There are different kinds of courage. That was on display within the same Chicago family in the 1930s and 40s. Less than three months after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into World War II, the U.S. fleet was maneuvering near the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific. On February 20, 1942, the aircraft carrier Lexington successfully fought… Read more »
America’s Declaration of Independence was sent to King George III of England in 1776. There were 56 signatures on the document, representing all 13 original British colonies. Edward Rutledge, at age 26, was the youngest signer. Benjamin Franklin, still humming along at age 70, was the oldest. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian pastor from New Jersey, was the only clergyman. Two… Read more »
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a 67th book of the Bible, one reserved for all the verses that people think are verses but never have been verses? We could call it the book of Hesitations. Hesitations 3:16: “God helps those who help themselves.” Despite the fact it’s routinely quoted with biblical conviction, that’s actually the gospel according to… Read more »
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? That famous question presents what is called a causality dilemma. We know that all chickens are hatched from eggs, and that all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. So which is the cause and which is the effect? Aristotle, writing four centuries before Christ, admitted he was stumped. He concluded that the… Read more »
I’ll never forget the day a man who had been attending our church for 20 years finally decided to become a member. What struck me most was his reason for waiting so long. “All these years I hesitated to become a Christian because of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus tells us to forgive our debtors. I figured that if I applied… Read more »
A feature film proved to be the ultimate recruiting tool for archaeology. Thousands of fans of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) dreamed of becoming the next Indiana Jones – the fedora-wearing, bullwhip-cracking adventurer who fends off scheming Nazis, slithering snakes, and ancient curses to recover the world’s most priceless artifacts. Real-life archaeology is considerably less dramatic. In 1897, two… Read more »
In 1967, when FBI agents closed in on James Robert Ringrose, one of America’s 10 Most Wanted criminals, he was ready. He presented them with a Get Out of Jail Free card from a Monopoly game. Nice try. But that’s not how it works. Monopoly fans are well-acquainted with the orange card from the Chance pile and the yellow card… Read more »
When it comes to receiving meaningful names, some of us are winners. Others are losers. Then there’s the family with both a Winner and a Loser. In 1958 Robert Lane and his wife, who lived in public housing in Harlem, New York City, became parents of their sixth child. Dad, in a joyful mood, decided to name his little boy… Read more »
In 1985 Julie Gold, an administrative assistant who dabbled in songwriting, came up with lyrics and a melody that she thought sounded promising. None of the artists or record companies she contacted, however, thought it was worth recording. A year later she asked “folkabilly” singer Nanci Griffith to assess whether her work had potential. Griffith was so impressed that she… Read more »
A humble building known as the Abbot Pass Hut is one of the Western Hemisphere’s most intriguing structures. It was constructed 98 years ago as a shelter for mountaineers attempting to scale either Mount Victoria or Mount Lefroy, two of the higher peaks in Banff Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. The hut continues to serve as an overnight waystation for hikers… Read more »
