People Who Saw a Different Light (part two) Quiz

Answer: Amazing Grace

The legend is almost true. Newton went to sea at the age of eleven. The British Navy impressed him into service in 1744. Unhappy with his Majesty's fleet, he deserted, was captured, flogged, demoted, and eventually discharged. He found work in a slave ship but not as a seaman but as a servant. His treatment there was little better than the slaves they transported. Finally, he was rescued by a ship commanded by a friend of his father. It was on the voyage home on May 10, 1748, that he felt the hand of God and its amazing grace. Still, when he reached England, he again enlisted in the slave trade and plied the West Indies.

Back in England again he began to pursue a career as an Anglican minister. He married and also became a good friend of the poet William Cowper, who inspired him in his poetry and music. He kept May 10 as a holy day and eventually became a strong advocate of abolition.

Answer: Sigrid Undset

Her family had a nominal relationship with the Lutheran Church. This continued for Sigrid through her early married years. But through her writing and research a bigger image of life emerged. She found that life could not be explained by human intellect. There was something unanswerable. This crisis of faith caused her to come to believe that God created man.

Sigrid Undset's conversion in its day was considered scandalous. Norway was, and is, a Lutheran Church bastion. Catholics were a minority and were considered adherents of socialism and communism. There was an Anti-Catholic movement often led by Lutheran ministers. She was savaged in the press as "The Catholic Lady".

Answer: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's declaration shocked both his fans and the music world. He released two albums during what has been termed his 'Christian Period', "Slow Train Coming" (1979) and "Saved" (1980). From the former, Dylan received a Grammy for the single "Got to Serve Somebody". During this time when he toured he often would take breaks between songs to deliver 7-8 minute sermonettes.

Dylan was born to a tight knit Jewish family in Minnesota and was bar mitzvah. He changed his name from Zimmerman to Dylan for show business reasons after the poet Dylan Thomas. Both before and after his 'Christian Period' many of his songs can be interpreted to have religious overtones, In recent years his songs have been more mainstream or as mainstream as Dylan gets, and his religious views are private and ambiguous.

Answer: Kirstie Alley

Kristie Alley joined the Church of Scientology in 1979 and participated in Scientology's drug program. When former friend and Scientologist Leah Remini left Scientology, Alley denounced Remini as "a repulsive bigot" and "my enemy".

John Brodie turned to Scientology as a means to recover from football injuries and became a spokesman for the Church. He left because "several of Brodie's friends were expelled or harassed in a power struggle with the Church's hierarchy."

Burroughs adopted Scientology for ten years, then left and wrote strong critical essays and short stories in a volume called "Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology". He became alarmed at the authoritarian approach by church leaders. One critic said that Burroughs made more money from exposing the Church than he contributed to it.

Charles Manson flirted with the concepts of Scientology as encouraged by a fellow prisoner. It was one of several interests Manson had, possibly to draw attention to himself.

Answer: Roe

At the age of ten Norma robbed a filling station and ran away to Oklahoma City where she was found in what appeared to be a lesbian relationship and was made a ward of the court. She was sent to a home for runaways. From time to time she would be sent home to miserable conditions that at times included rape. She worked low paying dead-end jobs and ended up at 21 with her third pregnancy. She sought the advice of attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington who had been looking for candidate to test the legality of anti-abortion laws. In 1973 the Supreme Court declared anti-abortion laws unconstitutional. It was too late for McCorvey as she had the child and placed it for adoption, as the case took three years to wind though the system. She never appeared in court.

In 1998 she was accepted into the Catholic Church after she renounced her lesbianism. Since then she has become one of the most vocal of right to life advocates. She said that Coffee and Weddingham had manipulated her to gain fame and status within their profession.

In 2005 she petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

In 2008 endorsed Ron Paul for president based on his pro-life stance and voting record.

In 2009 she led a demonstration against Barack Obama's speech at Notre Dame University.

Also in 2009 she was arrested for disrupting procedures on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Answer: Tony Blair

Pope Benedict assigned Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to give Blair instructions even though the Church disagreed with some of his actions as PM. Blair, for instance, was critical of the Church's stand on homosexuality. Since 2010 he has been listed as one of the most prominent Catholics in the UK.

He was chastised in 1998 for taking communion in a Catholic Church when he was still an Anglican.

While Prime Minister it is reported that he consulted his Bible on important decisions, such as entering into the war in Iraq.

His interests, along with his wife Cherie, included New Age symbolism. They committed themselves to a rebirth ceremony in Mexico that consisted of smearing mud and fruit on their bodies and sitting in a steam room.

Answer: Nation of Islam

Leaving prison, he came to the attention of Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, and quickly rose through the ranks given his charisma and oratorical skills. His main themes were black supremacy, the separation of black and white Americans, and rejection of the civil rights based on integration.

In 1964 life changed for Malcolm X. He made extensive trips to Africa and the Middle East and did Hajj. He was unprepared as it dawned on him that he did not know Islamic rituals and it was called to his attention that he was not a true Muslin. He met Muslims who were black, white, and brown. Islam was a large umbrella not the narrowness upon which Elijah Muhammad presided. He broke with the Nation of Islam and proclaimed himself a Sunni Muslim and chose to go his own direction that included cooperating with other civil rights leaders.

The Nation of Islam did not take this situation lightly. Three gun men from the Nation of Islam stood and delivered 21 wounds into Malcolm's body. All three were given life sentences. Elijah Muhammad's role is unclear.

Answer: To become a Catholic nun

Dolores Hart made ten movies in five years and was regarded as the 'next' Grace Kelly. She received a Tony nomination in 1959 for her performance in "The Pleasure of his Company" but lost to Julie Newmar. According to an interview with Bill O'Reilly, she had never heard of Elvis and on the set asked him what he did for a living.

She always felt there was something missing from her life. She once explored the idea of joining the Church but was rejected. Later she became engaged to architect Don Robinson, who noticed that she seemed unfulfilled. He encouraged her reapply to become a nun. This time she was accepted. Robinson and Hart remained in love until his death although their love was not expressed in a traditional manner and he visited frequently and never married. She was elected Abbess of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut.

Answer: Cat Stevens

Born in London, he was raised and educated in the Greek Orthodox tradition. He had two near death experiences. The first was when he was hospitalized in 1969 with tuberculosis. During his long rehabilitation, he began to study meditation, yoga, and metaphysics and became a vegan. This marked the beginning of his spiritual awakening.

His second was in 1976 when he nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California. He prayed "Oh God! If you save me I will work for you." and he found his way to shore. His brother David gave him a copy of the Koran that led him to commit to Islam that he was to convert to in 1978, and adopt the name of Yusuf Islam. He was at the peak of popularity in the 1970s when he abandoned his musical career for the next thirty years. Instead he worked for peace and understanding.

Yusuf Islam, however, did not withdraw from celebrity status. Indeed, he has been a figure in several controversies.

He made remarks that seemed to support the death of Salman Rushdie.

He was rumored to refuse to speak to unveiled women, but he pointed out that his wife and four daughter were unveiled.

He was accused of contributing funds to terrorist groups but he did so not knowing how the monies might be used.

For a period of time he was banned from travel into the UK, USA, and Israel because of possible terrorist connections.

He was given major awards for his messages of peace but these came from Russian organizations.

In 2006 he returned to his music and recording. In an interview he said that Cat Stevens was on the surface but Yusuf Islam was there at a deeper level.

Answer: Constantine

No one rivaled Constantine the Great in administrative and political skills. In 313 AD the Edict of Milan brought him into the Christian fold and called for religious tolerance for Christians. In parts of the Roman Empire, Christians were in the majority but in others were beset with classic persecution. Penalties for professing Christianity and the confiscation of property were removed and all means of worship were to be respected.

Constantine was a warrior and a hero. Under his leadership there was a restructuring of financial, social, and military reforms, as well as faith, to strengthen the empire. He is held in high regard as a Saint by Eastern Orthodox Christians, Byzantine Catholics, and Anglicans.

Scholars speculate that his appeasement to Christianity was a political stance to unite the empire and not a true spiritual awakening. He continued to ascribe Roman gods names to constructions and monuments. None the less, his leadership allowed the empire to survive roughly a thousand years.