Village Reporter

Evolution teaches that the natural state of all animals is wild, not tame. They postulate that the taming of dogs, horses, and other animals required thousands of years of evolution. The process they describe involved dogs eating the garbage deposited by humans and slowly, after many years, dogs that were genetically less fearful of humans became used to being around humans. Concurrently, humans became used to the ‘wild’ dogs, and later, even positive about their presence. Eventually, humans began to feed them, causing the dogs to rely on humans for food instead of hunting rabbits.

Dwight Eisenhower was a distant relative of mine by marriage. His brother, Roy, married Edna Shade who was related to the Eckhoff family. My mother’s mother was an Eckhoff. I have been collecting material about ‘Ike’ for about 40 years and finally published an article in a peer-reviewed journal, Kansas History, on his religious upbringing. My article was given the Edgar Langsdorf Award for superior writing, as determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Kansas Historical Foundation.

One of the most interesting cases I worked on involved a 17-year-old girl that one day disappeared without a trace. The police traced her last day to an acquaintance who observed her get into a car driven by her ex-boyfriend who was known to sell drugs. She then disappeared. The ex-boyfriend claimed he dropped her off at her new boyfriend's house not far from where she was last seen.  An extensive search lasting over two weeks turned up no sign of her body. The woods were searched using bloodhounds, as was the nearby lake and the homes where she could have visited.

Horses are mentioned a total of 154 times in the Bible, but how many readers have heard at least one sermon on horses? Revelation 19 reads, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he judges.” Elijah was taken up to heaven in a horse-driven chariot (II Kings 2:11). Are there horses in heaven? Why was eating horse meat forbidden (Lev. 11:4)? Was it due to the Israelites’ great respect for horses? Or for other reasons?

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Its estimated total sales is over five billion copies. The complete Bible has been translated into over 700 languages and the New Testament into well over 1,500 languages. Parts of the New Testament have been translated into over 1,000 languages. Since the 16th century, over 900 translations of the Bible into English have been produced. It has had a profound influence both on Western culture and history as well as on cultures around the globe.

While still in high school, I began working at Oakland Center Hospital, at a small hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, as a jack-of-all-trades handyman.  My employment also included some medical photography. It was there that I developed an interest in medicine and medical research.  The medical director, Dr. Bernard F. Gariepy, spent much time with me discussing medicine, science, and related matters. He was someone that I looked up to as a father. I also learned a great deal about law, an interest still with me today.

I have always enjoyed reading biographies. I read one recently that was not about a president or a famous scientist, but one who walked in my shoes and that of millions of other men and women. His name is Doctor Stephen T. Blume. Rather than me telling his story I will let him tell it.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who lives in California. He related that he was thrown out of his church where he has attended for 17 years. First, let me relate something about him. When he was picking me up after I did a presentation at a church, he noticed a flood of water under his pickup truck. Realizing he lost much of his coolant, he called a tow truck and had someone else chauffeur me to my hotel.

A few years ago I lost a good friend. He would often call me late at night to discuss various concerns and our mutual interests. He was a world renounced scholar, an English professor, and he also published several books as is required of professors, one of which was the most important book in his academic area. I also am a night person, so his evening calls were welcome. On one of the last calls, he related that he had to have open-heart surgery but would not accept a blood transfusion, a choice that created problems.

We are all familiar with the Christian creation story. A 312-page book I read recently by Dr. Stephen T. Blume tells the secular creation story. He did such a good job that I summarized it in this newspaper column as follows: