I enjoy today-in-history type features but I don't enjoy the Today in Christian History for several reasons:
- It is too firmly entrenched in American and English traditions
- It is too biographical - I rarely care when someone was born
- There is rarely something unusual that teaches me something.
For example, today has:
I've not heard of John Rogers so I have no clue as to the significance of his martyrdom - and Factbook doesn't even have a key article to convince me I should be interested. From Wikipedia I can see he is worthy of his entry but not from Logos.
Never heard of Robert Dick Wilson but if he is identified as a scholar, I know his birth is irrelevant. If he is worthy of inclusion, it should be for the publication or lecture of an important contribution. Again, I had to go to Wikipedia to discover that while he was an excellent linguist, there is no reason to believe he is an important historical figure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I know and believe he belongs - but his birth? Isn't his martyrdom, his internment, or a publication what makes him important in history. After all everyone gets born- that doesn't make it a momentous point in the history of Christianity.
Other days are equally uninspiring. I'd be more interested in when the Huguenots published their first psalter (Aulcuns Pseaulmes et cantiques mys en chant "Some Psalms and Hymns Set to Music" January 1 (?), 1539) or that January 30, 1536 Menno Simons left his parish in Witmarsum to join the Anabaptists.
Could you please open up a period of collaboration in which your users in which they are encouraged to suggest items for the This Day in Christian History encouraging them to offer items from their country (or mission field or academic interest) and from their denomination/area of expertise. You would then have a list that came closer to representing your users and would have items that are considered interesting at least to the person offering the suggestion.
