While many Cal-Pac clergy members gathered together for the Bishop’s Convocation (August 3-5) in Indian Wells, CA, Rev. Dr. John Fanestil, member of the California-Pacific Conference, hosted an informal conversation about his most recent book, One Life to Give: Martyrdom and the Making of the American Revolution. Fanestil researches the spiritual formation of the revolutionaries who gave their lives for the cause. He traces the deep history of the tradition of martyrdom from its classical and Christian origins, through the periods of the Protestant Reformation and the English colonization of North America.  Ultimately, a distinctly American spirit of martyrdom animated countless personal commitments to American War of Independence. For better and for worse, this tradition – call it “American martyrdom” – is still with us today.