John 316 Marshall

The Peter Principle is one I learned when young, and have seen fulfilled often through the years. It states we tend to promote people to the level of their incompetence. In other words, they do well at various jobs, and thus we keep promoting them until they reach a point that they don't do as well, and we leave them in this level of mediocrity. The life of President James Buchanan illustrated this principle again for me. Before the Presidency, he had a long string of successes to his credit. He served with distinction for over three decades at various levels of political involvement. But then he miserably failed as President. He is always ranked among the least effective Chief Executives. What does this have to do with us? Learn a vital lesson here. Don't always accept a promotion automatically. Pray first. When we find our niche, pray about staying with it. Contentment is a rare jewel in life. Find where you are effective, and consider staying there. I know this is e

Folly almost brought me down. At the end of my college days, I needed only one more class to fulfill my math major. I looked over the course offerings, and saw one titled "Introductory Algebra". It was a 5000-level class, which meant it was a Master's Degree course, but since it had the word "introductory" in it, I decided it couldn't be too bad, and signed up. On the first day, Dr. Michaels (for whom the math building was later named) took one step inside the door and began working a problem on the blackboard. He took one wall to prove what 2 is; he then took a second wall to prove what 4 is; he then took two more walls to prove that two wall ones equaled one wall two. He finished the final blackboard just as the bell rang. He gave us our homework assignment, and then walked out the door. I knew I was in big trouble. I barely made it through that class. It was probably the iffiest segment of my college career. The Lord brought good out of this scho

I remember it well. It happened in my first college semester. My Calculus I professor was Dr. Ahuja. Every class session began with several of us students going to the blackboard to post solutions of our homework problems from the night before. On the infamous day, one of the students said he could not go to the board. When Dr. Ahuja asked why, he said he had forgotten to do his homework. What happened next defies adequate explanation. My mild mannered professor suddenly transformed into the Incredible Hulk. Dr. Ahuja ran to the student's desk, leaned over him, and began interrogating. "Do you forget to breathe?" "No." "Do you forget to eat?" "No." "Do you forget to sleep?" "No." "Your Calculus homework comes just as regularly; never forget it, and if I leave at the end of class, and fail to give you your homework assignment, you are still responsible for it. Make sure you always know your assignment before you

Why would anyone who knew he was going to be a preacher major in math? Great question. I've been asked "why" questions like this one many times through the years. It's actually an anticlimactic story. Dad often told me I needed to get a non-religion degree in college, in case the ministry did not work out for me. Thanks, Dad, for that vote of confidence. When I arrived to register for my first semester in college, I was awestruck at the length of some of the sign-up lines. The English majors stretched a block on one direction; the history majors covered a block the other way. At this moment of despair, I saw a professor (Dr. Francis, who would later teach me) leaning back in his chair, reading a book, with his feet propped up on the desk in front of him. I felt compelled to walk straight toward him. I hesitated a moment when I saw a "Math" sign on the desk by his feet, but interrupted his reading anyway by saying, "I am here to register."

Radical, proud misinterpretations of the Book that created our nation and made it great are what destroyed it in the Civil War. That's the premise of Mark Noll's book "The Civil War as Theological Crisis". The armies of the Civil War were the most religious armies in our history. Christianity and the Bible were not embraced by everyone, but were certainly respected by the overwhelming majority. But when the War ended, one of its casualties was the Bible. It had been so abused and misused by people on both sides that an underlying mistrust of the Bible itself began to seep into American life. Some began to think the Bible could be used to prove anything. Others felt it was proven to be in error by how the War turned out. Radical Abolitionists debunked the Bible because it did not straightforwardly condemn slavery. Radical southerners defaced the Bible by using it to justify their horrible treatment of slaves. There were Bible students who advocated slow emancipat

Heroes are too often forgotten. I had never heard of this senator from New Jersey. In my reading the biographies of Presidents, his name kept coming up. I decided to read a summary of his 1830 six-hour speech delivered to Congress opposing Indian removal from the southern states. His passionate plea almost won the day. How different American history might have been had his words been heeded. Springfield MO witnessed some of the final throes of Congress' failure when the Trail of Tears passed through our town in 1838. Once I read the summary, I wanted to read the whole unedited version of his speech. The folks at Brentwood Library did archaeological excavations for me and found it in its entirety at archives.org . I wish I could have heard the "Christian Statesman", as Frelinghuysen was called, deliver it in person. He said the Indians were as much under God's care and Providence as the European settlers had been. The senator claimed neither British law nor USA law nor

In reading biographies of the Presidents, I've come across a huge surprise. One author claimed the 1840s and 1850s were the two most important decades in USA history. He said if the Civil War is the most pivotal event in our history, we must admit it did not happen in a vacuum, and need to investigate what caused it. In pondering this possibility, I have come to an unexpected conclusion. The Presidents of these two decades (between Jackson and Lincoln) were not nearly as ineffective as history has commonly painted them. They had a deck stacked against them. They were fighting against the Czar, Dictator Slavocracy. I have dealt with this in a former blog, but want to point how impossible it made for the Presidents to be hugely effective during its ascendancy. Not until LIncoln, who was elected with only 42% of the vote and who due to the secession of southern states did not have to be  handcuffed with slavocracy, was a President able to effectively undertake issues with proper Execu