 ANTIOCH, EASTER SUNDAY |
They traveled east along the Mediterranean to Antioch, arriving on Easter Sunday (two weeks before Easter, according to the Eastern Orthodox Church). There, they saw license plates on cars from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, reminding them how close to those borders they were. The Turkish government had curbed terrorist activity, but the strong military presence nearly everywhere they turned, managed to be reassuring and unsettling at the same time! |
 SHRINE OF ST PETER |
Bond and Travis visited the cave in the hillside overlooking Antioch where St Peter first named his brethren Christians. Their conversation began with the the dispute between St Peter, a former Jew, and St Paul, a former heathen, arguing whether or not non-Jews could become Christians without first converting to Judaism (eventially resolved in Paul's favor), but clearly showing that Christianity was as embroiled in controversy then as it is now. That, combined with terrorist conflicts raging across the Middle East, with Sunni Moslems opposing Shia Moslems, and both opposing Christians and Jews alike, all of which suggested plot lines galore to Travis, but having studied political geography, the silence from the north seemed to hold the most promise. The problems the soviets were having with Solidarity in Poland, and the fact that the Pope had come out in favor of Solidarity, suggested political thriller plot lines worthy of consideration . . . |
