Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

James Harrington: (b. 1847, England – d. 1885)  Anglican Bishop martyred in Buganda (Uganda) 1885 at the orders of King Mwanga II.

Mwanga II: (b. 1868, Buganda –d. 1903, Seychelles; aka: Danieri Bassammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa) Mwanga, the 31^st Kabaka of Buganda, ordered the assassination of Anglican Bishop James Harrington in 1885.  After a troubled rule, he was deposed in exile in 1897.  In 1899, he became a convert to the Anglican Church.

Frank Miller: (b. 1957, Maryland, USA)  Comic book writer and artist (300; The Dark Knight; Sin City), actor, film director, screenwriter. Roman Catholic.

Oz Fox: (b. 1961, California, USA; aka: Richard Alfonso Martinez) Vocalist and guitarist for the Christian hard-rock music group Stryper.

Karl Kmetko: Roman Catholic Bishop of Nitra, Slovakia in 1942. Kmetko favored the expulsion of Jews from Slovakia and their extermination by the Germans unless they converted to Christianity. 

Gone!

     I just spent the last week in Mundelein and Vernon Hills in Illinois and came away with an odd feeling.  I saw maybe eight black people the entire time I was there and several of them were employees of restaurants and stores I visited.  I saw plenty of Asians and Hispanics but almost no blacks.  It felt creepy, a whole group of people suddenly just gone.  I live in the Deep South where African Americans have a heavy and very visible presence.

     During my alone time during the week I read Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover.  One of the prime movers in the Torah Bible Code movement was Rabbi Michael Dov Ber Weissmandl,  who spent the last years of his life pursuing the codes.

     The more obvious historical significance of Rabbi Weissmandl is his role in at least being able to delay the extermination of the Jews of Slovakia by bribing and deceiving numerous Nazi officials.  It haunted him the rest of his life, but, ultimately the rabbi was not able to save even his own immediate family.  In total, over six million Jews were murdered.  It was as if the entire Jewish population (about 5.2 million in 2009) of the United States were missing.

     The near absence of black people reminded me of the sudden disappearance of the Jews from Europe.  There and then suddenly just gone.