Let me start out by saying something that could get me in big trouble in a lot of places, and which may make some people uncomfortable here. I say this neither to shock you nor to show off, but to get you thinking about the subject at hand.

Here goes.

It is my opinion that the greatest single work of literature in the English language is the King James Bible.

Such elementary and secondary education as I had was in American public school systems. In many of the American public schools, a teacher can get fired for saying what I just said.

This Thanksgiving, I will be celebrating at the home of an Episcopalian priest, with a group that will include Catholics, Protestants and Jews. The King James Version was published for the Episcopalian Church, but the Anglicans at this dinner would argue, with some very good reasons, that the Revised Standard Version is a better edition of the Bible. The Jewish Bible does not include the New Testament, and the English translation of the OId Testament that the Jews at the dinner will know best is not the one commissioned by King James. And of course, the Catholic Church has its own English translation of the Bible.

A few years ago I had lunch with a journalist from Northern Ireland, a man who grew up in a Republican stronghold in Belfast. We got to talking about the greatest works of English literature and to him, as to a lot of people, the source of inspiration from which all who make their living writing in the English language must directly or indirectly start is the work of William Shakespeare. When I told him that I like to refer back to the King James Bible, he was not at all pleased. He muttered things about "enemy propaganda." In Belfast, people have been shot for possessing translations of the Bible that are inappropriate for the neighborhood.

So think about these things:

Know that I'm not an especially devout person, and consider why I would then think so highly of a particular translation of the Bible.

Try to understand why the American public school system goes into hysterics at the mention of anything that touches religion, and whether it is right that it does so.

Figure out why the church that originally published the King James Version now prefers a different translation.

Think about how a preference in books can arouse violent passions.

I am told that in your English classes you have been acquainted with some of the works of Shakespeare, and it is an important part of your education that you have had this exposure. Now it might be reasonably argued that the only reason why I like Hamlet best among Shakespeare's plays is that madness runs in my family, but there you have it. The Old Bard wrote a number of timeless classics, but I like Hamlet the best.

Understand that the King James Version of the Bible was published in Shakespeare's lifetime. It was written by a committee of scholars at a time when Shakespeare had set the high standard against which any important work of literature was judged.

It met that standard, and for generations in the English-speaking world, the King James Bible was the only book in most homes. Until well into the 20th century, most of the great writers of English first read great writing by way of the King James Bible. Even a lot of Catholics and Jews who were not directly exposed to this translation of the Bible drew their literary inspirations from writers who did have the King James Version as their starting point.

And thus I say that the King James Bible is the most important work of English literature, and when I refer back to it, as I often do, my motives are far more often literary than they are religious.

But of course, since the early 1600s linguists have learned more about the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been found and examined by scholars. Archaeologists have unearthed a lot more information about the nations, times and places discussed in the Bible. And of course, the English language has changed in that time as well. Thus there's no denying that the Revised Standard Version is a more accurate translation of the ancient scriptures than is the King James Version, nor can anyone reasonably argue that the Revised Standard Version doesn't use a form of English that is better understood by today's English-speaking peoples.

(I say "peoples," plural, because there are many English-speaking nations and many dialects of the tongue. I'm not one to say that there's a single "correct" English --- whether Oxonian or American Standard --- and a bunch of "incorrect" forms, but we'll get to that argument in a moment.)

Two of the peoples who have been speaking English the longest are the English --- of course --- and the Irish. Though it has freedom of religion, England is Protestant as a matter of law, while Ireland is predominantly Catholic. Though this past year in Belfast we saw a mob of Protestant men throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at Catholic girls on their way to school, and then we heard that Protestant mob's political leaders demand that the Catholic militia disarm, for the most part the English and the Irish, and Irish Protestants and Catholics, are not shooting at one another for the moment.

The English and the Irish do, however, have their separate versions of the Bible, and their own pantheons of literary heroes.

The troubles between Ireland and England are not about religion, nor are they about literature. England conquered Ireland and created a colonial settler community out of the soldiers in the conquering army, most of whom were Protestants from Scotland. Religion has just been a distinguishing characteristic and a rallying point for demagogues, but the conflict is really about land and human rights.

Language has played a crucial role in this conflict. The English created what they called a "pale" that encompassed all but the western fringe of Ireland, and within that pale they made it a crime to speak Gaelic, which is the indigenous Irish language. Beyond the pale there was the Gaeltacht, but most of Ireland became English-speaking and the Irish people took their conquerors' language, improved upon it, and turned it into a weapon against the English occupation.

Among the great Irish writers of the English language you will find Jonathan Swift (a Protestant, but arguably the founder of Irish nationalism nevertheless), William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Sean O'Casey and the greatest of them all --- really the father of the modern novel --- James Joyce.

And then there was Bobby Sands, a young man of working class origins from a Catholic neighborhood in Belfast. He was caught by British soldiers with an unloaded pistol, and sentenced to 14 years in prison for illegal possession of a weapon and membership in the IRA.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried to end the Northern Ireland conflict with an English victory by declaring that there was no political dispute at all, and that the IRA prisoners were just common criminals and would be treated as such. As leader of the IRA inmates in the notorious Long Kesh prison, Bobby Sands first refused to wear a prison uniform, and after a series of repressive measures and counter-protests, began a hunger strike. He also wrote a poem. It goes:

Bobby Sands starved to death, but before he did a mostly-Catholic district in Northern Ireland elected him as their Member of Parliament, and that was the beginning of the end for Mrs. Thatcher's attempt to suppress Irish nationalism in the United Kingdom.

Across the ocean in the United States, Hispanic people call white people "Anglos," but a lot of those Anglos are of Irish rather than English ancestry. When the American republic was founded, people knew all about Europe's religious wars. Many of their ancestors had come to North America precisely to get away from all of that.

And moreover, by the time of the American Revolution the Europeans had already taken their religious wars to the Americas.

What have they taught you about Henry Morgan, and about Fort San Lorenzo, in school?

Did they tell you that for most of its history, Fort San Lorenzo was a prison? Did they tell you that for a time, if you lived in Panama and were suspected of being a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Protestant, or a believer in West African religious traditions, you would likely spend some time in a dungeon in Fort San Lorenzo, waiting for the boat to take you before the Holy Inquisition in Cartagena?

Most Panamanians will tell you that Henry Morgan was this English pirate who sacked Portobelo, Fort San Lorenzo and Panama Viejo. Actually, he was Welsh rather than English, and he was no ordinary pirate. He was acting on behalf of the English crown, and as a reward for his rampage through Panama he was made lieutenant governor of Jamaica.

(Just as an aside here, how can you tell from this last sentence that I'm not Canadian? In Canada it would be pronounced "lef-tenant governor.")

But back to what you know about Morgan the Pirate. Did you know that wherever he attacked, he treated the Catholic Church as a military target? Did you know that he killed all the surviving defenders of Fort San Lorenzo, and justified this massacre on the grounds that they were Catholic?

You might not know about this, but at the time of the American Revolution people knew all too much about religious warfare. They knew about the Crusades, and pogroms against the Jews, and the St. Bartholmew's Day Massacre, and all the other atrocities of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. They wanted no part of it.

So when the delegates to the American Constitutional Convention assembled in 1787 with George Washington presiding, they provided, in Article VI of the US Constitution, that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

That wasn't good enough for the American people, and at the insistence of men like Thomas Jefferson, the price of getting the Constitution ratified was a Bill of Rights, the first article of which provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

When the American Constitution was passed, there were hardly any public schools. Eventually, however, public education became one of the major institutions in the United States. The system is basically under local control, with part of its funding coming from federal subsidies. The courts have ruled that state and local governments cannot establish or prohibit a religion any more than the federal Congress can.

And thus, were I to stand up in an auditorium in a public school in the United States and say that the King James Bible is the greatest work of English literature, somebody might accuse me of using the public schools to promote a particular religion. That would not be true, but the truth wouldn't necessarily stop some religious or anti-religious group from coming down to the school board meeting and making everybody's life miserable about it. And thus the school administration would want to get rid of a troublemaker who said nice things about the King James Bible.

I really don’t intend to spend this entire session talking about the King James Bible, but bear with me here, as I give you an example of this book’s literary influence and step into another religious and political minefield.

It’s even worse than religion or politics, actually. It’s about sex.

If you have ever seen or heard anything from the King James Version, odds are that it will have been the Ten Commandments, which are found in slightly different versions in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. As the King James Version puts one of these commandments:

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

(In the Revised Standard Version it's "You shall not commit adultery," which is a more modern way of saying it, but it just doesn't sound as good to me.)

The ancient Jewish tribal laws are found in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. This is the way that the King James translation states the law about adultery:

"And the man that committeth adultery with another's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adultress shall surely be put to death."

Now let us look at how the King James version has affected non-Christian English literature, think about comparative religion, and at the same time consider an important international news story that's unfolding as I speak.

The holy scripture of Islam is known as the Quran, and because the classical Arabic in which it is rendered has rhyme, meter and alliteration that can't be translated, to Muslims no translation is really the Quran. However, because Islam seeks converts everywhere, Muslims have translated the Quran, while at the same time telling people that if they really want to know the precise word of God, they need to learn Arabic and read the original.

Probably the most popular English-language translation of the Quran is by an Englishman who converted to Islam, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. Now listen to what the Quran says about adultery, and see if you can detect the influence of the King James Bible in Pickthall's translation:

"The adulterer and the adulteress, scourge ye each one of them (with) a hundred stripes. And let not pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of believers witness their punishment. * * * And those who accuse honorable women but bring not four witnesses, scourge them (with) eighty stripes and never (afterward) accept their testimony --- They indeed are evildoers...."

If you have been following the news, you might know that Panama has joined an international boycott of the Miss World competition, which is set to take place in Lagos, Nigeria. People are boycotting Nigeria because an allegedly Islamic court there has sentenced a divorced woman named Amina Lawal to be stoned to death for adultery. She's divorced, she had a baby, and the father denies all and has been allowed to go on his way without problems. The woman, however, is to be stoned to death because that's supposed to be the Islamic penalty for adultery.

As we can see from the passage from the Quran that I just cited, the penalty imposed in this case is not valid under Islamic law. Nor, for that matter, are the rules of evidence that were used. In Islamic jurisprudence proof of adultery requires four respectable Muslim witnesses to the act --- but of course, respectable Muslims don't watch other people have sex.

What we're dealing with in the Amina Lawal case is not Islam, but a political move by mean-spirited and hypocritical men to reduce the legal status of women. People in Panama, and around the world, SHOULD protest against what's being done in Nigeria.

Now I have gone far afield from the subject of English, except that it's a very large field. Mahatma Gandhi once said that those who advocate the strict separation of politics and religion know very little about religion, and similarly, if you try to limit your study of the English language to non-controversial topics, you will end up knowing little about English.

It is the official policy of Panama's Ministry of Education, for example, that reggae music is trash. The playing of reggae tunes by public school marching bands is expressly prohibited by order of the minister. Most of the private bilingual or English-language schools in this country likewise avoid exposing their students to the Caribbean English that is reggae's original language.

I think this is a mistake. English is a global language with many variants, and some of the late Bob Marley's lyrics have a rightful place among the great works of the English language. Yes, you need to learn how to speak and write in American Standard or Oxonian to compete in academia or the professions, but if you don't understand the various English vernaculars you will be culturally impoverished.

As a matter of fact, let me make another controversial statement about English literature. I think that the greatest American writer was Mark Twain, and that his greatest work was the novel "Huckleberry Finn." And wouldn't you know it, there are groups that picket public schools in the United States, demanding the removal of "Huckleberry Finn" from the school libraries.

The religious conservatives don't like "Huckleberry Finn" because it's about young people who lack respect for adult authority.

That's true, but the Moral Majority crowd is fighting an uphill battle on this point because disrespect for authority is one of the salient features of American culture. You can see it in the US Constitution, or in Hollywood movies. When Americans are told about Panama's desacato laws, they tend to consider them barbaric.

Some black parents object to "Huckleberry Finn" because it uses the word "nigger." That's racist, they say, and they object to their children being abused by racism in the schools.

The problem with that is when you actually read "Huckleberry Finn," Nigger Jim is the only adult character who has any shred of integrity. The white adult characters are violent, hypocritical, dishonest, drunk or otherwise loathsome creatures. Nigger Jim is a decent man in an indecent society, and "Huckleberry Finn" is a profoundly anti-racist novel.

The most radical thing about Mark Twain's writing is not so much the social content --- though American leftists still rightfully claim Samuel Clemens as one of their own --- but that Twain was the first noteworthy talent to write in the American vernacular. The literary establishment of his time, who wrote in "correct English," denounced Mark Twain's writing as "slang."

Across the ocean in England, Charles Dickens ran into similar criticism.

Dickens knew the way that the wealthier classes spoke English, but he didn't come from that part of society. When he was a boy, his father was thrown into debtors' prison and he was forced to work in a soap factory. As a young adult, Dickens came to know the language of all of London's social classes while working as a court reporter. One of the great joys of Charles Dickens's work is the way that he switches from the vernacular of one class to that of another when his different characters speak.

As a journalist, I have to write in a style that most people who read English can understand. Basically The Panama News is written in American Standard English, with a few idiosyncrasies. However, I am working in a country where English is a minority language, and where the English-speaking community traces roots from around the world, but most importantly through the West Indies or North America.

In my opinion, having lived there, having held public office there, and having practiced law there, the United States has an unhealthy obsession about the subject of race. And wouldn't you know it, I frequently get complaints that when The Panama News covers the culture and concerns of Panama's English-speaking West Indian community, that makes me "anti-white." I usually publish those sorts of letters, but I'm not impressed by them.

I'm a Colon boy. I grew up on the Atlantic side of the Canal Zone, as part of an English-speaking community that has been in Panama for more than 150 years, a community that was here before the Canal Zone existed and remains now that the Canal Zone is something that ended before any of you were born.

Notice that I say Colon and not Colón. Hablando en español, yo digo "Yo voy a Colón," but in Panamanian English we have different pronunciations for the names of places. It's Panama, not Panamá; Gatun Lake, not Lago Gatún, and so on.

You can read about the challenges it poses in an article of mine, "In search of Panamanian Standard English." At the moment I'm working on an email interview with a linguist, Dr. Leticia Thomas, who has written this amazing little dictionary of Panamanian English as spoken by West Indians in Rio Abajo. If all goes well you will be able to read the interview in an upcoming issue of The Panama News, which you can find on the Internet at www.thepanamanews.com.

One of my favorite cheap thrills is to go down to the Colon bus station and just listen to people talk. If you do that long enough, you will recognize Spanish spoken with a West Indian accent, English spoken with Spanish phrases incorporated into it, and traces of several different English dialects.

If you listen long enough and carefully enough, you might catch some of the the difference between Jamaican English and Bajan English.

Understand that most of the people who built the Panama Railroad came from Jamaica, and that the people who built the Panama Canal came from all over the world, but especially from Barbados and Jamaica.

The island of Jamaica is one of the Greater Antilles, located toward the western end of the Caribbean Sea. On the far eastern edge of the Caribbean, we find Barbados, one of the Lesser Antilles. There are a number of historical, economic and ethnic differences that have affected the ways that Jamaicans and Barbadians speak, but one thing in particular stands out.

In 1798, Ireland staged one of its many revolts against English rule. Most of the leaders of the United Irishmen were executed, but a lot of the rebels who didn't hang were exiled to Barbados.

If you listen to black people in Colon or Rio Abajo speak often enough, you are likely to hear someone say "likkle gurl." The Jamaicans don't pronounce the word "girl" from the back of their throat like that, but the Barbadians do, and it's straight out of the Irish brogue.

If you learn English well enough to appreciate that, it may not gain you many points on the SAT but you will be able to understand what is meant if someone says "Mind I cuff you." And if ever you should be tried by a Rastafarian jury and found "Not Irie," you'll know whether it's a good verdict or a bad one.

If you learn something about Black English as the African-Americans speak it, you will know that when a phenomenon is described as "Mickey Mouse," that's pejorative. You might even be shocked to find that, contrary to popular belief down here, Disney World is not the pinnacle of American culture.

If you become better acquainted with the dialect of English that is spoken in Hong Kong, you will in the process most likely become better attuned to Panama's economic future.

If you begin to understand the distinctive ways that Canadians speak and write and think, then when you read Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" you will see not only a feminist novel, but a masterpiece that has one of the basic premises of Canadian nationalism as its starting point.

And when you come to appreciate how vast and varied the English-speaking world really is, it should affect your choices about where you want to go and what you want to do.

(Now my first piece of advice to people your age, which is almost never taken except by kids from working class families, is to take a pause in your formal studies for a year or two after you graduate from high school and before you enroll in a university. Get away from your parents, get to know the world of work, and you'll have a better idea of who you are and what you want to do with your life, and that will lead you to make smarter decisions about your higher education.)

If you're a brilliant student, you should not be thinking just of the Ivy League schools in the United States, but also about Oxford, Cambridge or the London School of Economics.

If the track on which you're moving seems headed to Florida State or Louisiana State, also think about the University of the West Indies, or going to school in Canada, Australia or one of the many other English-speaking countries.

If your ambition is to be at the top of your chosen academic field, remember that in this day and age the prestige of your graduate school is a lot more important than where you got your undergraduate degree, and that university admissions officers will be more interested in you if you have prepared yourself differently from everybody else.

I hope that when you're done with your formal education you don't decide to stop learning. That kind of foolishness is likely to bring you nothing but grief in a changing world.

Finally, I hope that some of you will use the advantages that you have to make a difference in Panama. This country has many serious problems, and there are so many things that need to be done, and so many things that a person with a good education can do. Look beyond your own comfort to the world around you, and please lend a hand.