David Beckett's Blog, page 2
October 20, 2018
Thank You!
So grateful for the efforts of Pat Chabot and Sharon Hall, who together organized a terrific reader event. Thanks, also to the writers, photographers, and editors of 605 Magazine and Eastside Living, particularly Darrin and Krista, for their superb coverage.
(Brandon, South Dakota) On a cool October evening, as the hometown Lynx routed the top-ranked O’Gorman Knights, Sioux Falls, Valley Springs, and Lennox bibliophiles gathered inside Brandon’s Community Library with bestselling author David Beckett. Following organizer Pat Chabot’s introductory remarks, attendees discussed a range of topics, from national politics to Civil War battlefields to Biblical history. Beckett read excerpts from his award-wining novel The Chords of Memory while guest enjoyed fresh fruit, cookies, and warm beverages, said Branch Manager Sharon Hall. Thursday’s affair represented the latest installment of Siouxland Libraries’ popular “Author Visit” series. Mr. Beckett, a Tuscany Prize, IPBA Medal, and Willie Morris award winner, called it one of the most enjoyable stops on his 2018 tour.
(Brandon, South Dakota) On a cool October evening, as the hometown Lynx routed the top-ranked O’Gorman Knights, Sioux Falls, Valley Springs, and Lennox bibliophiles gathered inside Brandon’s Community Library with bestselling author David Beckett. Following organizer Pat Chabot’s introductory remarks, attendees discussed a range of topics, from national politics to Civil War battlefields to Biblical history. Beckett read excerpts from his award-wining novel The Chords of Memory while guest enjoyed fresh fruit, cookies, and warm beverages, said Branch Manager Sharon Hall. Thursday’s affair represented the latest installment of Siouxland Libraries’ popular “Author Visit” series. Mr. Beckett, a Tuscany Prize, IPBA Medal, and Willie Morris award winner, called it one of the most enjoyable stops on his 2018 tour.
September 19, 2018
Meet and Greet
Very honored by Siouxland Libraries' invitation to speak next month (October 18; 6:30 pm). Open to the public. ADA accessible. Free admission, free parking, free snacks! Topics: creativity, heroic literature, moral courage, and civil disobedience.
September 5, 2018
Fascinating
(Khirbet Qana, September 4, 2018) An archaeologist believes he has found the site where Jesus turned water into wine – and it’s not in the location where Christians have long thought it was.
The northern Israel town of Kafr Kanna – located a few miles northeast of Nazareth – is the traditional site of the New Testament town of Cana, where John 2 records Jesus performing his first miracle, changing water into wine. But Tom McCollough, professor of religion at Centre College in Danville, Ky., has found evidence that the location of Cana actually is modern-day Khirbet Qana, a few miles further north. Excavations there have revealed a network of tunnels marked with crosses and references to Kyrie Iesou, a Greek phrase meaning Lord Jesus. There was also an altar used for Christian worship and a shelf with the remains of a stone vessel, plus room for five more. Six stone jars held the wine in the biblical account of the miracle.
McCollough wrote about the find in an edition of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and others found tunnels marked with crosses and other references at Khirbet Qana used for Christian worship. Villages like Kafr Kanna have been thought to be the site, but “none has the ensemble of evidence that makes such a persuasive case for Khirbet Qana.” Centuries ago, Christians came to the location because they believed it is where Jesus performed the miracle.
“We have uncovered a large Christian veneration cave complex that was used by Christian pilgrims who came to venerate the water-to-wine miracle. This complex was used at the beginning of the late fifth or early sixth century and continued to be used by pilgrims into the 12th century Crusader period,” he said. “The pilgrim texts we have from this period that describe what pilgrims did and saw when they came to Cana of Galilee match very closely what we have exposed as the veneration complex.”
Text by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived in the first century, also supports Khirbet Qana as being the site. “His references to Cana align geographically with the location of Khirbet Qana and align logically with his movements,” McCollough said. “The reference to Cana in Josephus, the New Testament and in the rabbinic texts would argue the village was a Jewish village, near the Sea of Galilee and in the region of lower Galilee. Khirbet Qana fulfills all of these criteria.”
Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com|
The northern Israel town of Kafr Kanna – located a few miles northeast of Nazareth – is the traditional site of the New Testament town of Cana, where John 2 records Jesus performing his first miracle, changing water into wine. But Tom McCollough, professor of religion at Centre College in Danville, Ky., has found evidence that the location of Cana actually is modern-day Khirbet Qana, a few miles further north. Excavations there have revealed a network of tunnels marked with crosses and references to Kyrie Iesou, a Greek phrase meaning Lord Jesus. There was also an altar used for Christian worship and a shelf with the remains of a stone vessel, plus room for five more. Six stone jars held the wine in the biblical account of the miracle.
McCollough wrote about the find in an edition of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and others found tunnels marked with crosses and other references at Khirbet Qana used for Christian worship. Villages like Kafr Kanna have been thought to be the site, but “none has the ensemble of evidence that makes such a persuasive case for Khirbet Qana.” Centuries ago, Christians came to the location because they believed it is where Jesus performed the miracle.
“We have uncovered a large Christian veneration cave complex that was used by Christian pilgrims who came to venerate the water-to-wine miracle. This complex was used at the beginning of the late fifth or early sixth century and continued to be used by pilgrims into the 12th century Crusader period,” he said. “The pilgrim texts we have from this period that describe what pilgrims did and saw when they came to Cana of Galilee match very closely what we have exposed as the veneration complex.”
Text by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived in the first century, also supports Khirbet Qana as being the site. “His references to Cana align geographically with the location of Khirbet Qana and align logically with his movements,” McCollough said. “The reference to Cana in Josephus, the New Testament and in the rabbinic texts would argue the village was a Jewish village, near the Sea of Galilee and in the region of lower Galilee. Khirbet Qana fulfills all of these criteria.”
Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com|
August 10, 2018
Coffee
Coffee drinkers:
Grab a hot mug at Scooter's on Monday, August 13, to help foster families. "100 percent of SF sales will go to support foster children," they tell me. Scooter's "Day of Giving" runs from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 pm & benefits the Royal Family Kids, Family Visitation Center, East River Foster Parent Network, and Children's Home Society of South Dakota. Better than Starbucks, IMHO.
Grab a hot mug at Scooter's on Monday, August 13, to help foster families. "100 percent of SF sales will go to support foster children," they tell me. Scooter's "Day of Giving" runs from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 pm & benefits the Royal Family Kids, Family Visitation Center, East River Foster Parent Network, and Children's Home Society of South Dakota. Better than Starbucks, IMHO.
July 19, 2018
CMBF
Excited about CMBF's 2018 Faith + Business Conference, August 9th, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Addressing the Virtues: Fortitude and Justice. Together, let's make Business a Force for Good.
July 14, 2018
Events
Mr. Beckett visits Alabama later this month. He'll speak in Brandon, South Dakota, later this year. Details to follow.
July 4, 2018
Happy 4th
"We, the American People, find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them--they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times. Whatever, then, their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. It would be tedious, as well as useless, to recount the horrors of all of them.
Such are the effects of mob law; and such as the scenes, becoming more and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order; and the stories of which, have even now grown too familiar. The mob of to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded. But all this even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become, absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country; seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this “mobocractic” spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the People. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last. By such things, the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it; and thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak, to make their friendship effectual. At such a time and under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half century, has been the fondest hope, of the lovers of freedom, throughout the world.
I know the American People are much attached to their Government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come."
--Abe Lincoln, 1838
How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times. Whatever, then, their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. It would be tedious, as well as useless, to recount the horrors of all of them.
Such are the effects of mob law; and such as the scenes, becoming more and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order; and the stories of which, have even now grown too familiar. The mob of to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded. But all this even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become, absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country; seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this “mobocractic” spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the attachment of the People. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last. By such things, the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it; and thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak, to make their friendship effectual. At such a time and under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half century, has been the fondest hope, of the lovers of freedom, throughout the world.
I know the American People are much attached to their Government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come."
--Abe Lincoln, 1838
June 25, 2018
Brandon Valley Journal
Enormous appreciation for Jamie Hult and everyone at the superb Brandon Valley Journal who called The Chords of Memory "an old-school adventure, with shootouts, narrow escapes, gallant heroes and dastardly villains. It’s about real people who, for love, protect and defend their fellows. It celebrates brave men and women who loved freedom, who cherished the American Idea. How can we measure love, but that we risk all for it?”
You rock Jamie! We appreciate your generous review (available to journal subscribers only).
LINK
Thanks again for saying The Chords of Memory brings American history to life!
You rock Jamie! We appreciate your generous review (available to journal subscribers only).
LINK
Thanks again for saying The Chords of Memory brings American history to life!
May 27, 2018
Canada and Western USA
We're pleased to announce that The Cana Mystery is now available to readers in Canada and the Western U.S. via the:
Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BANQ) in Montreal, QC H2L 5C4, Canada;
Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary Cardinal Stafford Library in Denver, Colorado 80210, United States;
Los Angeles Public Library in Los Angeles, California 90071, United States;
North Central Regional Library in Wenatchee, Washington 98801, United States; and
The University of Toronto, Saint Michael's College Library Toronto, ON M5S 1J4, Canada.
Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BANQ) in Montreal, QC H2L 5C4, Canada;
Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary Cardinal Stafford Library in Denver, Colorado 80210, United States;
Los Angeles Public Library in Los Angeles, California 90071, United States;
North Central Regional Library in Wenatchee, Washington 98801, United States; and
The University of Toronto, Saint Michael's College Library Toronto, ON M5S 1J4, Canada.
May 26, 2018
Thank You!
Thanks to readers and to the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for honoring The Chords of Memory in the category "Best Christian Novel." Congratulations to all contest winners & merci beaucoup to our readers and judges. Thanks, also, to the valiant soldiers, sailors, and airmen who risk life and limb defending our liberty. Enjoy a wonderful & well-deserved holiday weekend!
