omg what do you think?
I just spent a LONG time re-doing the IUSFL web page.

here is the original IUSFL home page

here is the one with changes that I made to the IUSFL home page

Prolly sucks though.

posted some drawings

i made some sketches a while back. I just now posted em up. Here they are: Drawings

Thinking about History

Ask Joe Schmoe to describe the crusades and more than likely he’ll explain them as Christians murdering people in the name of God. Jamie, Billy, or Eddie Schmoe might very likely be able to tell you other “facts” about “The Crusades” . For example, I read an op/ed article, Searching for the Right Words, by my friend Duncan Teater, in which he criticized President Bush’s use of the word crusade. He urged us to…

“not forget that the first Crusades involved hordes of Christians slaughtering as many Muslims as they could in a madcap attempt to liberate the holy land that happened to be someone else’s home.”

After I read this, something itched at my brain. The simplicity with which Duncan charactarized so many years of history really made me wonder how much of this charactarization is true. Duncan holds a view of the crusades that I sort of held. After a few hours of reading, I can say without a doubt that this simple interpretation does not do justice to the truth of History.

Gregory the VII, in 1074, appealled on behalf of Christians living in the Middle East, who were being slaughtered by Muslims.

Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all who are willing to defend the Christian faith, greeting and apostolic benediction.

We hereby inform you that the bearer of this letter, on his recent return from across the sea [from Palestine], came to Rome to visit us. He repeated what we had heard from many others, that a pagan race had overcome the Christians and with horrible cruelty had devastated everything almost to the walls of Constantinople, and were now governing the conquered lands with tyrannical violence, and that they had slain many thousands of Christians as if they were but sheep. If we love God and wish to be recognized as Christians, we should be filled with grief at the misfortune of this great empire [the Greek] and the murder of so many Christians. But simply to grieve is not our whole duty. The example of our Redeemer and the bond of fraternal love demand that we should lay down our lives to liberate them. “Because he has laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,” [1 John 3:16]. Know, therefore, that we are trusting in the mercy of God and in the power of his might and that we are striving in all possible ways and making preparations to render aid to the Christian empire [the Greek] as quickly as possible. Therefore we beseech you by the faith in which you are united through Christ in the adoption of the sons of God, and by the authority of St. Peter, prince of apostles, we admonish you that you be moved to proper compassion by the wounds and blood of your brethren and the danger of the aforesaid empire and that, for the sake of Christ, you undertake the difficult task of bearing aid to your brethren [the Greeks]. Send messengers to us at once inform us of what God may inspire you to do in this matter.

In Migne, Patrologia Latina, 148:329
trans. Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval
History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 512-13