Christopher Columbus might have remained a footnote in history, if Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” had not published a three volume biography about him. Although Irving established Columbus’ rightful place in history, he also told a few fibs, the biggest one being that Columbus wanted to prove the earth was round. A [...]
What does it mean to “throw the elephant”? A person responds to an argument by dumping loads of seemingly relevant information on it, calls it a “refutation,” and declares himself the winner, all the while hoping his opponent won’t notice how faulty much of the information is. The internet has made throwing the elephant a favorite tactic of anti-Christian bigots. It used to be that a response requ [...]
My interests are many and varied. I enjoy Track and Field, Olympic Weight Lifting, the Golden and Silver Age comic book eras. For years I have been trying to complete my set of The Fantastic Four series. The first issue appeared in November 1961 and sold for ten cents. In 2010 I achieved my goal by acquiring the first five issues, the only ones I had not been able to locate at a decent price and i [...]
“I have been amused by observing the manner in which speculators have been taken in when they have left the old ship of the gospel to become prophets. The beast of the Revelation was reported to be Napoleon I, and then the creature suddenly reappeared in his nephew, Napoleon III. By-and-by, the deadly wound was healed, and the Prince Imperial wore the dreadful honours of the prophetic book; but th [...]
D.W. Griffith directed the 1915 epic-making silent film masterpiece The Birth of a Nation, based on the play by Thomas Dixon called The Clansman. The purpose of the film was to rewrite the history of the South and the Civil War. The title The Clansman was changed to The Birth of a Nation to give the film broader appeal. President Woodrow Wilson, a former classmate of Dixon’s, praised the Ku [...]
Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover who was instrumental in its construction. This marvel of engineering began in 1931 and was completed two years ahead of schedule in 1936. Hardhats made of two baseball caps dipped in tar and allowed to harden were used for the first time. A surveyor was one of the first people to die in the dam’s construction. The son of the surveyor was th [...]
If you’re looking for a sweet, peaceful tale to help you drift off to slumberland, don’t choose one of the stories from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The stories collected by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 1800s often paint a cruel life as many generations of central Europeans knew it. In collecting and writing down the Germanic folktales, the brothers were attempting to preserve a part o [...]
England had a head start on the Reformation because of the work of John Wycliffe (c. 1324–1384). It was Wycliffe who held that the Bible alone (sola Scriptura) set forth the definition of true Christianity. Wycliffe’s efforts to translate the Bible into the language of the people prepared the way for a reform movement that would take England and the New World by storm. His hand written translation [...]
NPR’s Scott Simon claims that events like the Tucson shootings “Didn’t happen when 63 million people watched Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) every night.” “Uncle Walter,” as he was affectionately called, reported during a time when there were only three major TV news sources—ABC, CBS, and NBC. There were no comparable conservative competitors. Conservatives got their message out through privately publ [...]
I received the following email from a Christian-school family: My daughters attend a Christian School in Tucson, AZ. The 11th grade US History teacher told the class that the “founders” were deist, didn’t have a relationship with Christ – so, were not Christians, that George Washington had a sexually transmitted disease – her explanation due to the fact that he wore a [...]
Almost every conservative talk show is pushing gold and silver as a hedge against inflation, the devaluation of the dollar, and protection against uncertain economic times. Glenn Beck has been the most vocal proponent of owning gold, so much so that some liberals have called for an investigation. These are the same guys who create money out of thin air. Typical. In one particular Beck advertisemen [...]
With Congress wrangling over amnesty for illegal aliens, the budget, taxes, earmarks, and the extension of unemployment benefits, it won’t be long before we hear liberals telling conservatives how unchristian they are for not voting for more government aid to help the poor. And they will appeal to the Bible in an attempt to make their point. Every Christmas season we hear the inevitable revisionis [...]
General James Oglethorpe (1696–1785) conceived a plan to provide a refuge for persecuted Protestants of Europe. On June 9, 1732, he was granted a charter by George II to establish a new colony. Oglethorpe named his colony Georgia. He was motivated primarily from strong Christian principles, which are evident in his denouncement of slavery. In London, in 1734, he praised Georgia for its anti- [...]
As this millennial decade comes to an end and North Korea is rattling its military sword, popular Christian writers will reach into their prophecy bags, appeal to the Bible, and tell us that the end is near. The more judicious ones don’t come right out and say Jesus’ coming will take place in “our generation”; they temper their claims with something like this: “So is the end of the world near? [...]
On Thursday, September 24, 1789, the First House of Representatives recommended the First Amendment to the states for ratification. Congressman Elias Boudinot proposed that Congress jointly request that President Washington proclaim a day of thanksgiving for “the many signal favors of Almighty God.” He “could not think of letting the session pass over without offering an opportun [...]
Mention the name of Dr. John Stith Pemberton, and the majority of people would shrug their shoulders. But it was Dr. Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, who carried his new concoction in a jug down the street to Jacob’s Pharmacy for a taste testing at the soda fountain. The syrup was declared “excellent” and sold for five cents a glass. Carbonated water was added to the new syrup p [...]
There’s been a lot of post-election reflection. One of the more interesting trends that has surfaced is that evangelicals got back into the political battle. From about 1925 to 1975, evangelicals were not viewed as a definitive voting-block. Evangelicals were generally dismissive of politics for a variety of reasons. The 1973 pro-abortion Roe v. Wade decision and the earlier 1962 prayer ((Engel v. [...]
At the Baptist General Association of Virginia’s Nov. 9-10, 2010 annual meeting in Hampton, Virginia, the participants “adopted a resolution decrying versions of American history that minimize or deny the role of church-state separation and encouraging diligence in correcting mistaken historical accounts.” The resolution, which was passed by a wide margin, considers it “‘a threat to the flourishin [...]
Adolf Hitler’s agenda-establishing Magnum Opus is Mein Kampf. In English, it translates into “My Struggle.” Hitler fashioned his struggle into a maniacal worldview built on destruction of all opposing ideologies and the implementation of his own millennial aspirations, the perpetuation of a thousand-year reich, based on the Nazi mythology of blood and soil. The transformation of society would come [...]
Brannon Howse of “Worldview Weekend” responded to my article “A ‘Howse’ Built on Prophetic Sand.” The title of his response article is “Howse, Markell, Hunt, Ice, Reagan, McTernan, Salhus, and Rosenberg, Are Not the Enemy or the Problem with America.” As anyone who read my original article can see, Brannon never responded to a single point I made. This is bad form for the head of a worldview minis [...]
