B6

B

KLMNO

Book World

RELIGION REVIEW BY SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS

How to get to

SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010

BIGSTOCK PHOTO; KRISTIN LENZ, THE WASHINGTON POST

“E

verybody talking about heaven ain’t going there.” So runs the re- frain of an Afri-

can American spiritual, one source that Lisa Miller happens not to cite in her thorough survey of notions about the afterlife. The material she does reference cov- ers a wide range, from ancient Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures through medieval and modern theology to recent nov- els, films and songs. Readers may finish this intriguing volume no more certain as to who will or won’t get into heaven, or whether there’s a heaven to get into, but they will be convinced that for the past 2,000 years or so, just about everybody has been talking or writing about it. Miller’s bibliography totals some 500 items, but she wears her learning lightly. As religion

HEAVEN

Our Enduring Fascination With the Afterlife

By Lisa Miller Harper. 331 pp. $25.99

editor of Newsweek, she knows how to translate theological ideas into plain language. She is as lu- cid in deciphering the arguments of Thomas Aquinas or Martin Lu- ther as in interpreting a lyric from the Talking Heads or testi- mony from survivors of near- death experiences or data from opinion polls. Through inter- views, she brings in the voices of rabbis and priests, ministers and imams, as well as ordinary believ- ers of many faiths, including a Mormon genealogist, an Islamic legal scholar and a Trappist monk. She introduces us to Pen- tecostalists who speak in tongues, an astrophysicist who

imagines heaven as an alterna- tive universe, a daughter of Billy Graham who believes the world will end any day now, pet owners who look forward to cuddling their lost dogs or cats in the here- after, and a spiritual medium who earns his living by commun- ing with the dead. Miller identifies in these varied notions of the afterlife a few com- mon elements: “Heaven is a per- fect place. It is the home of God, and a reward for living the right kind of life. In heaven, we live for- ever.” Those elements came to- gether for the first time, she ar- gues, in Judea around 200 B.C., among Jews who combined monotheism, a touch of Zoroas- trianism, a Greek philosophy that distinguished between mortal body and immortal soul, and a tribal history of recurrent exile and return. Later, the vision was picked up and elaborated by

Christians and Muslims, “but heaven, at its root, is a Jewish idea.” It is a durable idea, and a se-

ductive one, especially in the con- temporary United States. Accord- ing to polls cited by Miller, more than 80 percent of Americans be- lieve in some form of afterlife, 61 percent believe they will go straight to heaven when they die, nearly half believe they will be re- united with loved ones there, and nearly a quarter believe it’s pos- sible to talk with the dead. More ominously, a third of white evan- gelicals — some 20 million peo- ple, Miller estimates — not only believe the world will end within their lifetimes, they welcome the apocalypse. What impulse could be more contemptuous of Crea- tion than to yearn for the aboli- tion of Earth, sun, stars, every liv- ing species except humans and every human outside the

charmed circle of true believers? Miller reports on the wild array

of heavenly visions without ei- ther endorsing or debunking them. Despite her evenhanded- ness, however, she occasionally reveals her own longings and be- liefs. When Billy Graham’s daughter tries to convert her to Christ, Miller remarks, “I don’t believe that my ultimate destiny has anything to do with Jesus.” After quoting Saint Paul’s prom- ise of resurrection — “We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” — she confesses, “I think again of my beautiful mother, and I hope.” Of the near-death survivors who claim to have glimpsed heaven, she says: “I believe they saw what they said they saw. But I don’t be- lieve that their testimony, as con- sistent and thrilling as it is, adds up to proof that there’s a heaven.”

.

After interviewing a professor of world religions, she comments, “Like so many people I’ve met — and like me — he mourns the dis- appearance of traditional heav- en.” Her book shows that visions of

“traditional heaven” are as preva- lent as ever; what has disap- peared, for many of us, is the con- viction that such a place exists outside the human imagination. In the epilogue, Miller describes most directly what she believes: “If God is love, and heaven is where God lives, then heaven ex- ists in the love between people — and between people and God.” Who wouldn’t want to dwell per- ennially in love, whether in this world or another?

Scott Russell Sanders is the author of “A Private History of Awe” and “Hunting for Hope.”

THE MILITARY REVIEW BY CHRIS BRAY

Unlikely soldiers fight very different battles

premises. Johnson, formerly a cook in the U.S. Army’s 507 Main- tenance Company, gets an assist from co-writer M.L. Doyle, who ex- plains in a brief opening note that “I’m Still Standing” will disprove claims made by the news media when Johnson was taken as a pris- oner of war after being ambushed during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. “Early reports of the ambush,” Doyle writes, “seemed to blame the soldiers who had been attacked, in- dicating subtly that the soldiers had been lost, that they were only maintenance and support person- nel and not prepared for heavy combat, and that their weapons had malfunctioned because of lack of maintenance, making it difficult for them to defend themselves.” It takes all the way to Page 2 be-

F

fore Johnson’s book begins to con- firm these very things: “We had wandered into their killing field like lost lambs.... Buildings tow- ered over us as we made several turns, stopped a few times, and were obviously confused about where we were and what we were doing. We had given them plenty of time to gather their forces and sur- round us.” No subtle indication is needed. They were lost. Ambushed, Johnson fires her ri- fle once and then hands it to a col- league, disarming herself in the middle of a gunfight. “I handed him my M16. He took aim and pulled the trigger. Nothing hap- pened.... Now, between Riley, Hernandez, and me, we had three M16s that wouldn’t fire.” That’s the second news media claim con- firmed by the book. Johnson’s ac- count so far has taken us all the way to Page 3. In between long stretches of fill- er — “I was at my first duty station

ormer Iraq war POW Shoshana Johnson deliv- ers a memoir of captivity and rescue that labors bi- zarrely against its own

hesive melted in the heat. She nev- er identifies this mysterious “they,” an omission that calls for the atten- tion of an editor. Later, Johnson acknowledges

ASSOCIATED PRESS

I’M STILL STANDING From Captive Soldier to Free Citizen — My Journey Home

By Shoshana Johnson with M.L. Doyle Touchstone. 276 pp. $23.99

that she and some of her colleagues never cleaned their weapons in Iraq, but insists that this was be- cause they were passengers in moving trucks and had “no time for stopping or cleaning them.” Seven years after the fact, no one has apparently explained to John- son that soldiers at war sometimes clean their weapons while they aren’t at leisure. By now, the book has proven every point that its au- thors set out to refute. Most participants in these

TIM BAILEY

THE 188th CRYBABY BRIGADE A Skinny Jewish Kid From Chicago Fights Hezbollah

By Joel Chasnoff Free Press. 269 pp. $25

at Fort Carson when I decided to have my tongue pierced,” for exam- ple — Johnson explains why none of the failures that led to her cap- ture were her fault. But her expla- nations don’t add up to much. Her weapon jammed, she suggests, be- cause “they told us to cover the hole in the magazine with tape,” gumming up the bullets as the ad-

events come off well. Several sol- diers in the ambushed convoy fought with unmistakable courage, some at the cost of their lives. And the Marines who rescued the pris- oners from their Iraqi captors did the Corps proud. The only person in Johnson’s book who doesn’t seem impressive is Johnson her- self. This is an unusual accomplish- ment. In “The 188th Crybaby Brigade,” former Israeli soldier Joel Chasnoff offers an account that has the op- posite effect, describing his service as a passionate defender of Israel in an army that seems to be col- lapsing into tactical mediocrity and a widespread indifference to duty. Chasnoff is an American Jew who proudly signs up to defend the Jewish state. But he discovers that many Israelis don’t share his devo- tion to that job. In basic training, more than half of the men in his platoon become “Medical Excuse Guys.” Their mysterious illnesses correspond precisely to the duties of the moment: Before a long road march, they suddenly have bad knees; assigned to work in the kitchen, “everybody suddenly has cuts on his fingers and hands.” The army just advances the Medical Ex- cuse Guys through their training,

precisely as if they were participat- ing in it. More remarkably, Chasnoff finds

that many Israelis don’t serve as soldiers — in a country with uni- versal requirements for military service. Visiting his fiancee’s family in Tel Aviv, he meets her brother Alon, “a punky-looking twenty- year-old with an eyebrow ring, black fingernail polish, and a pony- tail.” Alon told an induction officer that he would shoot himself if the army gave him a rifle, and he was released from his military obliga- tion. He lives with his parents and argues constantly with his 60-year- old father, “a veteran of every Is- raeli war since the Sinai Campaign of ’56.” This, Chasnoff realizes, isn’t just an argument between father and son; rather, it’s an argument between “two Israels,” a generation that grew up fighting and a genera- tion that doesn’t want to fight. There’s far more to this story, and much of it is worth the telling. In one remarkable moment, Chas- noff’s application for an Israeli marriage license is denied after rabbinical officials investigate his family’s background. The verdict, delivered to an American who has volunteered to serve in the defense of Israel: “You’re not a Jew.” Some of the book is the numbingly stan- dard stuff of military memoirs, but it’s a pleasure to read in spite of that typical problem. One curious thing: Chasnoff

never situates his narrative in time, naming the months of his service but not the year — which leaves readers to guess at the book’s con- text. Add “The 188th Crybaby Bri- gade” to the pile of recent Amer- ican military memoirs that make war a personal journey through a hazy political landscape. If this is a marketing decision, it’s a bad one.

Chris Bray, a former U.S. Army

sergeant, is a doctoral candidate in the UCLA history department.

Political Bookworm

6voices.washingtonpost.com.political-bookworm

Three myths about the media’s influence on historic events

W. Joseph Campbell, a professor of communication at American University, busts some media myths in his book, “Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism,” coming in July from the University of California Press. Here are three of Campbell’s biggies:

1

William Randolph Hearst’s purported vow, telegraphed to the artist Frederic Remington in Cuba, to “furnish the war” with Spain. Hearst denied making such a statement. The telegram containing his purported pledge has never turned up. The “furnish the war” anecdote can be traced to 1901 and a memoir by another journalist, James Creelman, who did not say when or how he learned the story about Hearst’s vow.

This myth stems from Murrow’s CBS program “See It Now” on March 9, 1954, when the newsman dissected McCarthy’s crude investigative techniques and taste for the half-truth — none of which was unknown to American audiences at the time. The myth took hold even though years before the program aired, several prominent journalists — including Washington-based syndicated columnist Drew Pearson — had become searching critics of McCarthy and his tactics.

2

Nixon’s corrupt presidency. Katharine Graham, The Post’s publisher during the Watergate period, said in 1997:

3

“Sometimes people accuse us of bringing down a president, which of course we didn’t do. The processes that caused [Nixon’s] resignation were constitutional.” She was right, but the complexities of Watergate are not readily recalled these days. What does stand out is a media-centric interpretation that the dogged reporting of Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought Nixon down.

MARK GODFREY

The Washington Post’s investigative reporting brought down Richard

Edward R. Murrow brought an end to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s

communists-in-government witch hunt.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FILE Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184