As a student of History-Philology in my home country of Romania, I had my share of university courses on religion, including the History of Religion and the History of the Orthodox Church, plus the various chapters on religious concepts which were taught as part of the History of Mediaeval Europe and Modern History. Apart from this quite solid foundation in the history of religion in general, as being a Christian Orthodox myself, while still living at home, I also interacted with Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and Baptist believers.
Starting from 2002, my first year of living and working abroad, I had the chance to observe a larger perspective on what religious practices mean outside Europe. Through my six years plus of living in Thailand, as well as through my travels to various Southeast Asian countries, I have learned to appreciate the tolerance and benevolence of Buddhist believers. However, nothing will compare with the ten months I spent in Qatar, while teaching at an Islamic “international” school. Fridays were special days of prayer and children and teenagers of all ages were encouraged to pray to Allah five times a day and to read the Koran as often as possible.
I met Gary Dale Cearley, author of Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness – The Truth about the Vatican and the Birth of Islam (2006) and Gary Dale Gets Offensive: Lurid Scenes from Bawdville (2007) at my first meeting of the Bangkok Writers’ Guild, early in 2008. Throughout the following two years, I met up with Gary Dale on several occasions as part of the same writing group. He is an imposing man, who speaks with eloquences and passion about his favourite topics, with history being one of the many.
Not too long ago I purchased Gary Dale’s Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness and, although it didn’t come cheap, the investment was well worth it indeed. The book deconstructs the incorrect conspiracy theory that the Vatican had created Islam in order to secure its control over the Holy Land and its supremacy as a world religion. This journey in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and the beginnings of Islam had been written, as the author himself confesses in his Introduction, from the strong belief that “we should always be mindful and respectful of others’ beliefs.”
The heart of the matter of the book is a historical-religious commentary, which is clearly hinted at, by the very title of the book itself. The title makes use of the first six words of the Ninth Commandment, which states: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). In other words, the commandment prohibits any form of lying. It so happens that, Gary Dale has a fetish for the truth, no matter how difficult or controversial it might be: “I personally believe that you cannot truly believe in God at all if you don’t have a regard for the truth because God is the very nature of truth.”
The truths that Gary Dale is so keen in revealing in his Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness are an attack on Jack T. Chick’s falsehoods which were published in The Prophet (Chick Publications, 1988). Chick’s book is a cartoon tract, based on Alberto Rivera’s unbelievable confession: that the Pope, Jesuits and the Catholic Church founded Islam to do their own dirty work (put Jerusalem in the Pope’s hands and get rid of all the early Christian churches, which were not affiliated to the Vatican). It is indeed a remarkable statement that Gary Dale Cearley coherently proves wrong, by dissecting the text of the tract and putting all the falsehoods against the annals of history.
In his publication, Jack Chick, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (aka Congregationalist), claimed that quote: “Roman Catholicism was growing in power, but would not tolerate opposition. Somehow the Vatican had to create a weapon to eliminate both the Jews and the true Christian believers who refused to accept Roman Catholicism… The Vatican wanted to create a messiah for the Arabs, someone they could raise up as a great leader [the prophet Mohammed], a man with charisma who they could train, and eventually unite all the non-Catholic Arabs behind him, creating a mighty army that would ultimately capture Jerusalem for the pope.” All these outrageous “confessions” came from Alberto Rivera (1935-1997), a man who claimed to have been a secret Jesuit agent, but who had eventually been proven to be “the religious hoax of the century” (Leslie Price).
Although not a thick book, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness is filled with dates, locales, and personalities which have had a major impact on the history of the Roman Catholic Church, in general, and that of Islam, in particular. The discourse of the entire book more than makes perfect sense. It brings forth historical evidence that refutes the claims made by Chick and Rivera in their comic tract.
The only improvement that I could suggest for a future edition of Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness would be the addition of historical maps in each of the eleven chapters that make up the book. These maps could help the reader better visualize the geographical areas mentioned in the book as well as gain a deeper, more detailed, understanding of the subject matter.
On a more personal note, I don’t agree with the recent trend of leaving one space between each paragraph, as opposed to indents. However, it must be noted that it is true that it can make a difficult text be read with far more ease. As an avid reader of non-fiction books, I am used to having to consult notes at the back of the book, and I don’t favour book layouts that place the notes at the bottom of each page, as in Gary Dale’s book. This is not only because they interrupt the reading experience, but sometimes the notes even overflow onto the next page.
Published on quality paper and with an appealing cover, Gary Dale’s Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness about the Vatican conspiracy should be part of any history aficionado’s collection of valuable possessions.
