[CasearianDaoist]

Well, I, like you, have been a Scott fan for decades, but over the last 15 years or so he has tended leftwards, put out some absuoutley treacly PC nonsense and made some real duds (GI Jane is a paniful example of these three meeting in one horrible blend.)

He has been uneven the last few years.

[Podkayne]

"Warriors of God", published May 2001, by James Reston. Chapter Two: Kingdom of Heaven....... This book was written and published during the waning years of the Clinton administration, a time when conservative Christianity was under fire and was besieged by the might of the Clinton admionistration's secular establishment.

James Reston, the author, is suing Ridley Scott, the director for taking his work and using it without permission. Ridley Scott called Reston and discussed the possibility of turning his book into a movie and Reston is using this conversation/phone call as the basis for his lawsuit.

As to the movie - it is a must see. The message of the righteous crudaser comes through in the movie even though it is written, produced and directed in a fog of secular liberal agnosticism. Up to this point in time, the history of western civilization was the history of the Christianity. The interior motivations of the screenplay characters shows how different the common mindset was regarding reality, mans place in the world and his relationship and duty to God. Don't listen to the whiners who berate this as a PC mish mash of secular anti-christian propaganda, this movie demonstrates,(in spite opf the best intentions of the director and screenwriter) that Chrsitendom was threatened by ferocious hoards of muslims driven by cultural fanaticm and fear of their moon God, Allah.

James Reston must be sleepless in Seatle with all the activities since Sept. 11,2001. Here is a quote from the introduction of "Warriors of God" his book about Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade (1187 A.D.)

(Page xviii)

Here, Holy War was in its infancy but practiced at the height of its ferocity. In the first instance it was a Christian Holy War that was met in response and in reaction by the Muslim concept of Jihad. Jihad is, by definition, a defensive concept, conditioned upon the provocation of an unbelieving agressor. In the Koran the believer is called upon "to fight in the way of God with those who fight with you.....but agress not: God loves not the agressors"(2:190)

And so it is an irony of history that today, the word "jihad"strikes fear in the hearts of many Westerners and Western governments who associate it with terrorism and Islamic fanaticism. But there is nothing in Islamic history that rivals the terror of the Crusades or the Christian fanaticism of the twelfth century.