Let's Teach History Not Fairy Tales

I have been looking for a good American History Book. You know one that actually teaches history and not some sanitized feel good fairy tale. It looks like my search will be getting harder.

California's many ethnic and cultural communities have sought legislation that requires school children to be taught about their "role and contributions" in a positive way and bans instruction that depicts them negatively. So instead of textbooks presenting the full story to today’s students written by fair-minded and authoritative historians, they are getting the politically correct sanitized version. And then we wonder why the students of today seem to have less knowledge of the world then those of my generation; who were actually taught history not some fairy tale concocted by those with enough political pull to get our history changed to suit them.

Frankly I am tired of special interest groups wanting to rewrite history and demonize historical figures. An example is two students who attend the Jeff Davis campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. According to Genesis Be and her brother Israfel Briggs, they are embarrassed to tell people that they go to a school named after Jefferson Davis. First since they were free to go to any college or university if the name of the campus was such a problem for them, they should have gone somewhere else. Secondly their reasons for demonizing President Jefferson Davis shows an appalling lack of historical knowledge.


Jefferson Davis was much more then the first and last President of the Confederacy. He represented Mississippi in Congress from 1845-1846. He resigned his congressional seat in order to serve in the Mexican War. He was the Senator from Mississippi from 1847 to 1851, then again from 1857-1861. He was the Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1857. This was a man who served his country well during times of war and peace, and he certainly deserves the recognition of having a community college located near his last home named after him.

Sir Federick Kenyon Died 53 Years Ago, Archaeological Finds Didn't Cease

Apparently Abraham Smith has his own agenda, and is extremely biased. Bart D. Ehrman chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. His book Lost Christianities The Battles for Scriptures and the Faiths We Never Knew was scrupulously researched. He isn’t a so-called liberal scholar, with a hidden agenda as Smith maintains.

Even though we have numerous copies of text it is impossible to construct the exact words of the original as all the text differ. We are not talking about misspelling peoples’ names or having alternate destinations as Smith contends. Scribes made alterations that changed the whole meaning of the verse, in order to promote their sects beliefs. For example Jesus’ baptism, in the oldest surviving witnesses to Luke’s Gospel, the voice quotes the words of Psalm 2:7 “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Luke 3:22). Supporting the adoptionists belief that God adopted Jesus at the time of his baptism. Even though the potentially dangerous (“heretical”) form of the text is found in virtually all our oldest witnesses, it is the altered form of the text that is found in the majority of surviving manuscripts and reproduced in most of our English translations. So Smith isn’t actually reading what Luke wrote, he is reading what the proto-orthodox scribes altered the text of Luke to say.

And with all due respect to Smith, Sir Federick Kenyon died August 23, 1952. Many archaeological discoveries have been made since his death. Sir Federick Kenyon’s daughter Kathleen also became an archaeologist and began excavating Jericho the year her father died. She came to conclusions that differed from her dad's. Today, Frederick's conclusions are seldom mentioned outside Christian circles. (Christian History Institute )

District Soccer Competition

Sean's U16 team played in the Mississippi Youth Soccer's Southern District playoffs in Hattiesburg, MS April 22nd and 23rd. They came in 4th place in their bracket. Way to go Sean!

Sean played for the Ocean Springs Soccer Organization this year. His coach was Doug Bates.

Sean had a great deal of fun playing soccer this year, and hopes to play next year. Because of the disorganization of OSSO this year, we may play for another league next year. We are considering playing for either West River (which is Gautier's league ) or the D'Iberville Youth Soccer Organization. Although Sean would be very sad not to see his soccer friends on a regular basis, and he would miss Coach Bates a great deal. Luckily U14 and U16 players are "free agents" so we have that option.

Sean was very happy that his Grandma Hazel and his Grandpa Wayne were able to come see him play.

His MawMaw Jean was also able to come, unfortunately a soccer ball busted her windshield, so we didn't get to visit with her long.

Thanks to sunscreen we didn't get sunburned, but it was very hot this weekend, especially Sunday. Sean did a terrific job, even though he injured his knee Easter Sunday playing Ping-Pong with Mom (he'll do anything to keep me from winning). After the games Sunday, Bo took us out to eat at Sicily's Pizza. Which we all enjoyed a great deal.