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HISTORY: unwrapped – August 2006

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August 31, 2006 – Harvard Ain't What She Used to Be

Harvard University was founded in 1636 with one instructor and nine students with the goal of establishing a school to train Christian ministers. The school was named after John Harvard, a 31-year-old clergyman from Charlestown, Massachusetts, who died and left his library and half his estate to the fledgling institution. In accordance with its original vision, Harvard adopted a set of “Rules and Precepts” in 1646 that stated the following (spelling has been modernized):

—Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only gives wisdom, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him (Prov. 2:3).

—Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of language and Logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

In 1692, Harvard adopted the motto Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae—“Truth for Christ and the Church.” The phrase was embedded on a shield and can be found on many buildings around the Harvard campus and various dorms in Harvard Yard.

The books on the shield represent revelation and reason. The top two books that are shown face up represent the Word of God revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments. The book on the bottom of the shield, which faces down, symbolizes the limits of reason and the need for God’s revelation.

A second and earlier (1650) Harvard motto carried the Latin phrase, In Christi Gloriam, “For the Glory of Christ.” Samuel Eliot Morison, in his history of Harvard,  writes, “Like the Medieval schoolmen, [the founders] believed that all knowledge without Christ was vain. Veritas to them, as to Dante, meant the divine truth. . . .” What once was Harvard is no more. Harvard, like so many of our nation’s earliest colleges, has left its “first love” (Rev. 2:4).

August 30, 2006 – An Indian Fighter Seeks His Destiny

In today’s publicity-seeking world, George Armstrong Custer would have felt right at home. Much of his reputation was formed by the media. Correspondents, who joined Custer on his military campaigns, helped establish his reputation with their positive reporting. With long blonde curls sprinkled with cinnamon oil, flamboyant dress, and large ego, Custer understood good public relations. His bravery, daring, and leadership skills helped the West Point graduate rise in the ranks during the Civil War. Appointed to the Seventh Calvary, Custer became the most famous Indian fighter in American history. But his boldness and daring would lead to the foolish attack at the Little Big Horn, where 2,000 Indians swept down upon Custer and his men. His final stand would bring him the glory that had eluded him throughout his short life.

August 29, 2006 – A Boy Named Sue

Johnny Cash had a large repertoire of songs—everything from “Matthew 24 is Knocking at the Door” to “Burning Ring of Fire.” The one song that brings the most laughter to the listener is “A Boy Named Sue.” The lyrics are those of the multi-talented Shel Silverstein (1930–1999), author of The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and other award-winning children’s books. In addition to books, Silverstein wrote dozens of clever songs. You might remember “The Unicorn” by the Irish Rovers and “Cover of the Rollin’ Stone” by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. But it was Cash who made “A Boy Named Sue” memorable when he recorded it on February 24, 1969 at San Quentin Prison before a live but incarcerated audience. Cash hadn’t had the chance to learn the lyrics before he began to belt it out to his demanding audience. He was reading the words as he sang it. If you listen closely, you can hear the shouts of approval from the appreciative crowd of convicts, many of whom could tell stories of their own about abandonment and abuse. Cash commented that it was the most cleverly written song that he had ever heard. The song is about a boy who grows up angry at his father, not only for leaving his family but for naming him Sue. After the boy grows up, he sees his father in a bar and gets in a fight with him because his father gave him a girl’s name. When his father explains that he named him Sue to make sure he would grow up tough, the son embraces his father but still detests his name.

Now to the title of this article. There really was a boy named Sue. Sue Hicks, the City Attorney of Dayton, Tennessee, was the person who arrested John Scopes in the famous Scopes “Monkey Trial” of 1925 that pitted the state of Tennessee against the ACLU and the teaching of evolution in public schools. Maybe Shel (Sheldon) Silverstein got the inspiration for “ A Boy Named Sue” from his own life. His parents called him “Shelly.”

Consider the work of Heron (or Hero) of Alexandria who lived in the first-century A.D., probably from A.D. 10 to 75. He was a mathematician and practical inventor. He invented a sacrificial vessel where water flows only when money is dropped in a slot. Heron also constructed a small temple so that when a fire was lit, the doors opened spontaneously and shut again when the fire was extinguished. These devices were designed, most probably at the behest of the king, to make people believe that the gods were real and near. Heron also developed elaborate entertainment devices that set wooden actors and props in motion without any of the pulleys and weights visible to the audience. He is most famous for inventing the aeolipile, the precursor to the steam engine.

Many people who read Revelation 13:15 assume that this verse must be describing a modern-day demonic miracle where an inanimate object comes to life. Given what we know about the ancients, especially the work of Heron, there is nothing implausible about believing, if we pursue a strict literal rendering, that an image could be made to “speak” during Nero’s day. All the technology was available, and since Heron lived during the generation preceding the destruction of the temple in A.D., the timing is also right.

August 25, 2006 – That's Pittsburgh—with an 'H'

Pittsburgh, named after William Pitt, became the largest urban area west of the Allegheny Mountains by 1815 with its plentiful raw materials, natural waterways for transportation, and abundance of laborers. The Industrial Revolution made a dramatic entrance into the city with the growth of the iron industry. The low cost of iron and coke and the abundance of coal in Western Pennsylvania encouraged the building of foundries which produced iron bars, nails, and farm equipment. The first rolling mill for iron powered by the steam engine was built in Pittsburgh. The city soon boasted glass factories, breweries, potteries, a grist mill, a steam engine factory, a nail mill, cotton and woolen factories, and printing offices. By 1830, Pittsburgh’s three rivers were crowded with steamboats transporting manufactured goods. The work ethic of its citizens and their passion for invention made Pittsburgh the richest city of its size by the mid 1800s. Don’t be confused by like-sounding cities. There’s a Pittsburg, California, a Pittsburg, Texas, a Pittsburg, Kansas, a Pittsburg, New Hampshire, a Pittsburg, New York, and even a West Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but there’s only one Pittsburgh—with an “h”—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

August 24, 2006 – Leap'n Beamon

The 1968 Summer Olympic Games were held in the rarified air of Mexico City—7400 feet above sea level. Athletes and trainers were concerned that performances by distance runners would be affected by the thin atmosphere. Higher altitudes meant less oxygen, and if there is one thing runners need, it’s lots of oxygen. But it was the unexpected that made these Games memorable. Some of the black athletes put on a political demonstration. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, winning gold and silver in the 200 meters, accepted their medals in bare feet (to bring attention to the poverty of the African-American community), wearing beads (in honor of blacks murdered as victims of slavery or racism), and holding black-gloved fists in the air (the “Black Power” salute).

But over at the finals of the long jump, something historic was about to happen. A lanky jumper from New York was bounding down the runway, and almost no one noticed. Most of the photographers were waiting at the finish line where Lee Evans was expected to finish the 400 meters in record time. This race had excitement written all over it. Jumping records at the Olympic level are broken by inches. In 1936, Jesse Owens owned the long jump record at 26’ 5 ¼. It took 24 years to break it, and only by 3 inches. In 1968, the record stood at 27’ 4 ¾. In a span of 32 years, the record had progressed less than a foot. But on this day, Bob Beamon jumped 29’ 2 ½”, eclipsing the record by nearly two feet—21 ¾ inches! Here’s how Track and Field News described it:

He was obviously fired up, his step was exactly right, his form bordered perfection, his speed (09.5–100y) came as a great asset, the runway was consistent and fast, the assisting wind read a maximum of 4.473 mph, the high altitude (7350 feet) provided reduced air resistance, and he put together perhaps the ultimate technical effort that all field event performers dream about but rarely realize.

After hearing how far he had jumped, Beamon became so excited and emotionally drained that doctors claim he suffered a “cataplectic seizure.” Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, the co-world record holder, remarked, “Compared to this jump, we are as children.” The leap was caught by a cameraman on his first film assignment and is today one of the greatest sports photographs ever shot. The record leap brought an end to Beamon’s career. While he continued to compete, he never got close to that almost magical jump ever again. His longest jump after Mexico City was 26’ 11 1/2”. On August 31, 1991, Mike Powell of the United States finally broke Beamon’s record when he landed 29’ 4 ½” in Tokyo.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States government made it illegal for any Hawaiian citizen to possess more than $200 in cash. “New Money” was printed in 1942 using brown ink for the seals and serial numbers and bearing a small overprint of the word “Hawaii” along both sides of the front and a very large overprint of “Hawaii” on the back of each bill. This was the only legal tender permitted in the territory of Hawaii. Two hundred million dollars of the old currency had to be destroyed. It was hauled to a sugar mill and burned. The new currency was called “Emergency Issue.” Any serviceman or citizen entering Hawaii had to convert to the new money and then reconvert upon leaving the islands. In case of a complete invasion by Japan, the currency could be quickly declared worthless before the money could be seized and used by the Japanese. The invasion never took place, and the circulation of Emergency Issue was stopped by October 1944.

A child named Nicholas was born in A.D. 280 in Lycia, Asia Minor, which is present-day Turkey. His wealthy parents raised him to be a devout Christian, and even as a child, Nicholas avoided worldly pursuits, spending time studying the scriptures. His parents died in an epidemic while he was still young. Nicholas used his inheritance to assist the needy and sick. He dedicated his life to serving God.

One story or legend is told about Nicholas coming to the rescue of a man with three daughters. The bankrupt nobleman hoped to marry off his daughters before the creditors took them away. But the father did not have money for the girls’ dowries. No one would consider marrying his daughters without a dowry. Nicholas tossed a bag of gold for each girl through an open window. The bags are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left by the fire to dry. Nicholas saved the nobleman’s daughters from the ruthless creditors, and our custom of hanging stockings or putting out shoes to wait for a visit from Saint Nicholas began.

The Shoshone woman Sacajawea had been kidnapped and sold to a French-Canadian fur trader. The fur trader was hired as interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Sacajawea and her newborn son also joined the party. She collected plants, nuts, and berries which were used for food and medicine. When a boat nearly capsized, she retrieved important books and instruments before they floated away. Clark wrote that the Indians believed they were friendly when they saw the Indian woman and her baby. During meetings with Indian chiefs, Sacajawea was the interpreter. Her vote counted when it was determined where the party would spend the winter. Lewis and Clark honored Sacajawea for her efforts in making the expedition a success by naming a river in her honor.

The modern-day image of Jefferson as a social and political liberal would be shattered after a single reading of his Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments. Capital punishment is maintained for murder and treason while rescinded for all other crimes. Even so, other crimes receive some rather harsh and politically incorrect penalties. Consider these examples:

•"If any person commit petty treason, or a husband murder his wife, a parent his child, or a child his parent, he shall suffer death, by hanging, and his body be delivered to Anatomists to be dissected" (Sec. IV).

•"Whosoever committith murder by poisoning, shall suffer death by poison" (Sec. V).

•"Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy, or sodomy with man or woman, shall be punished; if a man, by castration, a woman, by boring through the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch in diameter at the least" (Sec. XIV).

•"Whosoever committith a robbery, shall be condemned to hard labour four years in the public works, and shall make double reparation to the persons injured" (Sec. XX).

•"All attempts to delude the people, or to abuse their understanding by exercise of the pretended arts of witchcraft, conjuration, enchantment, or sorcery, or by pretended prophecies, shall be punished by ducking and whipping, at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding fifteen stripes" (Sec. XXIX).

Ouch! Considering these views, there is no way that Thomas Jefferson could ever run for political office today.

As a Yale graduate, Eli Whitney (1765–1825) was known for his “handiness” and is best remembered for his cotton gin invention (1793), which brought great wealth to many but gave Whitney a meager return on his investment. The cotton engine, “gin” for short, automated the separation of cottonseed from the short cotton fiber. It was such a simple machine that it was easily duplicated and reproduced.Whitney also introduced a technique that proved to be the most revolutionary invention in American history. In 1798, he built a firearms factory near New Haven, Connecticut. Unlike many American industries of his day, Whitney did not build from the top down. He first built all the machinery he would need for his method of production and devised a system of interchangeable parts for muskets. This new technique was adopted all over the country as a defense measure and soon was being applied to other inventions paving the way for mass production and the industrial revolution.

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 opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining, with one voice, in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the blessings he had poured down upon them.” The colonists of another era were aware of the many instances of thanksgiving found in “holy writ.” Thanksgiving, as it was practiced by the colonists, was a religious celebration that shared the sentiments of their biblical forerunners, giving thanks to God for His faithful provision. “Twice en route the passengers [aboard the Arabella] participated in a fast, and once a ‘thanksgiving.’”

 One of the earliest recorded celebrations occurred a half century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. “A small colony of French Huguenots established a settlement near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. On June 30, 1564, their leader, René de Laudonnière, recorded that ‘We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please Him to continue His accustomed goodness towards us.’” May we do likewise this day as we gather together with our families and thank God for continuing to bless our nation.

When President Thomas Jefferson needed a private secretary who could be trusted completely, he chose Captain Meriwether Lewis. Jefferson did not choose Lewis for his secretarial skills. The president had a dream of exploring the land that lay beyond the Mississippi River. Nine years earlier, he had attempted an exploration, and Meriwether Lewis had begged to join. Jefferson refused, thinking Lewis was too young. That expedition was abandoned. Now that he was president, Jefferson was determined to send explorers west, and he hinted to Lewis of his plan. Lewis was prepared to ask a friend, Lieutenant William Clark to join him if the president’s dream became a reality. The Lewis and Clark Expedition would cover 3,700 miles and include lands that would eventually become eleven states.  

Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) is best remembered for his masterful sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In addition to his achievements as a pastor, Edwards was a father to eight daughters and three sons, missionary to the Housatonic Indians, revivalist, philosopher, and accomplished scientist. From a very early age, Jonathan was mesmerized by the beauty and order of God’s world. In fact, he was especially fond of studying spiders. So much so that his accurate observations have been preserved and are acknowledged in the scientific community today. Even more remarkable is that these observations were made when he was a boy with no tools, training or body of knowledge with which to compare and test his findings. In his childhood work, “Of Insects,” Jonathan wrote “Multitudes of time I have beheld with wonderment and pleasure the spiders marching in the air from one tree to another… their little shining webs and Glistening Strings of a Great Length and at such a height as that one would think they were tack’d to the Sky by one end were it not that they were moving and floating.” As a young man, Jonathan wrote seventy resolutions. One of these resolutions was, “To live with all my might, while I do live.” That he did. Blessed with a brilliant mind, Jonathan Edwards used his brief 55 years to advance the Kingdom of Christ. Many believe Jonathan Edwards was the greatest mind in American history.

Harry Houdini's real name was Ehrich Weiss (1874–1926). He changed it to Houdini as a tribute to French illusionist Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, adding an “I” to the name to make it his own. While Houdini is best known as a physical magician for escapes from straight jackets while suspended in midair and an illusionist, he is also famous for exposing fake mediums and spiritualists. When his beloved mother died, Houdini became interested in the possibility of being able to contact her in the spirit world. Because of his knowledge as an illusionist, he recognized the techniques that mediums used to fool people into believing that they had special powers to contact the dearly departed. Houdini became a one-man crusader against these charlatans who used grief to bilk family members out of their money. Houdini was such a well known public figure that he had to attend seances in disguise so as not to be discovered. Houdini was a good friend of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), creator of the famous fictional character Sherlock Holmes. Doyle believed that Houdini had magical powers, that his escapes were accomplished supernaturally. Doyle devoted a chapter of his book The Edge of the Unknown to a detailed argument that Houdini had genuine psychic power.In fact, Doyle believed almost any story that claimed that supernatural powers were at work. He insisted that fairies actually existed. He wrote a book called The Coming of the Fairies (1921) that supposedly chronicled their existence, and even included photographs to prove it! In reality, he had been duped by two teenage girls who staged the whole thing. Even so, Doyle went to his grave believing that fairies were real. Ironically, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character was the epitome of rationality and would have dismissed the obviously staged evidence as fraudulent. But Doyle wanted to believe so much that he put his usually rational mind in neutral.

A Methodist dentist, Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, objected to the use of fermented wine in the communion service of his church in Vineland, New Jersey. He experimented in his kitchen to come with a non-alcoholic substitute which he named “Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine.” This was in 1869. He approached church officials to persuade them to substitute his beverage for the traditional wine. The elders regarded his suggestion as being an unacceptable innovation. His son Charles, who was also a dentist, changed the name to Welch’s Grape Juice. He promoted the product at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. He said that his work on the wine substitute was born “out of a passion to serve God by helping his church to give its communion (as) ‘the fruit of the vine’ instead of the ‘cup of devils.’” He set up a production facility in a barn behind the family home. Since the skins of grapes are covered with yeast, fermentation begins almost immediately after the yeast mixes with the juice. The juice has to be pasteurized to stop the fermentation process. Response was so overwhelming that he gave up dentistry and devoted full time to making and distributing grape juice. Many Christians claim that Jesus drank grape juice—the true fruit of the vine—and not wine. Since grape juice was not developed until the nineteenth century, it’s hardly possible that the wine mentioned in the Bible was actually grape juice. “Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan startles the world by serving Welch's Grape Juice instead of wine at a full-dress diplomatic function honoring the retiring British ambassador. Newspaper columnists, cartoonists and editors make much of it for months.” Today, Welch’s is a multi-million-dollar food company.

Clarence Darrow is remembered as the lawyer who defended teaching evolution in the 1925 case that became known as the “Monkey” Trial. A year earlier, Darrow saved two wealthy students, accused of kidnapping and murder, from the death penalty by arguing that they were products of their environment. When asked how he would sum up his life, Darrow quoted the Bible, a book he had publicly ridiculed most of his life. He then said, “I have lived a life without purpose, without meaning, without direction. I don’t know where I came from. And I don’t know what I’m doing here. And worst of all, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I punch out of here.” Darrow’s accomplishments would give him no assurance and comfort when he stood before the Judge of the universe in the only courtroom that mattered.

The Central and Union Pacific Railroads joined their construction efforts on May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah, with the ceremonial driving of the Golden Spike into the track that joined East and West. One hundred years later, on July 20, 1969, two Americans landed on the moon. While railroads transformed commerce, communication, and travel in the United States, Moon landings abruptly stopped with no commercial benefits after six missions. Bill Kaysing thinks he knows why.

Kaysing claims in his book We Never Went to the Moon that the missions were a scam. After a number of technological mishaps, NASA realized it did not have the expertise to make President Kennedy’s dream of putting a man on the Moon before the close of the decade a reality. To avoid shutting down NASA, losing funding, and giving the Soviet Union a reason to believe that America was behind them in missile design, an elaborate hoax was supposedly concocted to fool the world. Taking a page from Hollywood, Kaysing claims that an elaborate Moon-set was constructed somewhere in the Southwest region of the United States. What we saw on television during those eventful days was special effects, “a near seamless piece of performance art.” The only real things the public saw were an empty Saturn V rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral and the return of the astronauts in a sealed “dummy space capsule that was dropped from a C5-A transport plane.”

Nearly everyone was in on the hoax, even Walter Cronkite! Anyone who tried to blow the lid off the planned ruse would pay the ultimate price. As a warning, so Kaysing theorizes, three astronauts were killed in a launchpad “accident” on January 27, 1967, mostly to keep Gus Grissom quiet. Grissom had been complaining about safety issues and threatened to go public. Again, this is according to Kaysing. If any of this story sounds familiar, you might remember the 1978 movie Capricorn One, starring O.J. Simpson, Telly Savalas, Elliott Gould, and James Brolin. The movie was about a faked mission to Mars. The only difference is that these astronauts had a conscience and wanted to get the true story out to the world.

There are millions of people who believe Kaysing is on to something. Mistrust of the government runs deep. But if it’s all true, why have so many people been able to keep the secret for so long? This is where all conspiracy theories break down. Too many people have to keep too many secrets for too long.

Dr. Fredric Wertham, a prominent psychiatrist, made his mark in cultural history when he decided to take on the comic book industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He claimed there was a direct link between reading “crime comics” and juvenile delinquency. A number of magazines—Reader’s Digest and Scouting—published articles by Wertham and other comic critics warning parents of the dangers of the pulp stories. In the September 1954 issue of Scouting, the official publication of the Boy Scouts, Wertham stated his thesis: “The keynote of crime-comic books is violence and sadism. This is featured in the illustrations and in the text. In one typical crime comic . . . one story alone has ten pictures of girls getting smacked in the face, beaten with a whip, strangled, choked by hand, choked with a scarf. In addition, two men are killed and one man is crippled."

While these articles caught the notice of parents, it was an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Wertham in the November 1953 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal that put the comic book industry on notice that things were about to change. Early in 1954, he followed up the article with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, a book-length indictment of the industry. In addition to his attacks on crime and horror comics, Wertham even claimed that Batman and Robin were having a homosexual relationship and Wonder Woman was a lesbian role model!

There was such a hue and cry against these graphic comics that Congress got into the act. Hearings were called by the Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency to look into the matter. Publishers were in a panic. Some comic book publishing houses went out of business. Those that remained joined forces and created the Comics Code Authority that served as a self-censoring agency within the industry. Nearly every book written on the history of comics mentions Frederick Wertham. He was the devil incarnate, the Joe McCarthy of the comic industry.

William M. Gaines, publisher of The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, Haunt of Fear, Weird Fantasy, and a humorous comic titled Mad, refused to capitulate to the strong-arm tactics of Wertham and the Senate. Even so, enough bad publicity had been generated that Gaines had to suspend publication of his horror and suspense titles. A late addition to his comic library of titles was Mad. Because it was not singled out by Wertham and the Senate committee, Mad slipped under the radar. Gaines did an end-run around the Comics Code by turning Mad into a magazine. The newly formatted comic became known as Mad Magazine.

There’s one more twist to this story. William Gaines inherited the comic business from his father Max Gaines who died in a tragic boating accident. The elder Gaines drafted a set of guidelines for artists and writers, something his son avoided like the plague and denounced when the Comics Code Authority was established:

“Never show anybody stabbed or shot.”

“Show no torture scenes.”

“Never show a hypodermic needle.”

“Never show a coffin, especially with anybody in it.”

Max Gaines also published Picture Stories from the Bible, Picture Stories from Science, Picture Stories from American History, and Picture Stories from World History.

Most comic book publishers have dropped the Comics Code, and the comics that William Gaines published are now worth a lot of money. I guess he’s having the last laugh on poor Dr. Wertham.

Several English Bibles published in the seventeenth century get their nicknames because of typographic errors. The so-called Murderer’s Bible misprints “murderers” instead of the correct word “murmurers” in Jude 16. Mark 7:27 was made to read: “Let the children first be killed” (instead of “filled”). The Wife-Hater Bible tells a man to hate his own wife: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father . . . yea, and his own wife also.” Of course, “wife” should read “life.” The first edition of the King James Bible correctly has Matthew 26:36 stating, “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane…” The second printing reads, “Then cometh Judas with them unto a place called Gethsemane.” The Adulterer’s or Wicked Bible, a 1631 King James Version, leaves out an essential “not” and commands “Thou shalt commit adultery.” King Charles fined the printer Robert Barker the enormous sum of £300 and took away his license to print Bibles. An Oxford edition of 1717 was known as the Vinegar Bible because the chapter heading to Luke 20 had “Vinegar” for “Vineyard” in the title “The Parable of the Vineyard.” A 1716 KJV Bible made a common typographical mistake by transposing letters.  Instead of John 8:11 reading, “Go, and sin no more,” it read, “Go and sin on more.” The Printer’s Bible laments that “printers” (not “princes”) “have persecuted me without cause” (Ps. 119:161). Considering how these botched Bibles got their name, the Psalm might not be too far off.

During the 1600s in colonial America, Massachusetts required property ownership in order to vote. A potential voter also had to prove that he was “sober and peaceable” and “orthodox in the fundamentals of religion.” Connecticut required church membership. Rhode Island permitted only professing Christians. Landholders could vote in New York, but Pennsylvania required voters to believe in Jesus Christ and own property. Free white men who owned their homes could vote in Virginia. Quakers could not vote in Massachusetts, and Baptists were barred in several colonies. Roman Catholics and Jews were disfranchised in many others. Blacks and women could not vote at all. Nearly every American citizen has the right to vote today and should take the opportunity to exercise this freedom given to us by the framers of our Constitution.

It is a mystery as to why no one has ever done a full-length film of George Washington Carver. The story of this great scientist is extraordinary. He was born in 1864 in Missouri on the farm of an elderly white couple, Moses and Susan Carver. While yet an infant, George and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate night-raiders. Moses tried to locate George and his mother after the war, but he was only able to find George and traded a horse to get him back. After enduring resistance in securing an education in a segregated world, Carver entered Simpson College in Iowa. He studied piano and art since the college offered no science classes. He transferred to another college and earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and agriculture. Carver became the first black faculty member of Iowa College.
Carver served as Director of Agriculture at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama where his teaching career established him as a world class scientist. Carver remained on the faculty until his death. He gained fame but no fortune in the development of multiple uses for ordinary and everyday foods like the peanut and sweet potato. His work attracted Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. While George Washington Carver was deeply attracted to his scientific work, it was his devotion to Jesus Christ that sets him apart from many in the scientific field.

Buildings in Washington D.C., with their columns and facades, are reminiscent of Classical architecture. In addition, some American political writers called themselves by Latin names like Cato and Publius. The authors of The Federalist, a collection of essays written in favor of the Constitution, did not use their real names. The 85 essays were attributed to the pseudonym “Publius,” but in actuality were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Publius Valerius Publicola (“friend of the people”) was a Roman consul. George Washington was known as “Cincinnatus,” a Roman general and patriot (519–439 B.C.) who gave up supreme power and went home to his farm after rescuing the Roman army which had been besieged by hill tribes. You can even see an enormous marble sculpture of our first president—wearing a toga! Our early constitutional framers looked to some elements of the Roman Republic and its form of civil government—not to the Roman Empire and its pagan religious practices—as a model for their political ideas. The word “Senate” is also borrowed from the Romans.