"Drew A Cross In The Sand" References You Might Appreciate

Tom Maguire basically owns Andrew Sullivan in this post - it's actually rather embarrassing for St. Andrew.

Uh huh. Because the sign of the cross is a pretty well-kept secret, so how could prison guards invoke it twice in one century? FWIW, the story appears in McCain's 1999 "Faith Of My Fathers", although I have no idea whether McCain told it earlier. Lexis mavens?

I opted for another track to see just how common the whole "drew a cross in the sand" deal might be. The results were surprising.

From tales of Christian-targeted genocide in Turkey circa 1915 - 1923 - page 102.

"and then drew a cross in the sand next to each grave."

A US medical team treating Iraqi's in 2003:

The clinic began operations six days ago, after a team of Navy doctors drew a cross in the sand.

From Basil Matthews Book of Missionary Heroes:

... an arrogant Moslem drew a cross in the sand of the desert to spit upon it.

From Converts and Conservatives - Missionary representations of African rulers in the Northern Transvaal, c.1870-1900

He drew a cross in the sand and placed a small piece of wood in the centre of this, pushing two others into the earth to the left and right [of this]. Then he pointed to the piece standing in the middle and said: “That is me, Makhahane! So I stand alone in the middle, on my right Jehovah, on my left Satan.

From a 2008 on line journal:

I leaned over and drew a cross in the sand. "La Florida," I said. "Thank God for you, my flower." I kissed Angie. "And this night."

From a mission to Sudan in 2002 entitled: Cross in the Sand:

He carried a short rod about sixteen inches long that men use when they are riding their donkeys. Reminded of a story I once heard about how early Christians recognized each other, I took the stick from him and drew a fish in the sand at our feet. As I pointed to my drawing and looked into his eyes I saw only confusion. He shook his head--the fish meant nothing to him.

I drew a cross in the sand. Instantly a smile lit his face and his eyes came alive.

From the contemporary tale of a bike rider in Florida:

At Florida for the beach start I thought of all the people close to me IRL and online and as I said their name I drew a cross in the sand.

But don't let these confuse you. Obviously Solzhenitsyn's fellow prisoner is the only soul to have ever actually drawn a cross in the sand. We know this to be true because St. Andrew has now told us so.

Comments

[SacTownMan]

You gotta love the trolls. Their latest conspiracy to explain away the pathetic performance of "the One".

I don't suppose they noticed the tears welling-up in his eyes(along with a few million American voters)when he told the story.

First they spend months telling us how old and dumb he is then he goes and show em that he is actually a professional actor!

UnFreakinBelievable!!

Wait till the Soro's negative ad money starts to come-in play soon.. this is nothing!

[Vomitorus Minimus]

When your candidate is reduced to flat-out lying about things, I suppose the best bet is to try and smear the opposition.

The Obamarunt got caught with his pants down bigtime, and now the real attacks on McCain will begin.

[Dan S.]

Trying to find fault with McCain's POW stories reeks of desperation and I don't know that the Obamamaniacs really need to be this desperate. Not to mention that it could completely back-fire on them. They must know something about the chosen one that I don't.

[Fred "Bedraggled" Beloit]

Fred makes another friend. B[low] J[ob] Bjornson of Newshoggers kicks Fred's arse. It seems BJ lost patience with my doubting BJ's claim and offering evidence to back up my doubts that Georgia was responsible for Russia's attack and BJ's implication that Bush bore ultimate responsibility. He calls my doubts "projection'???

"Ah Fred, you still find a way to amuse. Claim that I'm being mean to the WaPo editorial board after starting this thread by linking to the PJM crowd hammering a different article from that very paper. I believe they call that projection.

And I don't determine truth, I discern facts. Its a subtle distinction, and I'm not surprised you are unable to understand it, but as you've shown, truth, at least the way you describe it, is a very subjective thing. Facts are objective. As to how I do it, I would explain it to you if I thought it would do any good. Joshua Foust did a pretty good job of explaining some of the basics if you're interested.

Of course, to figure it all out requires the ability to see past propaganda, have an open mind, not have pre-determined answers to you questions, and be capable of logical thought processes, all of which it has become apparent you are lacking. It is not petulance you are detecting, but pity. I initially thought you capable of the cognitive processes listed above, but it has become clear that you are instead little better than a parrot who can only imitate that which others have taught him to say. It makes me sad to contemplate such an existence, and I can only hope that you can serve as an example and warning to others of the dangers of letting others do your thinking for you until you are no longer capable of doing your own."

Poor bedraggled Fred answers:
"Ah, I'm so ashamed. Thank you for setting me straight. As only a man, may I send my regards from all of the less intelligent and enlightened to you, peerless truth and fact detector of seemingly supernatural sources.
Posted by: Fred Beloit | August 18, 2008 at 09:43 AM"

[seekeronos]

My dear bedragged Fred, prithee, what is the link to this Newshoggers article where we can share, nay, even long to breathe the rarefied essence of Mr. Bjornson's mental droppings?

I fear I shall suffer the vapours if I, a common troglodyte, cannot bask in the sunshine of Mr. Bjornson's staggering intellect to-day.

[Fred Beloit]

seek, go to "Friday Night Musings on Georgia", scroll down, and find.

http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2008/08/friday-night-mu.html#comments

Boo hoo die hoo hoo and whah whah.

[PA]

"I don't know that the Obamamaniacs really need to be this desperate. "

With their man 15 points down from where he needs to be right now, they need to be more than desperate.

[Worst President Ever]

Actually, Obama's doing fine - he's ahead in four of five national polls, tied in the other.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

[PA]

"Actually, Obama's doing fine - he's ahead in four of five national polls, tied in the other."

"Ahead" isn't up 15 points.

[seekeronos]

Indeed. There is quite a difference between being close or even lagging in one particular poll than the full-steam-ahead super blow-out lead that Obama *should* be having now, if not for all the hype and hoopla, and George Soros money injected into this campaign thus far.

The Big "O" should be like, 40 to 55 points ahead of the "old doddering man".

This is a sign of failure, me thinks: the 400-electoral vote landslide may not be a given after all. In fact, the vote may be tantalizingly close.

[lonetown]

I kind of remember a certain American president making a cross with some stones on a beach in Normandy. What ever gave him the idea to do that?
btw on the polls - don't forget the Bradley effect. We racist are notorious for lying to pollsters.

[templar knight]

I see old Worst has been hitting the bong pipe again. No, me boy, Obama ain't doing jus' fine. He is tied with an old man who doesn't even have a base. That's just funny to me, and devastating to Obama. Methinks old anti-American George is about to show up. That will really help! Haha!

[TEdwards]

More here.

Note, too, the Billy Graham anecdote--perhaps he plagiarized, too! lol

http://crossinthedirt.blogspot.com/

[double talk express]

I see where you are going with all of these quotes and I agree that both John McCain and Alexander Solzhenitsyn could have had the same experience while being held prisoner. What separates the Solzhenitsyn story from the quotes above is that John McCain happens to be a Solzhenitsyn buff and had recently wrote a piece about him for the New York Sun (http://www.nysun.com/opinion/solzhenitsyn-at-work/83117/).

It just seems a little too coincidental to me and the fact that this wouldn't be his first time being caught lying about his POW experience makes me more skeptical.

http://doubletalkexpress.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/cross-in-the-sand-john-mccain-caught-lying-in-church/

[Orion]

Add to your list the 1962 film Barrabas, where a fellow slave draws a fish in the sand to show Barrabas's Christian friend Sahek that he was a Christian, too. This is absolute proof, btw, according to KOS kiddie logic that Solzhenitsyn ripped off the idea from this film in 1962, 11 years before he wrote "The Gulag".

[Politicat]

I don't think the point is that the action indicates "I'm Christian, too" so much as it stands as an embellishment in a story that is, well, incredibly similar to Solzhenitsyn's...

McCain is well-documented as vehemently hating "gooks" He unapologetically has stated that on the record... that, for me, precludes such a "human" moment on McCain's part... plus, there is at least one article discussing different accounts of the events, or lack thereof.

All things being equal, the simplest answer is he lifted (at the very least) the "idea" of the story and probably it didn't happen, right?

Unless you adhere to Crabtree's Bludgeon -- no set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated... ;)

Another instance of plagarism... lifting some paragraphs off the wikipedia site (in a speech on Russia/Georgia)?

anyway...