[Ads-l] killing people and breaking things

[Jonathan Lighter]

Relevant to "Let God sort 'em out":

1918 _Christian Herald_  (Jan. 2) 609:  We do well in these days to listen
to the words of the Rev. Laughlan McLean Watt, chaplain of the Gordon
Highlanders and the Black Watch....Speaking of the soldiers whom we wish to
welcome back to the church when the war is over, he said:

["]I tell you we soldiers are tired of your divisions at home. We are tired
of your squabbles in the name of Christ. ...There is no bigotry in martial
religion. ...We buried the Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian side
by side and let God sort them out.["]

Notable are the battlefield context, the word "sort" - and the non-cynical
sentiment.

JL



On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 11:39 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: killing people and breaking things
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> Interesting... goes contrary to the "lore" on a couple of levels--both
> ignoring the role of the Cisterian abbot and translating the infamous line
> in a new way. There are some other interesting details [OT]. The source I
> cited earlier has Simon's head literally blown off by a rock thrown
> violently by a woman (after he'd been slowed down by another injury during
> a
> battle). Kind of reminds me of what happened to Somoza in Paraguay when his
> armored limo was first stopped by machine-gun fire, then blown away with a
> rocket launcher. Contemporaneous accounts differed widely from the current
> Wiki version (limo vs. sedan, armed vs. unarmed, RPG hit from the rooftop
> vs. from the side, etc.)
>
> VS-)
>
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >
> > Here is a cite for the variant using the word "sort" (as opposed to
> > recognize). It seems to be dated 1932. Charlie may wish to include
> > this unless there is something wrong with it.
> >
> > Cite: 1932, French history by Emile Saillens, GB Page 42, J.B.
> > Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. (Google Books snippet; Not verified
> > on paper; Data may be inaccurate; WorldCat agrees with the date)
> >
> > ... butchered wholesale in 1208. "Kill them all," said Simon, "God
> > will sort them out!" Albi, Carcassonne and other cities fared hardly
> > better. But after twenty years of carnage and looting, heresy still
> > persisted and the land was placed under the Inquisition. ...
> >
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=dXAxAQAAIAAJ&q=%22sort+them
> %22#search_anchor
> >
> > The 1932 copyright date is visible in the snippet with Lippincott.
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=dXAxAQAAIAAJ&q=Lippincott#search_anchor
>
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