tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61945642011-04-21T21:31:21.731-05:00History thoughtsCajun Huguenot's ramblings on historyCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1131857672865085732005-11-12T22:51:00.000-06:002005-11-28T11:30:31.530-06:00An American Hero!I remember when I was in a senior American history class at college, I ask my professor about the religious position of Patrick Henry. My professor was not sure, but said she assumed that Henry was a deist.My teacher was dead wrong, and she showed her bias. She, like so many others, had bought into the lie that the majority of our founders were not Christians. It is true that Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1118006236056416942005-06-05T16:06:00.000-05:002005-11-18T05:24:14.086-06:00The First Amendment then and nowMost American's today believe that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution sets up a “wall of separation” between church and state. Those American's who think this way do so because they have heard the phrase “wall of separation” repeated so often on news shows and in pop culture that they just take it for granted that it is true. But this widely held current Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1116523874710248902005-05-19T12:25:00.000-05:002005-11-18T05:24:43.956-06:00Nero, de Tocqueville and libertyIt is true that all rulers and all ruled are fallen in Adam, and there will NEVER be a utopia here on this earth before sin and death or conquered and destroyed at Christ Second Coming (at the end of history).America’s founders were not utopians and understood that what ever form of government they produced it would be able to allow for maximum freedom and liberty Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1104810647833546952005-01-03T21:50:00.000-06:002005-11-18T05:26:02.450-06:00Robert Lewis, George Washington's nephew and private secretary, gave the following account of Washington.I accidentally witnessed Washington’s private devotions in his library, both morning and evening. On these occasions, I saw him in a kneeling posture, with a Bible open before him. I believe such to have been his daily practice.The people of America trusted George Washington very much. After Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1104404476867486602004-12-30T04:36:00.000-06:002005-11-18T05:26:29.426-06:00The Diet of Worms (1521)In 1521 Martin Luther was called to appear before the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms (pronounced dee-it of Vorms). He was asked if he would recant his writings. Luther knew that his life was on the line and he would likely not leave Worms alive. He know that a stand now would mean that he would, like John Huss a century earlier, most likely be burned at the stake Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1104296137122557012004-12-28T22:46:00.000-06:002005-11-18T05:38:13.016-06:00Ecclesiastical MythsWe live in a day of great knowledge. Knowledge flows freely through cyberspace and is accessible to all people as never before in history. Along with the "real" knowledge that is at our fingertips is a whole lot of pseudo-knowledge as well. Much of this pseudo-information is called urban myths.Urban myths are not new; they have been around for millennia. One pre-cyberspace Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1102930600271464672004-12-13T03:09:00.000-06:002005-11-18T05:38:40.420-06:00Last week my friend Izzy (Israel) called and asked if I was interested in watching Luther. This is a new movie that has just come out on DVD. He knew I was very interested and I told him so. That evening he brought me a rented copy. I found it to be very good and (for a movie) quite accurate.Martin Luther has long been one of my heroes. I’ve read his book Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio), Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1102478326695122922004-12-07T20:19:00.000-06:002004-12-07T21:58:46.696-06:00The Dutch painter Rijn van Rembrandt (1609-1669) was truly an awesome artist. I have seen many photographs of his paintings, and I am amazed at his tremendous talent. Rembrandt produced two most interesting self-portraits. The first of these is a painting titled Raising the Cross. It is a great work of art, but the thing most interesting is Rembrandt paints himself as one of those that is raisingCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1097864107203692382004-10-15T13:11:00.000-05:002004-10-16T00:28:15.296-05:00Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898)
Robert Lewis Dabney is one of the great Christian thinkers of the last century and a favourite of mine. I own and have read many of his books and I recommend his work (especially his theological work).
Dabney had a long and prosperous life during which he was a farmer, architect, preacher, Professor of theology (Union Seminary, Viriginia), Professor of philosophyCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1096434612073220342004-09-29T01:08:00.000-05:002004-09-30T04:17:37.433-05:00I'm a veteran of the U.S. Navy, Navy Reserves and the Army National Guard. I think service in the military is both good and honourable, BUT if the state can insist on military service there must be a very valid reason for that service.
In Europe, the countries there were hostile to one another and a standing army was a necessity, because the lack of a strong army meant you were next to be Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1088379420683951072004-06-27T18:35:00.000-05:002004-06-27T18:41:59.756-05:00Deists or Christians?
Many people today believe that America's founding Fathers were all (or almost all) Deists. There were some prominent men among the Founding Fathers that were Deist. Thomas Jefferson is the most renown of them, but Jefferson kept his religious views concealed from the general public.
No one can see into his neighbour’s soul to see for certainty that he/she knows Christ. Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1088112601281414052004-06-24T16:26:00.000-05:002004-06-24T18:05:13.463-05:00William Tyndale and the English Bible
We live in a day and time when the Christian liberties that we have inherited from our forebears are being lost, but even in our present state of decline, we still have liberties that are far greater than most people have experienced in either the past or the present. Four hundred years ago in England, parents were executed, some burned at the stake, for Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1086618951843554482004-06-07T09:16:00.000-05:002004-06-07T09:37:51.973-05:00Thoughts on Ronald Reagan
When Ronald Reagan was elected president in November of 1980, I was on a U.S. Navy Frigate cruising off the coast of Iran. Though I did not vote for or against him, he was my favoured candidate. President Carter was very unpopular in the military, and moral was not good under him. Reagan changed all that; with Reagan the military recovered much of its esprit de corp.
Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1086549177491532452004-06-06T14:11:00.000-05:002004-06-06T19:29:51.950-05:00James Stuart
The name James Stuart may not sound familiar to most Americans today, but it is a name of someone who we have all heard. James Stuart was King James VI of Scotland; at the death of Queen Elisabeth, he became King James I of England. Today his name is well known throughout the English speaking world, because he is the one who authorized the translation of the Bible we call the “KingCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1085634509776388862004-05-26T23:04:00.000-05:002004-05-27T00:09:39.476-05:00
The Constitution and Secession
The federal government is a creation of the states that formed the American union. These states were sovereign powers and each joined the new federal union, which the Constitution created, by way of ratifying conventions. The member states in the federal union did not forfeit their sovereignty when they joined the new confederated republic. They joined as statesCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1085122724369285512004-05-21T01:57:00.000-05:002004-05-21T02:31:01.046-05:00
Francis Scott Key--Christian
In late August of 1814 British forces captured and burned Washington D.C. The major buildings of the city, including the capitol building and the White House, were burned before the British withdrew. As the soldiers returned to their ships they took Dr. William Beanes prisoner. The British Navy then sailed north to the nearby city of Baltimore.
British ships were Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1083654718390698012004-05-04T02:11:00.000-05:002004-05-04T02:15:58.950-05:00Christian self government or tyranny
It’s true that all rulers and all ruled are fallen in Adam, and there will NEVER be a utopia here on this earth before sin and death or conquered and destroyed at Christ Second Coming (at the end of history).
America’s founders were not utopians and understood that what ever form of government they produced it would be able to allow for maximum freedom and Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1079014369018420882004-03-11T08:12:00.000-06:002004-03-11T08:17:15.233-06:00
Christianity and the American Revolution
Carl Bridenbaugh, one of the great 20th century scholars of American history, wrote the book Mitre and Sceptre: Transatlantic Faiths, Ideas, Personalities and Politics, 1689-1775. It’s a wonderful, scholarly work and is one of the more important books written on early America. Bridenbaugh says it is impossible for modern secular Americans to understand Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1077984494391541532004-02-28T10:08:00.000-06:002004-02-28T14:04:12.170-06:00
George Washington Parke Custis was Martha Washington's grandson. George Custis’ father died the same year he was born. Young George then went to live with Martha, his grandmother, and George Washington, his step-grandfather. He was then on raised on Mount Vernon by President and Mrs. Washington as their own child. George W. P. Custis greatly admired George Washington and Loved him like a Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1077190069121430062004-02-19T05:27:00.000-06:002004-02-19T05:30:29.810-06:00
Ninetenth and Twentieth Centurys
In Europe and America technological advancements during the nineteenth century were truly amazing. They had entered the century with horses as the main means of transportation on land, and wooden sailing ships on the oceans; at century's end they had trains and even automobiles and the oceans could now be crossed on self propelled vessels of steel. Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1076425052385340572004-02-10T08:57:00.000-06:002004-02-10T09:00:01.140-06:00American political institutions had Christian foundations because the men that gave us those institutions read Christian works about a biblical view of civil Government. John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the political theorists that the founders looked to. His 2nd Treatise On Government is credited with being the foundation stone of our Declaration of Independence and it is. With just a cursory Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1075712128645438562004-02-02T02:55:00.000-06:002004-02-05T11:44:55.436-06:00
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus-- is not a name known to most of us today, but it is the name of a famous Roman emperor. We know this emperor by his adopted name which is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or just plain Nero Caesar.
Nero, an extremely evil and perverse man , initiated the first official Roman persecution of Christians. The Roman historian Suetonius (69-140 A.D.) writes ofCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1075623854101054952004-02-01T02:24:00.000-06:002004-02-01T02:31:30.670-06:00
Small Beginnings
On the 17th of December 1859 David Livingstone, a Scotch missionary, came to what is now Lake Malawi in Africa. It was Livinstone who, for the first time, opened up the interior of the Africa continent to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The British, Anglicans from England and Presbyterians from Scotland, soon began to send missionaries to the land that we now know as the small Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1075542542238011022004-01-31T03:49:00.000-06:002004-01-31T03:51:16.263-06:00
John Jay
John Jay, the first Supreme Court Chief Justice of the United States, said that we, being a Christian nation would prefer Christian leaders. Jay's views are anathema today. Lawyers, judges and the guru's of American pop culture are doing all in their power to destroy what little memory still exists of our land's Christian foundations.
The Supreme Court knew of our Christian Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1075359778386686532004-01-29T01:02:00.000-06:002004-01-29T01:07:36.750-06:00
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)
Thomas Cranmer was a man with many faults and failings. He was a very “human” individual. He was born in 1489 the second son of a minor landowner and like so many sons of that day he would receive no inheritance from his father because he was not the eldest son. Because of this, he was destined to become a priest and he entered Cambridge in 1510. His path toward Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1074360709901101972004-01-17T11:31:00.000-06:002004-02-02T03:36:16.340-06:00
Christianity and Democracy
Most Americans today assume that we live in a democracy. Our political leaders and most commentators in the elite media usually refer to American civil government as a democracy, but A democracy is not the system of government that the founders intended to give us. Democracy is not the form of government we were given at either the state or federal level.
James Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1073957985858417762004-01-12T19:39:00.000-06:002004-01-12T19:40:06.800-06:00
Saint Athanasius
I have, over the years, read a fair amount of the ancient writings of the Romans, Greeks and other ancient peoples (both Christian and pagan) and unlike most people I enjoy reading that kind of stuff
One of the works I read some time back was On The Incarnation by Saint Athanasius. Athanasius was born around 296 AD in Egypt which was then part of the Roman Empire, and he Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1073652766841720562004-01-09T06:52:00.000-06:002004-01-09T06:53:06.550-06:00
Faith of Our Founders
The paragraph below is from John Adams to Samuel Miller (a Presbyterian minister). Notice what he says about Calvinist and Calvinism. Adams was not orthodox, but he is right about Calvinism's influence, and this is true not only of New England, but of almost all of early America.
"You know not the gratification you have given me by your kind, frank, and candid letter. Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1073400654561347112004-01-06T08:50:00.000-06:002004-01-06T08:52:18.946-06:00
Sam Adams
Samuel Adams is one of America's founding fathers from New England. Adams was a descendent of the Puritans that first settled that country, and he was a member of the Congregational Church. At the time Sam Adams lived there was already a move, on the part of his region of America, away from the historic doctrines of the Christian faith.
The seeds of Unitarianism and Deism had beenCajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1072845107192461382003-12-30T22:31:00.000-06:002003-12-30T22:32:50.950-06:00
The First Amendment
When the United States were formed into the old federation under the U.S. Constitution one of the first things done by Congress was to propose amendments to the brand new Constitution which had only recently been ratified. Those who had opposed the Constitution had fought for changes to the Constitution before ratification. The Constitution was eventually ratified in some Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1072444513223228832003-12-26T07:15:00.000-06:002003-12-26T13:41:18.060-06:00
Christendom and the Franks
The Franks were a German tribe. This tribe invaded the Roman empire while the the western half of the was collapsing. The Franks settled in the Roman territory of Gaul. Over time they gave their tribal name to the place, so we no longer call that land Gaul, as the Roman’s did, we now know it by the name it took from this German tribe, We call it France after the Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1072205540194834642003-12-23T12:52:00.000-06:002003-12-23T18:54:54.810-06:00
Charles V and the Reformation
In 1521 Martin Luther (an Augustinian monk, parish priest and Doctor/professor of theology) was summoned to appear at the Diet (i.e. council) of Worms before the young Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Charles V was the most powerful man in Europe. By inheritance he had become the sovereign ruler of a vast part of Europe. No ruler since Charlemagne had Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1071957162969687822003-12-20T15:52:00.000-06:002003-12-20T22:43:36.626-06:00
Christianity, Slavery and the Antebellum South
Slavery is an ancient institution and for millennia it’s moral, political and cultural legitimacy was unquestioned. This was the case when a Dutch ship brought the first African slaves to the English colony of Virginia in 1619. However most slaves in the British American colonies during the first half of the 17th century were Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1071615973326184072003-12-16T17:06:00.000-06:002003-12-18T22:29:12.473-06:00The Star Spangled banner
Francis Scott Key, while on board a British naval vessel, watched as the British bombarded Fort McHenry at Baltimore. The bombardment took place on September 13-14, 1814, and lasted twenty-five hours. When the bombardment stopped Francis Scott Key saw that the flag of the American Union still stood over the fort. The British attempt to take the fort had failed. That is Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1071251221196232262003-12-12T11:47:00.000-06:002003-12-12T11:47:13.790-06:00A Humble Christian Man
One of the humblest Christian men I know of is also very prominent in American history. Five of his near kinsmen signed the Declaration of Independence, his father was one of Washington's best generals during the War for American Independence and his father was also instrumental in Virginia's ratification of the Constitution. This same man married the daughter of George Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6194564.post-1071163629291578572003-12-11T11:27:00.000-06:002003-12-11T11:27:21.706-06:00Patrick Henry: My favourite founder.
Patrick Henry had a very fruitful life. He played one of the most important and pivotal roles in Americans gaining their independence from Great Britain. Henry was a man who understood his times. He knew, long before the great majority of his countrymen, what was confronting them and what needed to be done.
Patrick Henry was a devout Christian. His mother Cajun Huguenotnoreply@blogger.com0