Question by bobdpirate2002: Did Alexander Solzhenitsyn plagerize John McCain’s POW story about the Cross in the dirt??
This is what McCain said at the Rick Warren Forum:
“He came walking up. He stood there for a minute and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard he drew a cross and he stood there and a minute later, he rubbed it out and walked away. For a minute there, there was just two Christians worshiping together.”
I mean McCain is pretty old and that story sounds alot like this passage from Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archepelago”:
“Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work”
Should we posthumously strip Solzhenitsyn of his Nobel Prize for his plagerizing and utter disregard of John McCain’s torment in Vietnam?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Hot Dog
Could be.
Read all the answers in the comments.
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Earth: The Connected says
Here at Y/A Elections I am constantly subjected to liberal claims that they are better educated than we conservatives. This question is one of many examples where the opposite is true.
Any accurate understanding of Western Civilization must include an in depth look at Christianity. You have obviously ignored it, or your question would have seemed far too ignorant to post. Clandestine messages of faith have been posted in the dirt since the days of the Roman Empire.
Here, let me give you a secular analogy so that you can comprehend. "One day, I peed my name in the dirt, in cursive." I don't know if a Russian novelist ever wrote about this, but do you think I'm the only one that ever thought of doing it?
Faith aside, living in the West and not having an accurate understanding of Christianity leaves one seriously deficient. If I said Christianity has been and is as important to Western Civilization as multiplication is to calculus, many of you wouldn't even have the tools to consider the statement's accuracy.
ezmee1859 says
If you were locked in a cage, and beaten to the point where all you had to hang on to was your faith, then it might mean something to you. But you obviously don't get it. John McCain could have come out of his ordeal, a very angry and bitter man, and hated America. But he didn't. He has spent his life trying to make America a better place for all of us. I'm sorry if his pain and suffering do not meet you high standards. But I support John McCain and I will continue to support him when he becomes my next President.
susanmarie says
This actually happens all the time all over the world in places where Christianity is looked down upon. It is an ancient Christian custom. IT used to be that one person would draw an arc in the sand or dirt with his foot and the other would complete the picture of a fish with another arc. That evolved into drawing the cross.
Just because someone else wrote about, that does not mean it didn't also happen to McCain. Many prisoners of war recount this same thing.
Often times, the opposing guards will draw this symbol as a way to gain the confidence of the detainee/prisoner.
It happens *all* the time!
So much for your story that McCain had to be lying!
ladyshondra says
no. that would be silly to even think that.
this same scenario has probably been done numerous times in the course of the history of Christianity, even in ancient Rome when christians were killed in the Colosseum. it use to be the sign of the fish to denote believers, that is now the cross.
anytime a person of faith is persecuted, they will find comfort in their faith.
KIZIAH says
Read a little Wikipedia about it–
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelag…
" Written between 1958 and 1968 (dates given at the end of the book) it was published in the West in 1973, thereafter circulating in samizdat (underground publication) form in the Soviet Union until its official publication in 1989."
I think it must be the other way around. John McCain thinks we're all stupid–thanks for letting us know about this.
Max50 says
No
No matter how many ways you phrase the question it will still be No.
Stop repeating yourself because you are only embrassing yourself.
Joe B says
YES! Solzenitsen is just a dumb Russian Commie like barack HUSSEIN obama. Theres no doubt he stole John McCain's story to win the nobel prize. Time to put these cheaters to justice!
Go Jesus! God Bless America! (and no one else!)
alectoris_51 says
Obama has said repeatedly that McCain served his country honorably.
That's good enough for me.
Burned Bagels says
yes, we all know how conniving those Russians are
statusquo says
i think McCain should be ask by the media why was he plagerizing sozhenitsyn book .
Long Legged Mack Dad says
maybe the prisoner made his way from Magadan to Hanoi
mrjonessr41 says
Actually the other way around, McCain went to a Forum on Faith and told a bold faced Lie and his sheep call it a win LOL.
why be normal says
You Bots grasping straws again? McCain will win end of story… Now go spin that!!!
just me says
lol. How low can McCain go. Another thing. Cindy McCains ARM in a sling because a reporter shook her HAND hard. Johnny boy got angry again.
Natasha B says
Ummm…..I think you got that backwards….
mccain is the plagiarizer
That book came out in 1962
mccain was a pow from 1967 to 1973
Do the math….