Gotta Draw the Line Somewhere

The Church of Norway (I would assume "lutheran" with a small L) recently held a one-day conference with Muslim imams, billed as "Shoulder to Shoulder". The meeting ended on a disappointing note -- the priests v. imams soccer game was cancelled when the Muslims objected to playing soccer with women priests, and the priests decided "it would send the wrong signal" to agree to a man-to-man match.

Well, good for them. If it took the issue of ordination of women, something even Christians argue about, to force a stand of no compromise with members of a faith group that denies the divinity and resurrection of Jesus, I wonder what agreements the Church did offer that day.

As far as the end game, I'd ask the question, "Which religious leaders were holding to the historic tenets of their faith?"

My guess, to put it in soccer terms, would be Imams 1, Priests 0.

Speaking at Lighthouse

This evening I was privileged to speak at the monthly meeting of Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association, in Wake Forest. I've had the opportunity to meet with them and their leaders several times and they are one of my favorite groups in the Triangle. Thanks to all fifty of you for having me over!

I promised the group I'd post the link to the two articles I mentioned, so here they are:

"North Carolina's Wall of Educational Separation"
The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty (Foundation for Economic Education), July 2005

"Homeschooling in North Carolina"
Family North Carolina (N.C. Family Policy Council), October/November 2006

And some other links of interest:

North Carolinians for Home Education

• Statewide homeschool news blog
• 2007 Conference Page
• 2007 Conference Speakers
• Volunteer for Conference! Collect valuable benefits!

Over there

I'm just getting settled in to the North Carolina Conservative Leadership Conference, "MEDIA" nametag and all. I'll be blogging on my other page, Five Points, for the next two days.

More On The Radio

I was listening to public radio somewhere on the Nebraska-Colorado state line last month -- I think it was just past Peetz -- and heard two absolutely stunning sentences. The announcers on "All Things Considered" need to remember the listener can't see the punctuation, and if they're not going to vocalize the periods and commas like Victor Borge, they have to make it clear some other way.

At the station break, we heard:

"Next, NASA weighs the Theory of Relativity and your letters."

No kidding? Oh, on Thursday they read their email.

And so introducing one of the letters (one which NASA, incidentally, neglected to weigh), they referred to an earlier story

"... our story about a man suffering from Alzheimer's and his wife ..."

If anything, she was probably suffering from him.

Honestly, guys.

Time to change stations

This morning I heard a few minutes of an unknown syndicated talk program (this was very early this morning). Apparently the guest was a supposed clairvoyant of some sort, and the caller was a woman who claimed she had had all kinds of dreams about herself come true.

The medium interrupted and actually said, "Well, some people say you can't be psychic about yourself, but I think that's just an old wives' tale."

Actually, ma'am, the "tale" goes much further than that.

SBC leader endorses Hillary?

In a sort of backhanded way, yes. The Washington Times reports that

Richard Land, president of the Religious and Ethics Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, takes a hard line against virtually all the major Republican candidates. He says he'd vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, over Mr. Giuliani if the 2008 presidential race came down to such a choice.

Wow. And in the national election, too.

My approach has been to cast my purest philosophical vote in the primaries, but when it comes to the final ballot, I take the path suggested by William F. Buckley many years ago -- I go for "the rightwardmost viable candidate". It seems that by that time, unless there is an overriding reason not to vote at all -- and I'm not sure that a choice between Guiliani and Clinton may not be that circumstance --, it is better to block the worse candidate than to seek to punish the one who doesn't live up to my expectations. The latter approach, in my view, is why we have Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid leading the House and Senate this year.

Bread and wine

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

-- Matthew 26:27-28

This was part of the passage for our men's Bible study Tuesday and it struck me as significant. Jesus Himself, not merely a human priest, took the cup, blessed it, announced that "This is My blood" -- and immediately referred to it as "this fruit of the vine".

When Luther met Zwingli to debate the nature of the Lord's Supper, before he sat down he chalked the words Hoc Est Corpus Meum on the tablecloth before Him. And so it is -- but it's still bread, and the wine is still the fruit of the vine.

UPDATE: Ebeth sent along a couple of links to Roman Catholic apologetics blogs. First, I'd say thanks to Ebeth for reading, then taking the time to share his (or her) concerns. However, this being a blog from a historic Reformed perspective, Ebeth will understand why I'm not publicizing a Catholic defense of transubstation here. John Calvin's Short Treatise on the Lord's Supper (1541) lays out the Reformed position -- basically, that Christ is truly present in spirit, but with bread and wine unchanged in their physical substance. Christ is only received in the spirit, not in physical consumption of the bread, though the two occur at the same moment.

More resources ancient and modern are posted on Monergism: The Church on the Threshold, here.

John Edwards, one of N.C.'s newest

UPDATE: An unashamed crossposting from The Locker Room:

John and Elizabeth Edwards have announced their intention of joining 33,690 other North Carolina families in a rapidly-growing phenomenon. Elizabeth told Newsweek this week:

I think we've pretty much settled on what it is we're going to do. I think the children will finish out the school year and then, in the fall, they'll travel with us. We will home-school them. We'll employ a tutor to travel with us to help teach them. I hope it will be an extraordinary experience for them.

I'm sure it will be. I'm no fan of Edwards, but I applaud their decision.

Admittedly, hiring a tutor is more like the education enjoyed by wealthy families from time immemorial, than the largely middle-class, single-income homeschooling mainstream ... more Theodore Roosevelt than Abraham Lincoln, to put it in presidential terms ... but as long as the parents are in ultimate charge of the program, more power to them, I say.

John does demonstrate one minor problem of life in the public eye when he told Salon.com:

We haven't even talked to the children about it, which we have to do.

Oops. Uh, kids, about those news stories ...

---------

[1] In case anyone's wondering, John asserts that evolution will be part of the curriculum, though the question said more about the liberal media's assumptions than about Edwards or homeschooling generally. Interesting there was no question about algebra, creative writing, or a million other academic options.

[2] Not that comparing John Edwards to two Republican presidents means anything political, understand.

Connecting With History

In 1913, the highway from Smithfield to Raleigh was a dirt road. One day that year, Wesley Bell, a man who still bore scars on his back from whippings he suffered as a slave, turned his muledrawn wagon off the road onto the land he had just purchased. Picking a likely spot on high ground, he began clearing his own property to build a home for himself and his family.

Ninety years later, Bell’s greatgrandson lives on part of the land his ancestor paid for with bales of cotton. After moving his family 400 miles to reclaim part of his heritage, Joseph Avery of Smithfield has crossed the Pacific twice to help strangers reclaim part of theirs — the legacy of American Buffalo Soldiers who stayed in the Philippines after serving in the Spanish American War. ...

Joseph has a fascinating story, both in his local family history and in the broader history he's uncovering in the Philippines. I appreciate Joe sharing his experiences and photographs; we had two solid interviews to get it all down, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come. The article "Smithfield Man Scours Pacific for Buffalo Soldier Legacy" appears on the front page of the April 2007 Carolina Journal; you can download the electronic edition here.

Links:

The Inner Banks Eagle calls it: "... a great article about one of the most impressive men in the Republican Party of North Carolina."

Thought for the day

Cast your burden on the LORD,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

-- Psalm 55:22

Spring is icumen in

Wow, I love spring, when everything turns green -- the grass, the trees, the sidewalk, the car, the dog ...

If there is a downside to living in North Carolina, or at least this part of it, I think this would have to be it. We've got corruption and occasional flakiness in state government, but we had that in Louisiana and California. Hot and humid summers, Louisiana again, and Florida. High taxes, California again. But pollen, oh, we got pollen.

The first year I worked in Johnston County, the pollen nearly killed me. I think my co-workers knew me as the new engineer who was slowly choking to death; "Tuberculosis?" they may have thought. It hasn't been as bad since then, and I thought maybe it was just becoming acclimated.

Nope. I saw the first dusting about a week ago, then here it comes. Two of the boys went to Cary for a movie Friday night. By Saturday morning, the new pollen on the hood of the Jeep was so thick, it rolled off in blowing drifts as I drove to the store. Washing the car seems a pointless exercise; by the next day, it looks like a crime scene after the investigators finish dusting for prints (hmm, there are clearly nine people involved with this vehicle). There are piles of pollen in the gutters. The dog's nose is greenish-yellow; how does a hound survive in this?

The news reports that this is the heaviest pollen count in about eight years. Yep, that sounds about right. But it reminds me of my granny's house in Sumter -- short grass, hard dirt, piles of oak catkins, and a slight greenish cast to everything. At least the azaleas are pretty.

===
Allusion note: A very old English round

There ought to be a law?

The General Assembly may think so.

Samuel C. Godshall (1827-1866)

Being in Nashville on business at the moment, I took some time today to visit the Tennessee State Library and Archives to try and track down more specifics about my children's ancestor, Samuel C. Godshall. This obituary appeared in the Nashville Daily Union and American and I thought it was as good a concise biography as one could ask:

Death of Capt. Samuel C. Godshall – This well known gentleman died yesterday evening [October 5, 1866] at six o'clock. He was attacked with cholera on Monday the 24th ult., and though the violence of the attack was arrested promptly, he passed into one of the sequeles of the disease involving the brain, which
terminated fatally, as above stated.

Capt. Godshall was a native of Philadelphia, and was in the thirty-ninth year of his age at the time of his death. He came to this city about the year 1845 while yet a youth, and soon won hosts of friends by his intelligence, and genial, and affable address. He was first in the employ of the Tennessee Marine and Fire Insurance Company. At the call for volunteers in May, 1846, he enlisted under Captain (now General) R. C. Foster, and served with gallantry through the campaign made in Mexico by the “bloody First” Tennessee regiment. During this service, he was a correspondent for one of the city papers, and wrote graphic and interesting letters of marches and battles, which gave him popularity and reputation. On his return he engaged in mercantile business, and soon he come connected with the extensive wholesale dry goods house of Douglas & Co. In this sphere, he soon won a reputation second to no man of his age in the country, and extended his popularity with all classes. At the dissolution of this firm, he entered into the boot and shoe business, in which he was engaged at the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. His ardent temperament again led him to the war, and he organized a company which was incorporated into the 11th Tennessee regiment. He continued in the service of the Confederate army until the surrender in the spring of last year, when he returned to his family in this city.

Captain Godshall was a man of fine capacity and cultivation, and possessed of happy conversational powers, and an agreeable manner. He was of a warm, genial nature, earnest and self-sacrificing in his dealings, and calculated to win the regard and esteem of all who came in contact with him. Reverses of fortune and domestic bereavements had dampened his natural ardor and impaired his usefulness, but did not forfeit the esteem of his friends. He was a prominent member of the order of Odd Fellows, the various lodges of which will, to-day, pay proper respect to his memory, and bury with due rites one who deserves the tribute from his brethren, for his many admirable qualities as a man.

His funeral will take place from the First Baptist Church, this afternoon, at 3 o'clock.
Services by the Rev. R. B. C. Howell, D.D.

-- From the Nashville, TN, Daily Union and American, 10/6/1866, p. 3

Third family member qualifies for state Geobee

We just got word this weekend that son Caleb has qualified for the North Carolina Geography Bee (GeoBee) sponsored by the National Geographic Society. This means that Caleb scored in the top one hundred students in the state on the written exam which he took after winning the local GeoBee in January.

The rule in statistical process control is "three points establish a trend". Caleb is our third son to qualify for the state competition (John finished second for the state a few years ago, and Matthew qualified last year after an upset win over Caleb in the local Bee), so I suppose this is now a family tradition :-)

Congratulations to Caleb, who is now redoubling his study preparing for the competition later this month, and congratulations also to his teacher, my wife Melanie!

"Le'go my Lego"

This is the title of a post on The Locker Room this evening and I had to borrow it for my cross posting here.

I would venture that with six boys in our family, the Youngs have the highest number of Legos per square foot of any household in Johnston County. We've had to address the same issues as the center in the story, but we took a different tack -- our one guiding rule is, No Monuments. After a reasonable period of time for display and admiration, the Legos have to recycle to the bins. Otherwise, John's 3000-piece model of the Alamo would conflict with Caleb's planned simulation of U.S.S. Kitty Hawk at 2500 pieces. And so forth.

The rule's worked remarkably well, too.

Here are the posts from LR:

Banning Legos
Posted by Joseph Coletti at 12:42 PM

Hilltop Children's Center, a private daycare and after-school facility in Seattle, banned Legos for several months because the young builders wanted ownership of their creations. The teachers tell their story in Rethinking Schools magazine.

Legos are the colorful building blocks from childhood days or maybe last week.

Hilltop Children's Center is a private facility that charges monthly tuition of $235 or more for a child to attend after-school care. The privately paid teachers wanted the children to stop thinking, as one child reportedly did: "If I buy it, I own it."

One article states

Playing with Legos is now governed by three rules: All structures are owned by everyone; structures should adhere to size requirements so as to not create inequity; and the plastic Lego people can only be used by a group of people, not by individuals.

The teachers next plan to explain the dangers of pay to the Center's administrators with the goal of eliminating tuition and teacher salaries. OK, that would only happen if they really believed what they taught.

Le'go my Lego
Posted by Jeff A. Taylor at 6:52 PM

Joe, that Marxist preschool Lego indoctrination stuff is both shocking and sadly predictable.

Our educational establishment has confused managing conflict with eliminating it, even if it means teaching children demonstrably false things. Law of scarcity? Poof! Gone.

Moreover, this further convinces me that Legos are one of the greatest toys on earth. Both endlessly creative and brutally concrete. If the part will not fit, the part will not fit -- no matter your emotional fit. Yet give a pile of Legos to a bright kid -- and stand back.

No wonder they cause such trouble.

"The Goal Is Freedom"

Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education and their journal, The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, had an excellent editorial on why trade deficits are meaningless concerns.

Few people would want to live just on what they themselves could make. Frederic Bastiat pointed out that each of us daily uses products we couldn't make in isolation in a thousand years. ... This is just another way of saying that the case for free trade is conceded the moment someone eschews self-sufficiency. After that, we're just haggling over the size of the trade area.

Here's the relevant example for our own business:

[When] we say something is "Made in China" ... [perhaps it is] not what we think we are saying.

[Australian economist Shudha Shenoy] emphasizes that Chinese workers do the final assembly of many products, but final assembly is but the tip of the iceberg of production. When you look at the full manufacturing process, you find a system of worldwide cooperation. Most of the materials and machines the Chinese use in assembly were made somewhere else: sewing machines in Japan, Korea, and the United States; dyes in Germany; button-making machinery in the United States, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; zippers in Japan; spinning and weaving machinery in the United Kingdom; raw cotton in Uzbekistan, Egypt; and the United States (subsidized by the government); cotton gins in the United States; and steel in Japan and Korea.

Once assembled, the goods have to be moved to the docks for transport to the United States. The trucks that do the moving are made in Japan. The ships and containers are made in Korea, Japan, America, and Britain. The shipping services are Greek and Norwegian.

"When you read a label which says 'made in China,' it is not made in China," Shenoy says. "It is made by the world economy, by the globe as a whole. ...It is impossible to make anything in one country. And that is why, as Mises pointed out, the market economy does not respect political frontiers. Its field is the world."

Richard Burr on lobbying reform

Our Senator, Richard Burr (R-NC), replied to our letters of concern over the lobbying reform act recently passed in the Senate. I thought these two paragraphs were worth highlighting:

As Congress reforms current lobbying laws, you should know I will not support any legislation that would restrict the ability of North Carolinians, like you, to share opinions on issues with my staff or with me. For this reason, I voted to remove section 220 of the lobby reform bill, which I fear would have restricted the ability of small organizations from speaking on important issues. Under this section, constituent groups, who in most cases work in North Carolina, would have to file regular reports and abide by the same laws as lobbyists who work in Washington, DC. This change could hamper constituents who are simply organizing on a local level to contact their Senator or Member of Congress with their concerns.

I believe all citizens have the constitutional right to petition our government. I am hopeful that as Congress works to finish a lobbying reform bill we will strike the right balance between ensuring lobbying laws are followed and allowing citizens to give me their opinions. Almost every North Carolinian is represented in some way by a lobbyist in Washington, DC – including, teachers, farmers, bankers, doctors, engineers, those citizens who are ill, accountants, those citizens who need food stamps and government assistance, students, union members, small business owners, and seniors. I will work to ensure that any new lobbying reform law will not unfairly hinder the fundamental principles of freedom of speech or the right to petition the government, but instead strengthen the credibility and integrity of our democracy.

Richard Burr, Letter dated February 7, 2007

Not about courtship

Last week I heard a presentation called "The Perfect Date", by a couple which agreed to marry one another sight unseen, relying on the judgement of the groom's parents and the couple's commitment to following the will of God as they saw it.

I am a firm believer in strong parental involvement and guidance in support of their children's selection of a wife or husband. However, while I admit that God has historically blessed some such marriages -- and I have no reason to think otherwise of this young couple -- I heard some very serious issues beyond their obvious challenge to 21st century culture. I have more to say about this later but at this point, suffice it that I don't think they've found the perfect pattern at all, neither Biblically nor culturally.

"Mama doesn't do tele-Latin"

This is one of the fundamental guidelines in our home school. If you have a question about your Latin homework, you have to go to Mama, not read it to her across the room.

I have the same rule about algebra; calculus and differential equations be hanged, I'm visual, I've got to see the equation to explain it.

Happy Valentine's Day

Enamour'd, artless, young, on foreign ground,
Uncertain whither from myself to fly,
To thee, dear Lady, with an humble sigh
Let me devote my heart, which I have found

By certain proofs not few, intrepid, sound,
Good, and addicted to conceptions high:
When tempests shake the world, and fire the sky,
It rests in adamant self-wrapt around,

As safe from envy, and from outrage rude,
From hopes and fears, that vulgar minds abuse,
As fond of genius, and fixt fortitude,
Of the resounding lyre, and every Muse.

Weak you will find it in one only part,
Now pierc'd by Love's immedicable dart.

John Milton, Poems (1645), Sonnet 6
Translated from the Italian by William Cowper (1731-1800)

Review - Facing the Giants

The DVD has just come out; my sons and I went to see it in October, and my review of the theater release appeared in the December 2006 Carolina Journal. It was a legitimately enjoyable film, with both good art and good message, and it did not sink to the "Christianity wins football games" meme that some of us may have feared. I'm looking forward to having our own copy sometime soon.

Movie Review
‘Facing The Giants’ Surprising To Viewers and Reviewers Alike

• “Facing the Giants”; starring Alex Kendrick and Shannen Fields; Sherwood Productions; rated PG

By HAL YOUNG - Contributing Editor

RALEIGH - Grant Taylor is a coach with issues. His football team at Shiloh Christian Academy has a six-year losing streak, his one star player just transferred to a rival school, and angry parents are recruiting his assistant to take his position. He makes $24,000 a year, his car has a terminal illness, major appliances are failing at home, and he and wife Brooke are unable to have a baby. And things are about to take a turn for the worse.

In “Facing the Giants”, Grant (Alex Kendrick) is a decent man sinking in defeat on nearly every front when he realizes that his grief might not be due to his opponents or his inability, but his sense of purpose. Struggling through his personal problems, he challenges his team with a different philosophy that centers not on winning, but on striving, not on ambition, but devotion.

It will still be grueling on the field and off, as the team, the coach, and his wife find out, but the focus becomes the journey, not the destination.

Producers Alex and Steven Kendrick are associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., and oversee the church’s media programs. The two brothers are also part of a growing movement of independent filmmakers who are bypassing Hollywood to take a practical and muscular Christian message to the wide screen. This is their second feature film, and “Facing the Giants” has become one of the surprising movies of the season.

The film made headlines in June when the Motion Picture Association of America gave it a PG rating because of its religious content, probably the first instance of this kind. Even more remarkable are the circumstances of the film’s creation; in a sense, it was a Sunday school project, as evidenced by four classes that shared the closing credits.

Bypassing Hollywood’s culture also means giving up its resources; there are no Mel Gibsons here, and the Kendricks wrote, directed, produced, acted, and edited the film for free. Alex even wrote part of the musical score. More than 500 volunteers, including all of the actors and all but five of the production staff, made it happen for just $100,000.

Does it work? Definitely. Six weeks after its release Sept. 29, the film had grossed more than $8.2 million, still ranking in the top 20 films in mid-November.

Kendrick and Fields handle their roles capably as a jock with a breaking heart and a young wife yearning for children but determined to be there for her husband. Still , “Facing the Giants” has received mixed reviews, even within the Christian community. To be sure, a couple of the actors were less than Oscar-caliber. Grant’s doctor, in his brief appearance, is as wooden as a fence post. The wheelchair-bound father of the team’s place kicker is unpolished, though likable.

Reviewers unfamiliar with Southern culture might not recognize the man who walks the school halls after hours, praying quietly for the students, as a real person in the Deep South. And while Grant’s life, and the team’s, does turn around when the coach’s spiritual priorities change, there are still uncertainty, hard work, and confrontation to address along the way.

The resolution is by no means certain until the final moments of the film. What is definite is Coach Taylor’s change in focus, and a philosophy that encompasses much more than football. “We’re not just here to get glory, earn money, and die,” he tells the team. “Football is just one of the tools we use to honor God ... If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him. I’ve resolved to give it all to God and leave the results to Him.”

But it’s also means giving your best effort, and it’s still about football. Arkansas’ Coach Houston Nutt would agree; the night before his unranked Razorbacks faced the undefeated No. 2 Auburn Tigers in October, Nutt picked the team’s road trip movie himself — “Facing the Giants”. Twenty-four hours later, the Tigers weren’t undefeated any more.

(Carolina Journal, December 2006, p. 22)

Another Seventh

Here's another reference: Edward Boykin's The Falling Flag. Lt. Col. Boykin was with the Seventh S.C. Cavalry Regiment, which is the unit another great-great-great grandfather served in. John Wesley Young was present at the surrender at Appomattox, according to this website; I am looking for better documentation, but according to this list (taken from Brooks' The Appomattox Roster, not available on Google Books) Company I surrendered 41 men and five officers. Another website with dates and names, including references from other books, is here.

Edward M. Boykin, The Falling Flag: Evacuation of Richmond, Retreat and Surrender at Appomattox, 3rd ed. (New York: E. J. Hale & Sons, 1874)

Records of the Seventh

One of my ancestors, Jacob Edgar Powell of Fairfield Co., South Carolina, served in the 7th Battalion, South Carolina Infantry, during the War Between the States. My father's files included copies of Jacob's service records, including hospitalizations in Charleston, Wilmington, and Richmond, the last on the occasion of losing his right leg May 14, 1864.

The 7th was attached to the command of General Johnson Hagood, and his Memoirs of the War of Secession are often cited for historical information on the unit. This is available online at Google Books. I've been looking for this book for a while so when it turned up this evening I thought I'd better mark it down someplace.

The incident which led to my great-great-great-grandfather requesting a wooden leg from the Association for the Relief of Maimed Soldiers in September 1864 [1] is probably this one:

... sending Orderly Stoney to recall Blake and his men, the latter now thoroughly demoralized, Hagood directed Captain Brooks of the Seventh battalion to deploy his men behind the line of breastworks occupied by our line of battle, and at a signal to leap it and drive the skirmishers back. The company numbered about 90 men and was well officered. It gallantly performed the duty assigned to it, and succeeded in getting a good position for the bridgade skirmish line. Brooks was then relieved by the regular skirmish detail for the day composed of detachments from each regiment. [2][3]

This took place at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia. Jacob's right leg was amputated at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond that same day. He was officially invalided out on November 1, 1864, after a lengthy hospitalization and furlough.

----------
1 Confederate Archives record, Ch. 6, File 74, page 340. Photocopy, Harral Young Jr. Collection

2 Johnson Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Secession (Columbia, SC: The State Company, 1910), pp. 234-235.

3 According to biographical notes on Capt. John Hampden Brooks in another history, the unit suffered over ninety percent casualties in this action -- including the captain himself. "At the battle of Drewry's Bluff, Va., Captain Brooks was three times wounded, and lost sixty-eight out of the seventy-five men carried into action, twenty-five being left dead upon the field." (D. Augustus Dickert, History of Kershaw's Brigade, (n.p.: E. H. Aull Co., 1899) p. 481). Quite an engagement.

Sometimes they do get it

My wife recently wrote the author of the Chinese textbook we're using with our children, explaining briefly that we are homeschooling and requesting access to certain instructional helps on the publisher's website. Behold the author's return salutation:

Dear Young laoshi,

which means, in mixed Mandarin and English, "Dear Teacher Young".

Good! He got it.

In a way, it's surprising how often people outside of the homeschooling community really don't consider the parent educating their own children to be a teacher, not really. I don't know if it's a matter of class size, institutional identity, state credentials, or what, but it might be worth examining sometime.

Geeks at Play

Son John is working on trigonometry with wife Melanie this morning. I had to share the Beaver cheer with them:

I'm a Beaver,

You're a Beaver,

We are Beavers all

And when we get together,

we do the Beaver call!

E to the U du dx

E to the X dx

Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,

3.14159

Integral radical mu dv

Slipstick, sliderule, MIT!

Go Tech!

Not that I have any claim to it, I just appreciate the poetry of it.

(The title of the post is borrowed from a website where I read it some time ago)

Updating Scott

Friend Scott Somerville has stopped posting on his old Homeschool Blogger site, Somerschool (a good title, sorry to see it go!) but has moved his mission over to "The K-Dad Network". I've updated his link accordingly here.

New Links

I've added a few new links for easy reference:

Bible Gateway is an excellent tool for checking nearly any translation or version of the Scriptures and the one I use to link passages for this blog.

The Online Parallel Bible links to a number of useful study tools though it doesn't have my translation of choice, the New King James Version.

Monergism is a Reformed website with numerous useful pages, including doctrinal articles, translations, classic Christian books, confessional statements, and many historically-proven commentaries, all available and searchable online.

The Utility's Lament

While I was working with the power company, I found that we all watched the weather -- not just to see if a hurricane or a winter storm was going to disrupt our weekend plans, but longer-term, if the mild weather was going to cut into the expected revenues from air conditioning and heaters. It's been so unseasonably warm this winter, I sketched out this doggerel ... and now that we have a prediction of winter precipitation of the wrong kind today, I thought I'd better go ahead and post before it's overtaken by events ...

=====

Oh, the weather outside's displeasing
'Cause it's hardly got to freezing
And we've got to make the meters go --
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

When the weatherman says there's ice,
Oh, we hate going out in the storm
But a little snow would be nice
People stay home and stay warm!

But our profit will be declining
If the sun continues shining
And the PSC persists with "No" --
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Howdy, Grampa! What's for supper?

My teenage son is leaving for work carrying his own special dinner: ranch baloney salsa cheddar wrap.

I refer to this as "Tex-Hex" cuisine because he'll be haunted by the decision the rest of the evening, I'm sure. And he thought I ought to blog it, so here it is.

Poetry is where you find it

Someone wrote a book on the unintended poetry of Donald Rumsfeld. There is unintended poetry in the Combined Federal Regulations, too. This one is entitled, "Prohibited Threads" -- I've reformatted it slightly to for reading purposes:

Prohibited threads

Cotton thread,

and monofilament thread

of any composition,

will not be accepted

for use

in structural applications

unless demonstrated

to the Commandant

to be equivalent

to standard thread

in durability

in all foreseeable

conditions of use

and stowage.

46 CFR Ch. 1 Sub 164.023-5,

“Thread for Personal Floatation Devices: Performance; standard thread”

(10-1-04 edition)

A later couplet rings with hidden meaning:

Each thread

which complies

with all of the requirements

of a specification listed in table 164.023–5(a)

is assigned Use Codes

1, 2, 3, 4BC, 4RB, and 5 (any).

Got to dig the "5 (any) " conceit.

Really, is there a Use Code 5(any) to be aware of? And did it come out in the floor debate in the House?

Creeping in on little cat's feet

Apologies to Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog", but it came to mind in a recent discussion of "regulatory creep".

The following quotation is from "The Interest of the Few and the Rights of the Many," an essay by John F. Mercer, a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He said that many of his fellow citizens were not ready to defend their liberties or to exert "a watchful jealousy of the great and unnecessary grants of power and changes in a state of society which we know to be mild and free":

The people, long unaccustomed, in a good and guarded government, to bold and selfish designs in their rulers, look up with an unsuspicious confidence to any alteration which those entrusted with power may propose. However unconstitutional the changes, if recommended by men used to govern them, they seem to come forward under the sanction of legal authority. [This is especially so if the changes are] prepared in secrecy, the public mind taken by surprise and every engine previously set in motion, [and if] the unconceited and unconnected defense of individuals is branded with the opprobrious epithet of opposition and overwhelmed in the directed tide of popular clamor ...

-- The Annals of America, vol. 3, p. 276. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976)

A time to speak, and time to be silent

I maintain a section of NCHE's website for statewide news and events, including an "Upcoming Events" entry which lists NCHE functions or outside occasions where board members will be speaking and representing the organization. We're on the list, too, so I thought it would be interesting to pull the last two years' archives and add a couple of non-homeschooling events we did, too. Although I'm doing fewer homeschooling events now that someone else is in charge of NCHE, I am preaching at our church on a fairly frequent basis. John did a couple of presentations in here, too.

2006

Hal & Melanie
Fayetteville, NC - HOME Support Group
Winston-Salem, NC - 22nd Annual NCHE Conference and Book Fair
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Graduation and End of Year Promotion
Sumter, SC - S. C. Home Educators Association 2006 Convention

Hal
Raleigh, NC - Leadership Raleigh
Garner, NC - Bountiful Harvest Homeschoolers
Wilson, NC - Sallie B. Howard Charter School
Smithfield, NC - South Smithfield Baptist Church

Melanie
Sanford, NC - Christian Home Educators of Central Carolina, Homeschool Conference and Book Fair
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Books

2005
Hal & Melanie
Wilson, NC - Wilson Area Home Educators
Winston-Salem, NC - 21st Annual NCHE Conference and Book Fair
Sumter, SC - S. C. Home Educators Association 2005 Convention
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Book Fair and Conference
Greenville, NC - HOME Homeschool Orientation and Mini-Conference

Hal
Wake Forest, NC - Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association
Raleigh, NC - Leadership Raleigh
Raleigh, NC - John Locke Foundation

Melanie
Clayton, NC - New Support Group, Hocutt Memorial Baptist Church
Smithfield, NC - Public Library of Smithfield and Johnston County
Lumberton, NC - Robeson County Home Educators Expo
Wilson, NC - NCHE Eastern Support Group Leadership Conference
Montreat, NC - NCHE Western Support Group Leadership Conference

Link to a friend

Our friend Ken Porter just let us know about his blog, The Handsome Doorkeeper, which he's running to keep in touch with friends while he's in preparation for the Ecuadorian mission field. It looks good so far so I've added a link on the sidebar -- thanks, Ken, and say hi to Robin for us.

I'm sorry, he's in conference

It's time I start doing my year-end reviews of things. Last week I was looking over our family pictures for the year and was struck by the remarkable number of conferences I attended in 2006. Here's my wrap up:

Men With Vision Leadership Summit
Oklahoma City, OK -- February 9-11

This was a new event but a number of old friends attended. Christian Home Educators of Colorado put together this men's summit to discuss the future of the homeschooling movement from a Christian perspective. Speakers included old acquaintances Doug Phillips of Vision Forum, Michael Smith of HSLDA, and Rep. Kevin Lundberg of Colorado. I had an opportunity to interview CHEC's executive director Kevin Swanson (another speaker and author of an excellent new book, Upgrade), and ate dinner with Norm Wakefield of Elijah Ministries on the way home.

My friend Davis Carmen from NCHE's board attended (we shared a room) as did our elder David Auge and pastor Scott Brown; we had an excellent time of fellowship and encouragement both in sessions and between.

North Carolina Conservative Leadership Conference
Durham, NC -- February

This is the first of these events sponsored by the J.W. Pope Civitas Institute. I registered at my own expense since I thought it might be too partisan in its politics to count as a legitimate NCHE homeschooling interest. As it happened, the educational focus was almost exclusively about charter schools and "choice" options than home education. I did see several political and policy acquaintances while I was there and made some contacts which could be helpful for homeschooling in a general sense. The big keynote speaker was Sen. George Allen of Virginia, though Rep. Sue Myrick and Rep. Virginia Foxx spoke as well as the head of the American Conservative Union.

One good takeaway was watching the live bloggers in action in the lobby; it inspired me to set up something like it for NCHE's conference later in the spring. They also had an interesting schedule for workshop sessions -- identical for both Friday and Saturday, so you could either get to every session, or else have the full range to choose from if you only come one day.

HSLDA Legislative Summit
Washington D.C. -- May


Home School Legal Defense Association sponsors this meet-your-Congressman event for state homeschool leaders every second year, and as the president of North Carolinians for Home Education, I was invited to come this time. Speakers included Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and about a dozen other legislators from both parties. These are my friends Bruce Shortt of Exodus Mandate and Joyce Burgess of the National Black Home Educators; the man who lives here sends me Christmas cards but didn't invite us in the day we came by.

North Carolinians for Home Education Annual Conference and Book Fair
Winston-Salem, NC -- May

My last one as president. This one had some interesting changes and surprises; the new owners of the convention center had installed WiFi through the whole facility so we set up a live blog for the NCHE website and had several guest bloggers posting throughout the weekend. This can only get better, I think.

We had some friends over for a late night drop-in at our hotel suite (we have seven kids, we need that much space) and a couple of the speakers came by, too. Here's an old acquaintance, Rick Boyers of Virginia (author of Yes, They're All Ours and The Socialization Trap) and a new friend, Vodie Baucham (author of The Everloving Truth and the most talked-about speaker at the conference).

Melanie and I spoke about four times each, including one on homeschooling travel which we put together on short notice when one of our scheduled speakers cancelled for health reasons.

National Conference for Christian Homeschool Leaders,
Nashville, TN -- September

We look forward to this event every year. HSLDA brings together leaders from the Christian homeschooling movement from all over the world; predominantly, of course, it's Americans, but there are nearly always representatives from HSLDA Canada, the German organization Schulunterricht zu Hause, Mike and Pam Richardson from El Hogar Educador in Latin America, and people from somewhere in Central Europe. We have a number of friends that we've known for years through this networking opportunity; here are Melanie and Valerie Monk of Arizona Families for Home Education, at Andrew Jackson's home, "The Hermitage", where we had dinner the opening night.

Uniting Church and Family Conference
St. Louis, MO -- October

My friend Scott Brown, elder of Hope Baptist Church in Rolesville, NC -- and also the director of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches -- invited my son John Calvin and I to attend as guests of Hope. We took a fifteen passenger van of men and families representing five current or future congregations and had a fantastic trip of fellowship, encouragement, and challenge. John and I shared a room with Eddie Burroughs, a local pastor who recently resigned his post to start a new fellowship when his deacon board decided not to support his vision for a more family-centered model for their church.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I spent most the time blogging. I did finally realize that if I was going to be meeting authors as often as I do at these events, I ought to at least get their books signed, too; I was able to get Alexander Strauch (Biblical Eldership), Arnold Pent (Ten P's In A Pod), and Voddie Baucham (The Everloving Truth) on this trip. Kevin Swanson was nice enough to inscribe Upgrade when we met in St. Louis.

Incidentally, this only covers the state and national "convention" type conferences I was able to attend. There are several ongoing projects I've been involved with, such as the new Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina group that I meet on a regular basis and a smaller summit sponsored by the South Carolina Home Educators Association, but those are both more focused on particular issues.

Charter school uses educational travel

My article for the January '07 print edition of Carolina Journal got an early publication in today's Carolina Journal Online.

Charter Uses Travel to Educate
School in Wilson makes educational travel centerpiece of programs

RALEIGH — Sallie B. Howard, a native of Wilson and a black schoolteacher, was once stopped at the border of Saddam-era Iraq. The guards demanded to know why she was trying to enter the country without a visa. Undeterred, she explained she wanted to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; she had made several journeys to visit the Seven Wonders of the World, and this was next on her list. She managed to talk her way in.

The Wilson charter school that bears her name has adopted some of her philosophy and boldness as its own. ...

While other schools may sponsor trips to Florida, New York City, or even a senior cruise for their high school students, Sallie B. Howard School just took 10 middle-school students and six chaperones 7,000 miles to China.

They've got a neat story; I hope I did it justice. My version of it is online here.

UPDATE 1/1/07: Dr. Woodard at the school emailed to let me know that the article also appeared in the weekend edition of the Wilson Daily Times, 12/30/06.

Christmas Cards We Received

A few notable Christmas cards on our mantle this year:

 

A painting of the White House with wreaths in the windows and snow on the lawn:

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.  Psalm 119:105

May the light of the season shine bright in your heart now and in the new year.  2006"

George Bush, Laura Bush

 

A drawing of Washington landmarks with a Santa figure in the foreground

"Wishing all of our friends a Merry Christmas and Joyous Holiday Season"

Ken Mehlman, Jo Ann Davidson, Kelley McCullough, & The Staff of the Republican National Committee

 

A photo of the extended family standing on the Senator's front porch

"'Do you not know? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.' - Isaiah 40:28  '... the just shall live by his faith.' - Habakkuk 2:4

Wishing you every happiness this holiday season and throughout the coming year - Merry Christmas"

Ginny and Fred Smith

 

Packages wrapped in patriotic paper

"Greetings of the Season:  May the Spirit of the Season remind you of the strength and perseverance of our nation and its people"

Bob Crumley and family

 

 

Done!

Not settling our brains etc. yet

Just an observation that even those who are working for a low-key, Christ-centered Christmas celebration are sharing the great American holiday ritual of the late-night Christmas Eve wrap session. I am amazed and humbled that my most excellent wife manages to collect so many gifts, and some of pretty substantial weight, for our children over the course of a year -- and for so little cash outlay. God truly blesses her efforts.

Okay, off to the wrap mines. We've already wished "Merry Christmas" to our family in China, which has already reached lunch time on December 25.

This, however, may be a bit much

The merchandise section of Old Lutheran is ... how to say it ... a phenomenon of its own.

For example, I am not ready for socks with the Luther rose and the motto, "Here I Stand", even in navy, or the "Clergy Girl" doll with collar. Nor the Martin Luther bobblehead doll, bundled with the Luther DVD.

Ach du lieber.

(HT: Purgatorio)

A little diversion

Ready for a bit of humor? See the new link on the right sidebar. Let me recommend The Sacred Sandwich with a Pepsi (be sure to slurp up the top couple of inches as soon as they hit the ice).

"Their main interest is liberty"

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

-- Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative

HT: Mitch Kokai at The Locker Room

Signs of the times

There's a little give and take with my friends on The Locker Room this afternoon, about an economist's electrical analogy. The end result, if considering the "power" of government, might be symbolized by this sign on one of my former employer's substations.

Thoughts on graduation

When God led Moses and the nation of Israel out of Egypt, He set in motion the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham more than five hundred years before – the promise of a land for His people.

When they arrived in that land, God gave them markers, both for boundaries and for memorials. Joshua had the elders of Israel build a marker at the point where they crossed over the Jordan, so that “when your sons ask in time to come ... you shall answer them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut before the ark of the covenant of the Lord ... and these stones shall be for a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.'” (Joshua 4:6-7)

They were warned not to remove a neighbor's landmark, “which those in the past have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess it.” (Deuteronomy 19:14)

Four hundred years later, Solomon counseled his son, “Do not remove the old landmark which your fathers have set.” (Proverbs 22:28;)

Tonight we celebrate a milestone. This is the end of an academic year, for most of you students, and the completion of high school studies for these graduates.

Landmarks are important, but landmarks are not the land. When God gave memorials and landmarks to the children of Israel, those were not the promise. The landmark is not the land, it is just a marker. The promise was not for a memorial – the memorial was for the promise. In the same way, a diploma is not the education. It simply represents the completion of part of the journey. It is a memorial of many years of study, of teaching, of learning, of plain hard work.

But as homeschoolers, we know that the diploma is not the goal. The goal is not preparing for tests, or completing time in classes, or collecting certificates. The goal of homeschooling is an education, and that is never complete until we receive it in heaven from our Lord, the one true Teacher of us all.

The Lord says, “Do not let the wise glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty glory in his might; do not let the rich glory in his riches; but let him who glories, glory in this – that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, doing kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these I delight, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Because ultimately, our purpose in life is not in reaching milestones. Our purpose is to glorify God, in our study, in our instruction, in whatever work He calls us to do; and to live our lives in such a way as to enjoy Him, now and forever.

But along the way to forever, this is an important night. We have reached a milestone. God Himself gives us milestones so we can see our progress and reflect on His care and provision. This is better than a mountain top, because from mountain tops we always come down. From where we stand tonight, whether as graduate or continuing student, God calls us to continue upwards and onwards, to understand and know Him, and to enjoy Him forever!

These are remarks given at the Johnston County Home Educators graduation ceremony in June of this year. It's now time for December graduations so it's back in season again.

A Pastoral Scene

My grandmother's maiden name was Miles, a family with deep roots around Alexander and Leicester townships in western North Carolina. Grandma once told me about playing with her grandfather, Andrew Jackson Miles, when she was very little and he was very old, and her grandmother Malinda chiding him for being in his second childhood. This must have been one of her very earliest memories, since she was born about 1909 and he died sometime about 1911.

The Miles family has a long association with French Broad Baptist Church in Alexander, N.C. In fact, the earliest Miles ancestor I've found was an elder in that church 181 years ago. This item appeared in The American Baptist Magazine in 1835:

On the evening of the 28th of August, in Buncombe county [sic], (N.C.) during the session of the French Broad Association, brother William Roberts and brother Isaac Miles were ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry. The presbytery consisted of ten ministers, viz. Holland, from South Carolina, Meeks, from Georgia, Center, from Tennessee, Taylor, from Missouri, and Posey, Byers, Morgan, Ring, Dewees, and Freeman, of North Carolina. The ordination sermon was preached by Elder Holland; the Bible was presented, and charge given by Elder Posey. The season was solemn and deeply impressive. [1]

Isaac's grandson John Miles is listed in the 1860 census as a Baptist preacher, and John's son Andrew Jackson Miles was also ordained after the War Between the States. For obvious reasons, I considered titling this post “Miles of Pastors”. Quite a heritage, even at this distance.

UPDATE 2/14/07: Although this sequence of elders skips a generation in my direct ancestry -- Levi Miles, the son of Isaac Miles and father of John Miles -- I since discovered that my uncle in that generation, known only to me by his initials, was likewise an elder. Isaac's wife Sarah Doe survived him by a number of years and died in Union County, Georgia, in 1851. Her obituary appeared in the minutes of the Hiwassee United Baptist Association for that year, 1851, on page 563:

Sarah Miles, the widow of Elder Isaac Miles. She was a Baptist for 50 years, and died at age 75. She was the mother of Elder A. N. Miles. [1A]

A matter of historical interest, too

Another fact caught my eye in the orgination article. Although it is a Baptist gathering, it speaks of elders and a presbytery as if it were a modern Presbyterian meeting (though both Baptist and Presbyterian would agree that the terms are biblical, not denominational, distinctives). This is evidence of what church historian Tom Nettles describes in By His Grace and For His Glory -- that the early Baptist churches in America were largely Calvinistic in their doctrine and Reformed in practice, as were the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

However, it's clear that there were conflicts over these doctrines even then. The French Broad Association was formed in old Buncombe County, N.C., in 1807, starting with six churches which had been part of the Holston Association in Tennessee and the Broad River Association in South Carolina. As time went on and the French Broad Association grew, several other associations formed, including this one:

[The Big Ivey Assocation] is an immediate offspring of the one last named [the French Broad]; it was organized in 1829, and appears to have been the first colony which went off from this mother body, and not in the most agreeable manner. This has been called a Free Will Baptist institution; how it came to be so denominated, is explained by one of my correspondents for this region.

“About the year 1828, an unhappy split took place in the French Broad Association, on principles; the one party inclining to the Calvinistic, and the other to the Arminian side of the controversy. The Arminian party went off and formed themselves into a Free Will or Liberty Association; since that time, it has changed its name to the one it now bears.” [Letter of James Blythe to the author, 1846] [2]

[1] The American Baptist Magazine (N.P.: Baptist General Convention Board of Managers, Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, 1835), p. 347. One of John Miles' brothers was named after pastor Humprey Posey, a man who must have been well loved, given the number of Humpreys and Poseys that appear in the census and the Civil War records of that time. Posey was commissioned as a missionary to the Cherokee as well as his charge in Alexander, and he finished his race in North Georgia at the head of a school for the Indians. The Georgia Baptists claim him with pride in their publications. Cousin Humphrey, as it happens, enlisted in Co. C, 29th N.C. Infantry, in 1862 with several of our kinfolk (including Andrew Jackson Miles); was captured outside Atlanta in the Battle of Peachtree Creek in July 1864; and subsequently died in a federal POW camp, Camp Chase, in Ohio early the following year.

[1A] Footnoted on "Ancestors of Annie D. Roberts" by Judy Fisher (Ancestry.com, 11/25/2002), s.v. Sarah Doe.

[2] Benedict, David, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (New York: Lewis Colby and Company, 1848), p. 698.

"Family integrated" worship is nothing new

My friend Scott Brown has an excellent essay posted on Vision Forum's website, titled "My Top Four Favorite Family-Integrated Church Pastors":

The critics of the family-integrated church movement often forget that what we advocate was practiced by some of our most treasured pastors and theologians of the past. The Puritans, for example, enjoyed a rich life of family-integrated worship in their churches. ... Imagine what it would have been like to have heard the voice of Richard Baxter or Matthew Henry or Jonathan Edwards as a babe in arms, then as a teenager, and then as a young man starting out life with a new wife at your side.

Not to mention Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, ...

What the Youngs eat for Thanksgiving

Young Turkey, of course.

Economic nationalism

An excellent article against "economic nationalism" by Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Freedom.

Yes, under free trade in a global economy people have to adjust to changing conditions. What's the alternative? Government policies to freeze the status quo in place? If that thinking had prevailed earlier, some of us would be poor farmers and blacksmiths today; the rest would not have been born. Moreover, disruptive change is not something only foreigners can cause. A modern new plant in California can mean unemployment in Ohio. What does the economic nationalist say to that? Do we need trade barriers between states? Why not between cities, neighborhoods, households? If that makes no sense, then we're just arguing about how big the free-trade zone should be. When you trace the principle out consistently, you see that protectionism is no blueprint for prosperity or even security.

The way to minimize the hardship of change is to make sure the
marketplace is free of government intrusion.

The Forgotten Man

Ulrich Zwingli is sometimes called the forgotten man of the Reformation, being eclipsed by Martin Luther to the east and in the next generation, John Calvin to the west. Zwingli was the leader of the Reformation in Zurich, Switzerland, and developed the tenets of his teaching from Scripture, not from Luther. As he pointed out, the fact that he and Luther grasped the same teachings from the Bible quite independently of each other only underscores their common Source.

Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigne was a Swiss pastor and church historian in the early 1800's. He is best known for his tremendous History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (published in five volumes from 1835-1853), a work I read a few years ago. Merle - the latter name was adopted in tribute to his ancestors - wrote that work in a chronological style, so the reader sees the parallel development of the Reformation in several places and several leaders. One consequence, though, is difficulty for the reader to follow a single place or person from start to finish. Mark Sidwell edited the History to extract a very readable biography of Luther, The Triumph of the Truth, and he has done the same for the forgotten Zwingli.

For God and His People: Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation is a useful volume but admittedly not as easy a read as Triumph of the Truth. The organization of the Swiss Confederation with its cities, cantons, and city-states sharing the same name, plus the fluid democratic nature of Swiss politics and the entanglements caused by the tradition of Swiss mercenary service, make the situation hard to follow. In Switzerland, while Zurich and Berne were ultimately able to secure a treaty recognizing their Protestant faith, it was from the position of defeat; at the battle of Kappel the Catholic cantons, with much support from foreign troops, decisively whipped the unprepared and poorly manned militias from the Protestant cantons and caused the death of Zwingli himself.

Zwingli is a difficult character in some respects, as well. While he was not the only reformer to confuse the jurisdictions of church and state (the reason, for example, that Anabaptists were treated with such harshness in many places), Zwingli cuts a sharp profile, even starker than Oliver Cromwell, who was much more the soldier and politician. Merle, a Swiss himself, is equally sharp in his criticism of Zwingli's transition from yielding the sword of the Lord to that of man. It is a remarkable providence of God that the Swiss were not totally overwhelmed in a military Counterreformation, suffering the battlefield death of Zwingli and the death by plague of Oeccolampadius shortly afterward; had Myconius and Bullinger not been spared, northern Switzerland may have returned to the papal fold even before the death of Luther.

Some of my ancestors left Zurich to come to America in the mid-1700s, settling in the districts of central South Carolina in the districts opened to German Protestants by the Hannoverian King George III. Two of them were pardoned by the king later, for their participation in the Regulator movement which tried to establish independent law and order when the authorities in Charleston were unresponsive to pleas from the inland back country. One of them later provided supplies and provisions for the Revolutionary effort, and his descendents, very distant cousins of mine, are still active in state politics (though on the Democratic rather than Republican side). I can only speculate whether the villagers who departed from the country around Zurich were the great grandchildren of men who heard Zwingli and Myconius with gladness and maybe had their share in the fields of Kappel as well.

Home again, home again

Many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. have a painting of eight horses, running together in a rolling pastureland. The symbolism was explained to me once and included the fact that eight, in Chinese thinking, is the luckiest of numbers, and something about horses being symbolic of wealth.

Recently I realized that this painting is much like my daily life, which seems to be riding many horses at one time. One day, about Tuesday of last week, I was in Roanoke, Virginia, for an engineering course in connection with my contracting work. After class, I came back to my hotel and made a sales call to a potential customer for our family import business. When that was done, I had supper, then finished writing a review of Facing The Giants for my usual publisher, Carolina Journal.

Thursday I drove back from Roanoke as far as Cary, where I spent the night in preparation for a 6:40 a.m. flight from Raleigh-Durham International to Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was a joint sales call to another customer involved with my contracting work. While we changed planes in Minneapolis, I dictated a revision of my Carolina Journal story over the phone to my wife, Melanie. After we got to Wisconsin, I had to deal with a question from my work with North Carolinians for Home Education.

Friday we flew back from Wisconsin and my family and I drove to our grandmother's house in Union, S.C. Saturday we spent in Easley, S.C., at a board meeting for South Carolina Home Educators; Sunday we returned to Smithfield to pick up a bundle of sample material to show to the customer in Charlotte on Monday. Last night we were back at home.

At one point, I was sleeping in my fourth state in as many days (Roanoke-Cary-Green Bay-Union). I'm looking forward to a few days at home, now, being properly thankful.

"A positive result of an unhappy memory"

A slightly odd perspective on a phenomenon seen from time to time. I don't know if RWE is a private-sector business or a government agency. Item appeared in "This Week in Germany", November 10, 2006, a publication of the German Information Center.

German Parents Garner Gifts from Blackout Baby Boom

While this weekend's power outage affected more people, other recent blackouts in Germany have had bigger consequences for energy customers. When 82 high-voltage towers collapsed under the weight of snow in Münsterland last November, 250,000 people had to live for days without heat or power during the winter storm.

Fertility agent? Fallen towers in the Münsterland region, Photo, dpa

Nine months later, maternity wards at local hospitals noticed a spike in the number of babies born. A coincidence? Gudrun Fahling of the civil registry in Steinfurt thinks not. "We have about 50 births a month," she told the N-TV in August. "This month, it will probably be 65. It's probably the power outage."

Hospital spokesperson Stephan Schonhoven, on the other hand, is skeptical. "I am very doubtful that the icy cold and lack of food really put anyone in the mood."

The more romantically inclined in Münsterland would prefer to imagine that the power outage did lead to at least a few candlelight conceptions. Not the least of these is RWE, the utility that owned the towers. The energy concern is now giving all the parents who conceived during the outage a gift of 300 euros ($385).

"People had a hard time," said RWE spokesperson Klaus Schultebraucks. "If more children are being born there now, then that is certainly a positive result of an unhappy memory."

A hint of things to come

As a lifelong Republican voter, I have no explanation for the mail today:

Dear Hal Young,

The Democrats need your continued support. That's why we created the Democratic Party VISA Platinum card, an innovative way you can join your fellow Americans to help support Democrats. Every time you make a purchase, you will earn a 1% rebate which you can donate in your name to the Democratic National Committee -- automatically -- with no need to open your checkbook ...

This is wonderfully Freudian. The same week when I cast what was probably my twentieth Republican ballot, the DNC contacts me ("a spirit of bipartisan cooperation", no doubt), encouraging me to go into debt at high interest rates and support the party of retreat with money that I somehow gave up before I ever saw it.

The only thing is I'm not convinced the RNC won't send me the same offer before the week is up.

... and the next morning

Checking WRAL's listings this morning, nothing changed, only solidified, since last night.

In the state Supreme Court race, incumbancy carried the night. Sarah Parker defeated challenger Rusty Duke 67-33; Mark Martin held off eccentric challenger Rachel Hunter by the same margin. Patricia Timmons-Goodson, who didn't put out a single campaign sign I can recall, defeated Eric Levinson 58-42. In the one race without an incumbent, Robin Hudson bested Ann Marie Calabria in a much closer result, 51-49.

The same kinds of margins played out in the Congressional races. Incumbent Bob Etheridge (D) retains his seat for another term, handing the Republicans' former 2nd District chairman Dan Mansell a 66-34 loss. Dan only filed for the election the week of the deadline this spring, and only had about $25,000 of funding for a campaign over a district which sprawls across several counties including Nash, Wake, Johnston, Harnett, Wayne, and if I'm not mistaken, parts of Lee County, too. On the other hand, in Lillington, Etheridge's home town, the "Bob Etheridge for Congress" billboard on the highway looked more permanent than the municipal "Welcome to Lillington" sign next to it. Only 18 months until the filing deadline for 2008.

In other Congressional races, the office holders remain, with the exception of the 11th District's Republican Charles Taylor, who was unseated by Heath Shuler 54-46; the 8th District's Robin Hayes (R) is 50-50 with challenger Larry Kissell who trailed by 468 votes at the end of the counting.

The Johnston County School Board races didn't change overnight; the Republicans picked up a seat with Butler Hall, who carried the same 18% of the ballots as returning Democratic incumbent Dorothy Johnson. Larry Strickland was a shoo-in with 24%. Newcomer Brian Hale scored a respectable but not quite adequate 12%. This will give the Republicans a 3-4 minority on the board, not enough to run the program but a welcome boost.

It looks like Jackie Lee is not going to move to the Superior Court after all, though Republican Susan Doyle has won the district attorney's job.

A long day ...

Election Day turned into the usual long stretch. We just got back home from the Republican "victory celebration" (admittedly a mixed batch this time) and we're unwinding with email and election returns.

In 2004 I managed to visit about 34 of the 41 precincts in the Johnston County; this year we structured the poll watching a bit differently and I only went to eleven. The rural precincts seemed to be running about 25% turnout, while the town precincts like South Smithfield (our own) and East Selma were 30% or more. Of course, in our area, the fact that three of the candidates on the ballot are neighbors made it something of a personal election. For what it's worth, I did not vote for all three of them.

At this point in the evening, it appears that Bob Etheridge (D) will be returning as District 2's Congressman. Rusty Duke is not doing well in his race for Chief Justice on the state Supreme Court, though Ann Marie Calabria is in a tight race. Mark Martin seems to be reelected but Eric Levinson may be in trouble. Sheriff Steve Bizzell is winning handsomely. It also looks like the Johnston County School Board will have three Republicans this year instead of four; Larry Strickland is well in the lead for reelection, and GOP challenger Butler Hall is holding third out of three, but Democrat Dorothy Johnson looks like a solid second place.

Wife Melanie spent several hours in the rain around lunchtime handing out palm cards with the GOP candidates (especially the officially nonpartisan judicial races ... right); when she came back, the boys took turns in shifts until the polls closed. I don't think our precinct ran more than four hours today without a Young present. My time was spent on the roads of southwest Johnston County talking with polling officials.

Interestingly enough, there were no serious problems reported with people, machinery, or provisional ballots this year, at least not in the precincts I visited. Two things were common to all of them, though -- a higher than expected turnout, and universal disgust with the electronic voting machine reserved for visually impaired voters.

UPDATE 11/08/06 a.m.: Corrected the name of the one Democrat re-elected to the school board.

Blue moon?

By the way, Senator Smith commented on the so called “Blue Moon” election this year – neither president, senator, nor governor shows up on the ballot this time. I was curious how often this occurred; place mat-doodling suggests it only happens every twelve years, at least here in North Carolina:

2000 – President, Governor
2002 – Senator A
2004 – President, Senator B, Governor
2006 – Blue Moon
2008 – President, Senator A, Governor
2010 – Senator B
2012 – President, Governor
2014 – Senator A
2016 – President, Senator B, Governor
2018 – Blue Moon

For what it's worth, we do have one slight difference from other states -- our state senators are elected every two years, the same as state representatives. There's been a suggestion to change that but I haven't heard much discussion about it.

Food for political junkies

There's an old cliché about “the rubber chicken circuit” for political speakers. I've had my share of mediocre banquet food listening to a variety of speakers, true, and come to think of it, there was a lot of chicken.

On the other hand, there's a lot to be said about true stump meeting feeds. Every region has its specialty to serve when a crowd shows up. When we lived in Louisiana, it was jambalaya or boiled crawfish – really! Growing up in South Carolina, politicians hosted a fish fry, unless the Catholics were involved – the Knights of Columbus had a lock on shrimp boils, somehow. Here in eastern North Carolina, campaign dinners mean barbeque, with plenty of vinegar and red pepper, and fried chicken.

For a “blue moon” election, a year with neither president, senator, nor governor on the ballot, there has been some serious campaigning in local circles. Our state senator, Fred Smith, is an acquaintance of mine, and my family has been to a couple of his local meetings recently (thanks for dinner last night, Senator). Our sheriff is a rising star in the state GOP, and while his challenger this year lost traction as soon as he got out of the driveway, Sheriff Bizzell sponsored The Big Event of the season last week – probably 800 people showed up for copious barbeque and dozens of candidates at Central Warehouse (Smithfield being a historic tobacco market town, no one has to ask what kind of “wares” they housed). The county GOP chairman asked me to let my son know there were plans for, yes, barbeque, at Republican headquarters for Tuesday evening's victory celebration – though word is there will be baby back ribs, too. We passed up several other invitations.

As much as I have enjoyed it, because dearly do I love barbeque and minding not a free meal, I had to identify with the wry comment of another political junkie last evening: “After Tuesday, Mama and I are going to have start going to the grocery store again.” Ah, well. We had leftover chicken and hush puppies, courtesy Sen. Smith, again at home this evening.

A question for fathers

Which is more indicative that one is a parent:

(1) Entering the conference room at work and finding a couple of Legos in your pocket
(2) Finding a blue crayon between slices of bread inside the bag
(3) Deciding you like finding Legos in your pocket, or not being surprised at all to find the crayon (only being curious whether it was a Crayola or one of the cheap ones they give out at restaurants)
(4) All of the above

Answer: Having experienced (1) through (3) myself, I have to say the answer is (4)