The Veritas Conflict (76 page)

• The many precious friends whose help with everything from baby-sitting to sharing their stories to editing my manuscript kept me sane and on track to meet my deadline, especially Lisa and Eric Rice, Margaret and David Tread-well, Jennifer Wheeler, Nancy and David French, Vernadette Broyles, Karen Jensen, David Goodwin, Jane Joyner, Anne Crist, Sarah and Hannah Rice, and all the members of our church small group. Thanks also to Anna Afshar and to the Lambert family for hosting me during my Cambridge and Nantucket research trips.

• Those at We Care America and the Joseph Project 2000, especially Dave Donaldson, Matt Hotchkiss, Don McKee, and Jennifer Shuler, for their support and patience, giving me the ability and space to work on this book.

The contributions of numerous people helped shape the final product in significant ways. My grateful professional acknowledgment goes to:

• Jill Coyle, my tireless, talented, patient research assistant, and her husband, Danny. I’ve never seen someone who could come up with a solution to so many unrelated, sometimes bizarre questions exactly when needed: How tall are the walls around Harvard Yard? What’s a good apologetic response to the question of evil? What’s the difference between determinism and empiricism?

• Lisa and Eric Rice, who shared their professional skill as screenwriters to help shape the story line.

• A wonderful nanny and all-purpose sounding board on the manuscript, Heather Stevenson, and her successor Corrie Hughes.

• Kelly Monroe for sharing her years of research on Harvard’s Christian history, the shield and mottoes, and the real religiously restricted grants and endowments; and Victor Jih, for sharing his legal analysis of the endowments issue.

• The Christian students and chaplains at Harvard who sat for interviews and provided many helpful ideas and examples. My special thanks goes to one individual (you know who you are) whose comments helped me see things in a new light.

• Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York for his extensive apologetics insights and arguments, including but not limited to: the “plane
crash argument” on the existence of evil, all responses to the secular “you are precious” or “self-actualization” arguments, and the defense that Christianity is in fact the most inclusive religion in the world.

• Pastor Erick (and Elizabeth) Schenkel for shepherding me and Jeff through Harvard and for the “underground espionage agent” analogy, which has recently become all too real in their work.

• Johnny (and Anne) Crist for exemplifying a heart of unity and for the “ministry is always inconvenient” principle.

• Chuck Edwards of Summit Ministries for reviewing the draft manuscript and coaching me on campus apologetics, especially for teaching me the questions to ask (“Question assumptions…“).

• John Perrodin at Focus on the Family for reviewing and providing comments on the draft manuscript.

• The host of other individuals who made specific contributions to the final product: George and Laura Grindley, who helped brainstorm the beginning of the story and let me use their names; Roger Scarlett and Katie Scarlett, who connected me to Summit Ministries; John Pittard, whose videotaped debate between the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship and the Secular Society helped shape my apologetics scenes; Carissa Niemi for her willingness to share her story, and Becky Loechel for arranging it; Carter Roughton for sharing his classroom apologetics advice; Bill Lambert for providing a way to observe a real-life e-mail debate on life and faith, as well as the (I would say erroneous) idea that Christians desiring a level playing field are actually assuming preeminence; Professor Kenneth Smith at Georgia State for sharing his philosophy syllabus materials, particularly the Stephen Gould summary; John Kingston for his help on St. Augustines writings; John Holcomb and also the attorneys at Davis Wright Tremaine for their legal advice.

• Calvin Edwards, my book agent and adviser (special thanks for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my husband in his own God-sized task at World2One), and Nerida Edwards for her help on the vexing NEA question.

• Frank Peretti, Randy Alcorn, and C. S. Lewis for their inspiration and for opening up a whole new world in Christian fiction that this humble work is only the latest attempt to do justice to.

• The Multnomah family, especially Don Jacobson for his faith, encouragement, and vision, and my editor Rod Morris for his skill and patience with a novice novelist.

Finally, my unending love and gratitude to:

• My parents, Dick and Judy Reidinger, and parents-in-law, Bill and Roberta Feldhahn, who came all the way from China and Michigan, respectively, to baby-sit round-the-clock so I could meet my deadline. Special thanks to Mom for her thorough reading and insightful edits. If this book reflects even a little of the Father’s heart, much of that will be because of the love instilled by my earthly father and mother.

• Morgen Claire, for being such a sweet-tempered little baby and putting up with her mommy being tied to the computer for the last two months of the process.

• My beloved husband and best friend, Jeff. What can I say, dear heart? How can I possibly thank you for the hundreds of hours of prayer, of encouragement, of foot-washing service to me even during your own most busy time with the start up of World2One and our voyage into parenthood? Even half of the plot twists were your idea. This book is yours, just as I am and always will be.

• My God, my Master, my Friend. You are so faithful, even when my faith falters. My prayer is that you would take this stumbling sacrifice of love and use it for the building of your Kingdom. But Lord, who am I, to even attempt such a task? The cry of my heart is the same as that of Thomas Hollis, Harvard’s first donor, who said it better than I ever could:

Who am I? Christ is my all. Little, very little, I can do for his names sake
,
who has died far me and given me good hope through grace, and by his providence
put in my power, and inclined my heart to this way among others, of expressing
my gratitude far his names sake, to him be the glory of all
.

A
DDENDUM

To ensure that some of the quotes used in the classroom debate on abortion are documented, and to provide a direct reference for readers’ further research, I am printing several excerpts from published works by Peter Singer and Margaret Sanger. (My grateful thanks to my research assistant Jill Coyle, who spent dozens of hours tracking down this difficult—and in Sangers case, often out-of-print—information.)

Peter Singer has published many works that outline his views, including
Practical Ethics
(Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Page 171: “Finally, a newborn baby is not an autonomous being, capable of making choices, and so to kill a newborn baby cannot violate the principle of respect for autonomy. In all this the newborn baby is on the same footing as the fetus, and hence fewer reasons exist against killing both babies and fetuses than exist against killing those who are capable of seeing themselves as distinct entities, existing over time.”

Page 186: “When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the defective infant is killed.… Therefore, if killing the hemophiliac infant has no adverse effect on others, it would, according to the total view, be right to kill him.”

Page 188: “…  in discussing abortion, we saw that birth does not mark a morally significant dividing line.”

Margaret Sanger published many works outlining her views, including her approval of eugenics (the “science” that Hider employed in his quest against the “inferior” Jewish race). As previously noted, Planned Parenthood denies any prejudice or racism on Sangers part and also states that they should not be judged based on the objectionable motivations or purposes of their founder. Some Sanger quotes:

From
The Pivot of Civilization
(New York: Division of Maxwell Scientific International, Inc., 1922).

Page 102: “…  when we realize that each feeble-minded person is a potential source of an endless progeny of defect, we prefer the policy of sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to the feeble-minded.”

Page 104: “Eugenics seems to me to be valuable in it’s critical and diagnostic aspects, in emphasizing the danger of irresponsible and uncontrolled fertility of the ‘unfit’ and the feeble-minded.…”

Page 134: “The result [of charity] has been the accumulation of large urban populations, the increase of irresponsibility, and ever-widening margin of biological waste.”

Page 176: “It [eugenics] sees that the most responsible and most intelligent members of society are the less fertile; that the feeble-minded are the more fertile.… Are we heading to biological destruction, toward the gradual but certain attack upon the stocks of intelligence and racial health by the sinister forces of the hordes of irresponsibility and imbecility?”

From
Woman and the New Race
(New York: Truth Publishing Company, 1920). Page 4: “While … providing the human tinder for racial conflagrations, woman was also unknowingly creating slums, filling asylums with insane, and institutions with other defectives. She was replenishing the ranks of the prostitutes, furnishing grist for the criminal courts and inmates for prisons. Had she planned deliberately to achieve this tragic total of human waste and misery, she could hardly have done it more effectively.”

Enlarged area of Harvard Yard

Reader Reviews

“Reading this compelling story not only enriched my imagination, but was also convicting. Several times tears streamed down my face as I remembered times I had been prompted to intercede for my children or others.
Veritas
covers so much of what we encounter when we desire to really live our faith.”—a reader from South Dakota

   “This is probably the best Christian novel I have ever read. It is a wonderful lesson on how to answer those hard questions, and is also a real page-turner. I couldn’t put it down!”—a reader from Colorado

   “Recent tragedy in our country sent me deep into despair, which led me into prayer and to this book. This book has helped me find my compass again. These past few weeks have shaken me to the core, changing me forever, and
The Veritas Conflict
has helped it to be a change for a stronger commitment to Jesus and my personal relationship with him.”—a reader from Connecticut

   “I have read this book twice in a six-week period. It stunned and enlightened me. I want to read it again and again. Each time I learn more.”—a reader from North Carolina

   “I have read many novels but I have never read a book that has touched me like
The Veritas Conflict
. The sincerity and openness with which the writer has crafted this work has touched my heart and inspired me in my Christian walk.”—a reader from Colorado

   “I can’t wait to share
The Veritas Conflict
with my friends. I am a new Christian and this book was exactly what I needed to be reading. I have added Shaunti Feldhahn’s name to my must-have Christian author list.”—a reader from Texas

   “
The Veritas Conflict
is an amazing book. Feldhahn has managed to create a novel filled with so much
truth
(Veritas) that I had a hard time believing this was fiction. If this is her first Christian novel, I think she has found her calling.”—a reader from Indiana