More than a Hallmark holiday
That mad rush you hear as you read this column is many husbands running to the local drug store to quickly pick out a card and some flowers and chocolate for their wives. You may think that Valentine’s Day is a mere sentimental Hallmark holiday, a conspiracy for the greeting card companies and the chocolate […]
Keeping the republic
In January 1706, one of the most consequential figures in American history was born. Benjamin Franklin, the 15th child of an English immigrant father and an American mother, grew up in the city of Boston. At the age of 17, he fled to Philadelphia, an emerging and fast-growing city, to escape the increasingly unfavorable apprenticeship in his […]
The lessons from a short and successful war
On Jan. 16, 1991, President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office and announced the start of war against Iraq. America’s objective was clear: to drive Saddam Hussien’s troops out of the neighboring country of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded in August of 1990. The United States also wanted to discourage Saddam’s expansionist aggression […]
An ignominious anniversary
Fifty years ago this month, Cambodia adopted a new constitution—one that enshrined the principles of communism into law. By Marxist decree, 1976 was to be “year zero” in which Cambodia’s history was to be forgotten. It was the culmination of a 9-month revolution, led by the guerilla group, the Khmer Rouge, which in turn was […]
Ben Sasse’s Greatest Lesson
Two days before Christmas, former Nebraska Sen. and University of Florida President Ben Sasse announced he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. His tweet was a gut punch to anyone who knows Sasse and to the many around the nation who have admired his presence in public life. A statesman through and through, Sasse […]
A Baptist Cheer For Cultural Christianity
On 4 July 1776, the day the delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, a committee was formed to draft a national seal for the fledgling new nation. It would ultimately require three committees and six years to develop the seal that would eventually be a national coat of arms topped by […]
The audacity of Christmas
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the celebrated American poet and author of “Paul Revere’s Ride” was in deep despair. His beloved wife had recently died in a home fire. The eldest of his six children went off to join the Union Army, against his wishes. His nation was torn asunder by war. His faith was shaken. In […]
The untimely death of a World War II hero
Eighty years ago, on Dec. 21, one of the most consequential figures in World War II died. General George S. Patton’s passing at the age of 60 was due to complications from a motor vehicle accident in Germany that left him paralyzed from the neck down. It was the untimely end to an extraordinary American life. Patton […]
The ship that shaped a nation
On this date, 405 years ago, a ship anchored on the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in what is now known as Plymouth Bay. Of the 102 passengers who crowded aboard the Mayflower, just under half were English separatists who, having broken from the Church of England and attempted to settle in Holland, joined with a […]
Remembering Rosa Parks’ quiet courage
Seventy years ago today, a quiet Christian woman changed history. Rosa Parks, born in 1913 in the segregated South, was raised by her mother and grandmother. The descendant of slaves, she began working on a plantation in Alabama at the age of six. Raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), Parks grew up memorizing Scripture, singing hymns, and […]