
Elsewhere I have remarked, that those events have provided the defining moments of my (writing) career—at least as I choose to remember it. Publication of my book The Soul’s Refinement was preempted so that I could rush Against Holy War to the press in time for March 11, 2002, the six-month anniversary. (My play War for Peace and book The Condemnation addressed the invasion of Iraq specifically.)
In a promotional interview I did, I mentioned how my “faith-based response” was not appreciated by all readers. Time was short, but I submitted my manuscript to several well-known public figures, hoping to get a blurb for the back cover. None obliged me, with the exception of John Shelby Spong. To this date I feel lucky, honored, and pleased, that Bishop Spong did me that courtesy. The tide has not yet turned, to a preference for peace before war, among my countrymen; though more and more every day fingers are pointed about the motivations and perpetrators of the ill-fated cause.
As an author, I could not have asked for more:
David Novak invites his audience to soar beyond hate and division to love and oneness. He shows us a world where even religious convictions that separate us from one another can be set aside. His is a plaintive, even a lonely voice emerging from the rubble of September 11 calling us to abandon revenge for God’s sake and for ours.
Against this, in retrospect, I am comforted to have my name, via this one blurb, linked to that of Bishop Spong.