A walk down memory lane...

Years ago, there was a commercial by Pepperidge Farms, reminiscing about the old days. It was later mocked on the TV show Family Guy, just a few years ago. That animated version later turned into a popular meme, seen all across the interwebs. An example:




I was reading some old Christian writings earlier, when I came across a passage about the nature of Christians. I immediately thought of this meme. So in honor of that, I lead into the passage with this:

Remember when Christians were described in such a positive light?

Pepperidge Farm Remembers...

And now, the passage, from The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus (c.130 CE):

The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity.

The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners.

Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.

They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring.

They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.

 They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.

They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.

They love all men, and are persecuted by all.

They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life.

They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified.

They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers.

When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

Just thought I would share this, because I loved reading it so much. Hopefully it gives you a little to think about. If people were to describe you as a Christian, would they use such language? Does your life stand out from the others? It  is so easy to be called a Christian, but it is infinitely harder to be Christ like. But, the difficult is what we are called to do!

Remember that the world is always watching. Are they going to see the selfish, prideful, and hypocritical behaviors that are attributed to modern Christians? Or are they going to see a life transformed by and surrendered to Christ?

Columbus sucks (and so do you).

We all know how terrible Mr Columbus, the Genoese sailor hired by the Spanish crown, was when he came to the Caribbean Islands. But do you know the people he encountered were also, at times, very terrible people?

The funny thing about humans is that we often see so much in black and white. There is always good and bad. Never is there a gray area! Except, you know, when there is, which is usually all the time. However, we seem to be programmed to look past gray and see only black and white.

This black and white world view exists now, just as it did way back when. For example, it was reported by the Spanish that the Carib were savage cannibals. This is a very black and white world view.  Some historians later dismissed it as Spanish propaganda to justify the wars against the Carib, and therefore the Spanish are horrible people and liars. This, too, is black and white, as there is evidence that show there was limited amounts of cannibalism in the Carib society, among the warriors. Evidently, there was a practice of eating some meat of dead enemy warriors. If you ask me, this is a pretty terrible thing to do. However, we don't mention this when we talk about Mr. Columbus and his encounters with the indigenous islanders.

The Spanish are also criticized for taking native slaves, including many native women to be wives. This, of course, is really bad by our standards. But did you know that the Carib invaders from South America did the same thing? They raped, pillaged, conquered and took wives from the Taino. Why is this never discussed? Why don't we write long posts to discuss how bad the Carib were?

The Carib are just ONE example of the gray area that exists in history of the New World. It is not black and white as the Spaniards told. The Carib were not all cannibals who feasted on the flesh of the living. HOWEVER, it is also not  the black and white revisionism told in modern times (that the Natives on the Islands were all peace loving people).

There is a middle ground. There is a gray area that we neglect to see. And this is an issue that bothers me greatly when discussing the history of the New World.

 So many people used to believe only the European narratives about savages, and so forth. As we got into more modern times, many people switched completely to the other side and started telling tales about how savage the Europeans were. In reality, the truth lies in the middle.

By modern standards, the Europeans did some pretty terrible things. Slavery, war, and conquest are not admirable things. But we cannot distort history and make it seem as if the Europeans were the only people to do these things. There are countless examples in both the New World and the Old World.

Europeans brought 14 million slaves to the Americas in a horrible slave trade. That is really bad, right? Of course it is!! But, what about the slavery that existed in the Americas pre-European colonization? Or the Arab slave trade that took about as many slaves as the Europeans did (including 1 – 1.5 million Europeans)? Is this not terrible as well? Why don’t we talk about it?

Do you hate the fact that Europeans brought diseases to the New World that killed off millions of people? Yeah, I do too. But what about a disease that worked in reverse? Europeans were afflicted by a New World disease, called syphilis. It spread through Europe, all the way to India and China, killing off millions of people along the way. Europeans get trashed for unknowingly spreading small pox in the early days of exploration, but no one ever trashes the people of the New World for unknowingly spreading Syphilis to the Europeans.  And do we hate on the Chinese for unknowingly spreading the Black Plague that killed (in some estimates) 200 million people in just TWO years?

We hate on the Europeans for causing environmental damage and exploiting natural resources. Ever heard of the North American Pleistocene extinction? At the same time that people were migrating to the Americas, the large fauna went extinct.  We know that slash and burn has destroyed millions of acres of rain forest, and we blame European introduction. The only problem is that this technique existed hundreds of years before Europeans came to the Amazon. We also know that Native Americans in North America deforested the areas surrounding where they lived. Cahokia, in modern southern Illinois, was once a large capital city of an empire. Archaeological evidence has shown how the nearby Mississippi river drastically swallowed land due to massive deforestation. This was one of many factors that led to the decline of the city, which was at its peak about several hundred years before Europeans.

Indigenous people have been in the Americas for somewhere between 15-40k years. It took them thousands of years to master the craft of ecological balance, and that wasn't always the case. The image of the “Noble Savage” who cries at the destruction of the environment is an entirely misleading image. The Americas were teeming with people, who used resources as needed. The reason we have this view is for three reasons:

 1) It is propaganda (much like the Spaniards had) created by the Pan Indian movement to garner support for their cause
2) Disease struck the people of the Americas killing off millions. After they died, nature regained the land, making it look as if there was never anyone there.
3) After the mass death of the Natives, the major empire broke up into smaller tribal areas. This had already taken place in the North, after the fall of the Mississippian culture some years before Europeans came. It is similar to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 400s. The lands under the control fell into many smaller kingdoms and principalities.

Essentially what you have is a land that once had hundreds of millions of people when the Europeans first came (and wrote about it), and was reduced greatly due to disease. When more waves of Europeans came, they did not see the vast Empires that once existed. Instead, they saw small bands of people, living in simple communities. The rest of the land was reconquered by nature. It appeared to these later Europeans that Native Americans were incapable of building the type of cities that Europe had. Therefore, the Noble Savage was created. It was carried on in the 1900s by the Pan Indian movement, by people who were trying to get support for their cause. They wanted to get more autonomy and retribution from the US government. They used this image for that cause. As I have mentioned, this is totally inaccurate, but the majority of people believe it.


So why did I write all of these? Believe me, I am not a Euro apologist. I find what Europeans did to be disgusting. I find it even more disgusting because they used Christianity to promote what they were doing. That is the ugliest lie of all time. Christ would never approve of such actions.

So, if I am not being an apologist for Europeans, why did I choose to write this? I choose to do so because I want to be a responsible historian. History must be looked at with all facts present, and in the context of the time. In our modern standards, Columbus and company were terrible people. In the context of the time, they acted like every other single group of humans out there at the time. They practiced slavery, but so did the Arabs, Africans, and Native Americans of the time. They engaged in warfare, but the very reason Europe was going west was because of the constant war threat from the East (from the Mongols to the Ottomans, the latter who has seized Constantinople and were constantly attacking Vienna and other European cities at the time). Yes Columbus’ crew took native wives, but this was NO different than what they saw happen between the Native groups on the islands.

In short, humans suck. It doesn't matter if you are looking at ancient Rome, the Song Dynasty of China, the Mali Empire in Africa, or the many Empires of North and South America. Humans really are broken. This is history. When you try to revise history to make one group look innocent and one group look evil, you are distorting history. There is rarely (if ever, to be honest) black and white situations in history. There is only gray.

So, on this Columbus Day, instead of just mindlessly spewing out about how evil Columbus was and how innocent the poor indigenous people were (like everyone else on Facebook), I suggest you pick up a book and read about the world around 1492. It is a dark, scary place. It is a world full of chaos. It is a world that mirrors the world that existed hundreds of years before that time period. It is a world that mirrors now.


I hope no one thinks I am supporting or approving of Mr. Columbus and the Europeans. My faith and my human decency prevents this. I just want people to look at history with a clear view, which shows the truth about the human condition.

15 Babies That Have More Hair Than Me

I thought I would post something light hearted for once. Just an FYI, none of these pictures are my own. I believe most have a watermark, so they belong to those people. Also, if for some reason someone wants me to take a picture down, please leave me a message and I will do so promptly.

Now, on to the adorable babies (and me).

To start off, we have moi. Nothing special, no hair.

 1) To start off for the babies, we have this adorable little one:

2) Just look how cute! And look at all that hair!

3) Sleeping beauty.

4) What a little stud muffin!

5) Another sleeper.

6) D'aww

7) You may have to go punch a wall after this, just to feel like a man again.

8) Oh. My. Gosh

9) =D

10) Even with a bad hair day, this cutie has better hair than me!

11) I wonder why all of these babies are sleeping? Maybe it is the sheer exhaustion from all that hair?

12)Mohawk! Nice

13) That's a lot of hair!

14) I love the little flower in that lovely little hair.

15) Why so grumpy, little baby? You still have your hair. I say that is a reason to smile!

Testimony of God's Great Love and Peace.

Have you ever felt that everything is working against you, even though you put in all your effort to do excellent? I feel as if that sentiment could sum up my entire life, from day one until now. For the majority of my life (outside of two years of University), I've done my best and still things go wrong. This isn't me playing the victim; it is a simple observation of my life. I try hard, things go bad, and I feel inadequate. It is as simple as that.

This past week was no different, when I traveled with 21 kids and 4 leaders to Lake Champion, in New York. I thought everything was going real well, at first. We got almost all of the payments and forms done before we met. We had everything packed and ready to go. The students arrived on time for the bus. We even left a little earlier than I expected. In fact, we were slated to be the first area to arrive at camp. It was so perfect.

That is, until our bus broke down in rural Pennsylvania.

For no apparent reason, the bus lost power and we were forced to the side of the interstate. After some time, the driver informed us that we would have to wait about 3 ½ hours for another bus to come for us. Eduardo and I walked to the nearest town to find help. After talking to a church to secure a location for our students, we went back to figure a way to get them there. When we got back the police finally arrived. They told us at first they would be able to give our kids transport. However, a state trooper arrived and said that he ‘didn't have time to drive kids around’. I guess it wasn't worth his time to take kids off of a broken down bus on the side of a very busy interstate, even though it was hot and there was limited water. Perhaps that was his way of showing his commitment to ‘protect and serve’ people?

Fast forward to around 4:30, and another bus finally came from Virginia. We were finally back on the road. We arrived at camp around 6 pm. We were originally scheduled to arrive at camp at 1:30.  I was a little upset, to say the least. Still though, we were there.

After a couple days of cuts, bruises, and a rash that I believe is poison ivy, we came to a night of pillow fighting. Believe it or not, guys really enjoy beating the tar out of each other with pillows.  And in typical fashion for Thomas, I was hit hard in the eye (ouch!) and fell back and hit my head on a bed (double ouch). I was actually knocked out by hitting the bed.  A major headache ensued, and I had to retire for the night.

The next day, we were up for the ropes course. Ropes course is always fun to do with the guys. I get to push them to their limits and do things they never thought they could do. However, due to my injury from the night before, I was not in a good place to do the ropes course.  About half way through, I began to sweat quite a bit, followed by a splitting headache. Following this was nausea, black spots appearing in my sight, and dizziness.   Instead of risking an accident, I turned around and came down from the trees. After the medic came to see me, I laid on a bench, listening to my guys finish the ropes course in triumph. They didn't see me, but I was fighting back tears. Never have I felt like such a loser in my life. I hate not being able to complete things, especially when it comes doing things with the guys.

A day later, around Tuesday, I was recovered from the headaches and nausea. We had a great day, minus a little rain in the morning. That night, I used Eduardo’s phone to call my sweetie. Throughout the week I was unable to make calls on my phone, due to signal. This was a bummer, because I am so used to talking to her every night before bed. On top of that, I was a little anxious because I knew parents would want to talk to their kids, and without my phone it would be hard for that connection to happen.

As I was talking with Paola, she informed me that I needed to call my mom. Evidently on the same day we left, someone found my mom’s sister (my Aunt Rachel) dead in a bathroom. From what I understand, she overdosed on something, though I am not sure what substance that might be. I was never particularly close to her, because she lived in Florida. Still, hearing my mom sound so sad about the loss of another sibling left me feeling empty inside. I wanted to be able to say the right words to give her peace. I left the cabin that night to walk around camp. I cried out to God “Lord, I wanted you to shake up my life, but did you have to do it like this”.

 After some more crying and praying, I looked out at the lake. I saw the stars reflecting on it. Then I looked up. I saw all the stars in that night sky. It was the most vast night sky that I have seen in ages. I felt so insignificant. Does anything really matter? Is this camp worth it? Should I just give up now because I am a terrible leader?

 But God did as He often does. He spoke gentle words into me. But though they were gentle to hear, they pierced me to the very core. The words he spoke wiped away my tears of pain and doubt, and built into me a feeling of chaotic peace. I know that sounds oxymoronic, but it totally makes sense to me. I was so at peace that I was in a bit of chaos. I mean, everything in my life has been going bad lately. How can I be at peace with everything that is going on? I need to worry and make plans! I need to speak out about things. I need to do this and that. But God reminded me that the thises and the thats of this life are already taken care of.

I went to bed that night, feeling a peace again, that once escaped me a long time ago.

The next day, I had incredible joy in welcoming two young men into the Kingdom of Christ. Eduardo welcomed in another, and Elise and Melissa lead several ladies to that same point. One young man specifically moved me as he was wrestling with the decision. He had fear of relapsing into doing stupid things back home. After conversing for a good while, we decided to pray. He looked up to the sky, as if to look for an answer. It was mostly cloud while we talked, but when he looked up a beam of sunlight came down and hit him. It didn’t hit me, right next to him. It didn’t hit anywhere around him. It landed straight on his face. He said right away that he needed to make the decision there and then. So I prayed over him, and after about 5 mins of his own personal praying, he looked up and told us that he felt like a free man. Oh, to have the feeling of freedom!

I talked with him earlier today. His fear about relapsing was overcome after he and his other friend turned down the opportunity to smoke and drink when they got back home. I feel so proud of him for making this decision to let God’s love change his life.

After we wrapped up our good byes and packed our things on the bus, I began to feel a familiar friend come back to mind. When we made a stop, it was only reinforced. I am going to be vulnerable right now. For the last few months, I have struggled with income. I have a few jobs which give me semi-regular projects, but when I get paid it is usually only enough to cover my bills (rent and phone), and a little food. After checking my bank accounts and seeing them to be below the $20 mark, I began worrying. How am I going to get food? How am I going to provide for myself? I worried myself sick.

 But, once again, God delivers.

God silenced my worries when I came home to see a bunch of groceries lying on my bed. Evidently my wonderful, beautiful, amazing girlfriend came all the way from her house to my house to leave the groceries there. God has blessed me so much, that I can barely see (well, that is mostly because of the tears in my eyes, I guess).

When I look back at my life from the last few months, and I see the struggles I have endured over that time and especially over this last week, and then I feel the overwhelming peace of God in my life, I feel like my new brother in Christ, Roony. I feel free now. I mean, I was free beforehand, but God really reminded me this week at how free I am in Him.

Not only that, He reminded me nothing can stop His love and His glory from being known and shown. There are no bus break downs, scrapes, cuts, poison ivy rashes, concussions, or money issues that are so big as to stop God from showing His love.  Not even the death of a family member can stop the great Gospel of Jesus Christ from being revealed. Nothing can stop God from taking those on the path of death, and putting them on the path of Life.

I’ll end with this thought that I see on every email from my mentor, Carlos Dimas: “God is bigger than my problems”.

God is much bigger, indeed.

Did George Washington Really Exist?

I just don’t know if I believe that George Washington ever existed. I mean, how am I supposed to believe that a man was able to lead a ragtag group of individuals to fight against the top military in the world? On top of that, he become leader of a new country, which later became the most powerful institution on earth? I think people of the time needed a figure to rally around, during an unnerving time in world history.

I am open to the idea that maybe he was real, but not the commander or leader that people made him out to be. Maybe he was just a good person, who taught that freedom was a good thing. Then, over time, he was shaped to be something he was not. I mean, look at some supposed famous things that happened in his life:

• He started his military career early.
• He was called General.
• He led an insurrection against the most powerful country at the time.
• He famously crossed over a river to attack. 
• His military success led to a new kind of government coming forth. 
• After the war was over, he was offered a crown, but never took it. 

Now, look at Julius Caesar and see how he compares to the figure of ‘George Washington”:

• He started his military career early.
• He was called General.
• He led an insurrection against the most powerful country at the time. 
• He famously crossed over a river to attack the ruling government.
• His military success led to a new kind of government coming forth.
• After the war was over, he was offered a crown, but never took it. 

Isn’t a little too coincidental that ‘George Washington’ looks a lot like a very well-known historical figure?

I know what some people might be saying:

• "Well, don't we have historical documents about him?"  Well, yes we do. But a lot of them are biased, as they were written by pro-American forces. As for the British sources, it could be that American spies intercepted messages and inserted writings about Washington to stir up paranoia. It seems like their propaganda machine worked just fine.
• "Didn't contemporaries make paintings of him?" People have made paintings about Zeus. Does he exist? How about if I made a painting of a Sasquatch, does it meant his mythical figure actually exists? Or does it mean I am creating an image based on what myth tellers have stated over the years?
• "Don't we have his body?" Well, maybe we do. Maybe we don't. Have you ever seen the body? Do you trust the pro-Washington supporters to tell you the truth regarding whether or not  that is really the body of a man named George Washington? But, let us say it is the body of a man named Washington. Does that mean that he was whoever we claim he is now? No. It just means that a man named Washington lived a long time ago, and died a long time ago. Nothing special about him.
• "Why is this country so devoted to the name of Washington, if he didn't exist?" Why are so many people devoted to Scientology? Isn't that based on Science-Fiction? If you promote a belief hard enough, there will people who believe it, especially uneducated masses (like the ones that existed in the 1700's & 1800's). Once you get a few people to believe something so much, it will snowball over time, until many people believe that something as the truth.

George Washington is a figure that the uneducated masses can look up to. He was humble, honest, and he supposedly willingly gave up power? Does that sound like any sort leader that you can think of today? No. Why? Perhaps Washington never existed. Or, if he did, he was never really the person we think of today.


Now, if you think the above is a bunch of steaming crap, imagine how I feel when the same exact arguments are used to try to discredit the existence of Jesus of Nazareth. And just as it easy to poke holes through what I wrote above, it is very easy to poke holes through the arguments of internet scholars who claim they know that Jesus never existed. Whether it is claims of Jesus-Mything (Jesus was a figure created by meshing together pagan myths), claims of exaggeration (Maybe there was a person named Jesus, but he was just a lowly teacher, nothing special), claims of bias (Early Christians forged documents by secular and opposing writings, so you can't trust those, nor can you trust the writings of early Christians), or claims of the masses being duped due to poor education (People want to believe the stories, because they are afraid of the truth of life and death and need comfort), all are easily countered with strong arguments that never get answered back.

These times are hard. Never have we had so much information available to us, yet never have there been so many people repeating misinformation. The internet is a wonderful tool for learning, but also for disseminating false claims. Don't believe everything you read. Read opposing arguments. If someone can't respond to opposing arguments, it might be safe to assume their initial claim doesn't hold much ground. Again, just because it is on the internet, and people repeat it, doesn't mean it is true. Check out the facts for yourself, or you might end up believing that George Washington was a fake character created by American propaganda machines.

-Thomas