Daniel J. Mount’s Blog

To all who say that conservatives must vote for Rudy Giuliani because he supposedly stands the best chance of winning the 2008 General Election, heed this warning from Patrick on the homeschoolalumni.org forums:

Take God out of the picture and no Republican candidate has the slightest chance, folks. As far as the system is concerned, Hillary is the next President. And we richly deserve her. So I intend to vote for integrity and pray for a miracle of mercy. If conservative Republicans choose to compromise and elect a liberal who they think can defeat Clinton, they will be in the wretched position of having sold out their own principles for political gain and still losing in the final round. (emphasis mine)

Some of you have heard these quotes:

“History tells the truth, but not the whole truth.”

“History is written by the winners.”

There’s something to each of those statements. So why even try? Why study history?

That’s a question I’ve been pondering, and I’m not really sure I have an answer.

But this I do know: Some topics are so vast that it would be impossible to completely cover them in one book. Take the project I’ve just spent the last five years immersed in, the faith of America’s Presidents. My book is only about 500 pages long. My draft was originally about twice as long, but I spent a year editing it down.

Even with the original draft, given that I am covering every single President, I had to be highly selective.

How much did my bias impact which facts I selected?

I tried to not let it impact me any. I tried to present the evidence indicating that certain Presidents were not Christians as fairly as the evidence that certain other Presidents were Christians.

This will and has gotten me criticism from some who feel that I should have only selected evidence that would seem to indicate that Presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt and John Adams were Christians.

No book can present all the facts. It is the job of a good reviewer–and to an extent, the reader–to carefully judge an author’s book for themselves to determine whether he is presenting the historical evidence accurately.

I can say this much: I did the best with the facts I had to fairly present the facts.

A certain old church classic, “Tears Will Never Stain the Streets of That City,” has been on my mind and heart a lot over the last few days.

A friend in my town, who attended my church periodically, shared my love of Southern Gospel music. Sometimes he’d bring his guitar and help lead worship while I played piano. He had some mental issues and may have been slightly retarded, but he was one of the sweetest older men (50s) I’ve met.

He was murdered on Monday.

I live in a little town, and murders here are shocking to start with. But to see a friend’s name in those headlines is a feeling I hope I never have again.

And so…

I have questioned the loss of a loved one
For the grave seems so final and cold.
But we’ll meet again in a land where death has no victory
In a land where we’ll never grow old.

And tears will never stain the streets of that city
No wreath of death on my mansion door.
Teardrops aren’t welcome beyond the gates of Glory
And the heart will never break anymore

Yes, he was a Christian, and he is now healthy once again, with no mental or physical ailments of any sort, in the presence of the Savior.

Long before I discovered Southern Gospel, I grew up listening to Contemporary Christian music. In 2001, I started my first book, a history of the genre. After a book deal with a publisher fell through (due to financial difficulties on their part), I ended up deciding to self-publish the book. I printed up a few hard copies and made it available here as a free download online.

The book’s been up slightly less than two years now. During that time, a couple hundred people download it each month. It just occurred to me this afternoon that I hadn’t checked for months to see how many copies had been downloaded. I checked this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had just hit the 10,000 mark. To be precise, the book has been downloaded 10,538 times.

Well, I decided to take the plunge and start a personal blog. (I say personal since my Southern Gospel Blog is still running strong. This blog will deal with non-SG topics.)

Here I am!

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