as we boarded, ‘The bombardment of the USS Mis- souri hadended. Next Week: The punishment,ae the crime. |
