What I Learned While Living with a One-Legged Man
By Gary DeMar
I was born in 1950 in an Army hospital in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the same city where Jim Thorpe, originally from Oklahoma, attended the famous Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The Carlisle-Thorpe connection would come to mean a great deal to me as I grew up. The hosptial stay cost my parents $7.15. Quite a bargain, even in 1950. I was a big baby . . . ten pounds, eleven ounces. The doctor told my mother I could walk home. My mother never had another child.
My father had served in WW II in the Pacific. He was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He survived the day that lived in infamy, obviously, since I’m writing this. It wasn’t too long before the spector of war raised its ugly head again in the Korean Conflict. My father reenlisted. I guess he couldn’t resist a good fight. As a friend once told me, “Once a soldier, always a soldier.” He left my mother behind with two infant children, my brother Rich and me.
When my father died in May of 2001, I saw for the first time the letter the Army had sent my mother informing her that my father had suffered a near-fatal injury. A mortar shell had exploded next to the jeep he was riding in. My father’s foot was resting on the running board. It was the last time it would rest anywhere again. After the explosiion, all that remained was a blood stump.
That “damned stump,” as my mother often referred to it, shaped our lives in so many ways. One particular “stump story” remains a vivid memory and a constant reminder of my father’s unvoiced frustration with what was no longer normal about his life.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were playing the New York Yankees at Forbes Field in the 1960 World Series. It was the seventh game, and my father was there with my uncle Charlie. The series was a wild and wacky one from the start. The Yankees scored fifty-five runs, with ninety-one hits and still lost. Mickey Mantle described the series as the biggest disappointment of his baseball career, and this from a guy who hit 536 home runs and helped the Yankees win twelve pennants and seven world championships. A person should have such disappointments. But for a Pirate fan whose team had not been in the series since 1927, it was heaven!
The score of the seventh and final game had see-sawed back and forth all day. Going into the bottom of the ninth, the score was tied 9-9. With two outs, my father left his seat. His prosthetic leg was giving him fits. A nasty boil had erupted on the tender skin of his stump. Not able to stand it any longer, he left his seat and made his way to the rest room to nurse the painful lesion. He knew he had missed something when he heard the roar of the crowd. He missed something alright. Bill Mazeroski had hit a homerun in the bottom of the ninth to win the game and the series.
There are many young men coming back from war in the same condition as my father. They are missing limbs and worse. Most won’t be able to do the things they dreamed of doing. My father, trained in refrigeration repair, had to settle for a low-paying desk job. We lived on the edge of the city of Pittsburgh in the dying steel town of Homestead until I was five. My father’s new circumstances did not deter him from seeking better things for us. We moved to the suburbs and prospered.
Even with my father’s physical limitations, I rarely heard him complain. He lived a full life. He golfed, walking the course with my brother serving as his caddy. He belonged to a bowling league. We would go to the local swimming pool at South Park in the evenings to avoid the daytime crowds. After removing his prosthetic leg, he would use his crutches to make his way to the diving board. Startled onlookers would watch as he gently hopped out to the edge of the board to dive in. He coached the Little League team that my brother and I played on. He even danced at my brother’s wedding.
Life was not over for him because he lost a piece of himself. Our family remained intact. My mother supported my father to the very end. This life is not our end. On his death bed, my father embraced his Savior. It’s too bad that he waited so long. For any who are out there who find themselves in a similar situation, take it from my late father, your life’s not over, unless, of course, you follow the “scriptures” of the Four-Horsemen of Atheism, Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens.
Shot Put Records and Biblical Interpretation
By Gary DeMar
July 1, 2008
Every four years, the Olympics, like presidential politics, are in the news. Watching politics is painful these days considering how pitiful our choices are. The U.S. Trials and the Olympics themselves, on the other hand, are always full of surprises. Consider that the fourth-place finisher in the men’s 100 meters ran a 9.85 at the U.S. Olympic Trials. This is an unbelievable time. In 2006, 9.85 was still a world-record time. Tyson Gay won the event at the Olympic Trials with a wind-aided time of 9.68, the fastest time ever run under any conditions.
The shot put is also having a banner year. Reese Hoffa and Christian Cantwell threw over 72 feet at the Trials. While Adam Nelson came in third, he had a 72’ 7” throw at the 2008 Prefontaine Classic. The men’s world record is held by Randy Barnes at 75’ 10.25”.
You might be asking, what does any of this have to do with what Gary DeMar usually writes about? What’s the connection to a biblical worldview? I’ll explain below, but let me establish a context.
Since I follow track and field, I am generally aware of what’s going on in the sport, especially with the shot put since it was a big part of my life in high school and college. In 2006, I even competed in the over-55 division in the shot put at the Master’s level. After two months of training, I came in fourth at the Nationals with a throw of 44’ 1” (13.45 meters), 20 feet off my high school best, but not bad for an old guy.
In 2005, I was watching the progress of Ryan Whiting, a shot putter from my home state of Pennsylvania, who had a good chance of breaking the state record. He did just that at the state meet with a throw of 70’ even. I had held the record in 1968. It was broken in 1972 by Ron Semkiw with a throw of more than 66’. I trained Ron since he was in the 8th grade. We lived on the same street. Ron’s best throw that year was 70’ 1.5”. He went on to throw a half inch over 70’ in 1974, breaking the Junior College record which he still holds. It’s the second oldest record on the books next to the mile.
The women’s record in the shot put is 74’ 3”.
An article appeared in 2005 in the Harrisburg Patriot News about Ryan Whiting and his 70-foot throw and new state record. A comment was left by a reader of the on-line story about how remarkable the throw was given the fact that the men’s world record was just five-feet farther
This got me thinking. All of what I’ve written above is factually true. I’ve supplied links to all the sites that officially list the records. Someone unfamiliar with track and field, especially the throwing events, might assume that the records of all three groups are nearly identical since they are all around the 70-foot range until they realize that I’ve left out one crucial piece of information. The implements don’t weigh the same. The women’s shot put weighs 8.8 pounds. The shot put for high school boys weighs 12 pounds. The shot put used in college and at the Olympic level weighs 16 pounds. Once this vital piece of information is known, a novice’s understanding of the shot put (as well as the discus and javelin) changes.
Critics of the Bible are like the guy who thought that a high schooler’s throw of 70’ was comparable to that of a thrower at the collegiate and Olympic levels. Knowing that the weight of the implement is different changes the interpretation. I am amazed at some of the claims made against the Bible by those who insist that it’s filled with contradictions. Like those unfamiliar with the field events in track and field, these biblical malcontents are working with missing information, information they are unaware of or refuse to consider.
Excluding God from History
In one of my daily articles, “Don’t Let the Critics Make the Rules,” I wrote the following:
Let’s suppose that 3,000 years from now, after digging through tons of rubble, archeologists find a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. One group called the Americanites points to these finds as valid historical evidence that there was a nation called the United States of America. Another group calling themselves the Englishites insists that there was no independent American nation but only an English colony named America. When the Americanites point to these recently discovered copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as evidence of an independent American nation, they are immediately told that the documents are not evidence because they support what must first be proved.1
“Reason” Without a Moral Rudder
By Gary DeMar
Atheists claim that reason and logic are their guiding lights. Who needs religion when we have reason? The earliest critics of Christianity made this claim. English Deist Peter Annet (1693–1769) extolled reason as “the only begotten son of God, the God incarnate, or God humanized.”1 According to Annett, the future new humanity will embrace Reason as “the basis of true religion.”2 Reason was extolled in all its glory during the French Revolution. On November 10, 1793, the cathedral of Notre Dame was the site of the first and last “Festival of Liberty and Reason.” Read the rest of this entry »
What a World Without God is Like
By Gary DeMar
Consistency is a beautiful thing. The farther atheists move away from a theistic worldview, the closer they get to creating hell on earth. A scene from the television show E.R. (which I’ve never seen) is a perfect example of where relativism takes us. The murderer gets it. The “miserable comforter” does not. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Religion the Problem?
By Gary DeMar
“Theists often assert that popular belief in a creator is instrumental towards providing the moral, ethical and other foundations necessary for a healthy, cohesive society.” Gregory S. Paul, writing in the Journal of Religion and Society (2005), takes issue with this claim. He argues that a religious nation like the United States is actually worse off morally than the newer secular nations of Europe. “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.” Read the rest of this entry »
A Response to Ray Comfort’s “The End of the Age?”: Part 4
By Gary DeMar
In my previous blog entries, I challenged the claim by apologist Ray Comfort in his article published on Christian Worldview Network’s site that we are living at a period of time the Bible describes as the “end of the age.” In this final segment, I look at the claim that Israel’s national status has prophetic significance. (Comfort’s comments are in bold and appeared on the website of Christian Worldview Network on May 14, 2008.) Read the rest of this entry »
A Response to Ray Comfort’s “The End of the Age?”: Part 3
By Gary DeMar
In my previous blog entries, I challenged the claim by apologist Ray Comfort in his article published on Christian Worldview Network’s site that we are living at a period of time the Bible describes as the “end of the age.” (Comfort’s comments are in bold and appeared on the website of Christian Worldview Network on May 14, 2008.) Read the rest of this entry »
A Response to Ray Comfort’s “The End of the Age?”: Part 2
By Gary DeMar
In my previous blog entry, I addressed the claim by apologist Ray Comfort in his article published on Christian Worldview Network’s site that we are living at a period of time the Bible describes as the “end of the age.” I pointed out that the “end of the age” is a designation for a period of time that was unique to the NT era as the old covenant was coming to an end because of the finished redemptive work of Jesus. I also made the point that the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24) is describing events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem that took place in A.D. 70 at the hands of the Romans. Read the rest of this entry »
A Response to Ray Comfort’s “The End of the Age?”: Part 1
By Gary DeMar
Ray Comfort has put himself on the front lines defending the Christian faith by confronting the spirit of the age and those who promote it. So Ray, if you ever read this, don’t take it as an attack on you or your ministry. It’s just my attempt to get you to take a fresh look at prophecy. After reading your short article, it seems to me that you have repeated the arguments of others without actually studying the issue for yourself. Read the rest of this entry »