Thanks for Listening: My Perspective on History

William Leroy Kennedy
Jul 3
2 min read

In about seventh grade, I developed the habit of reading through my textbooks as soon as I received them. This approach worked well for me; classwork became a review, and teachers began to respect my ability to readily answer questions. It also helped me stay grounded in the context of what we were learning.

This strategy was especially effective in history classes, which became my favorite. It sparked a lasting interest in all forms of history, particularly world history. At the time, our sports coach, Milton Franklin, also taught history. He made learning both engaging and, for me, genuinely fun.

At the same time, I was deeply involved in our church, the 19th Street Church of Christ. I often found myself comparing biblical history with what I would call scientific history. Admittedly, it was sometimes confusing. I vividly remember our minister once declaring, “If you don’t belong to the Church of Christ, you cannot go to Heaven.” My silent response was, “Are you telling me I’ll be in Heaven without my good Baptist, Methodist, and one Catholic friend?”

That moment planted a seed of doubt. So, when I left home for college at seventeen, I also left the Church of Christ.

In the years that followed, I attended services from other denominations and eventually explored the Bahá'í Faith. Throughout this journey, my fascination with the contrast between scientific and biblical history only deepened.

A pivotal moment came while attending the National Society of Black Engineers' regional conference at Cornell University. I sat in on a presentation by a Black historian who shared that the Vatican library holds books thousands of years older than the Bible—books that include the Ten Commandments.

Since that presentation, everything I’ve learned about history has seemed to align with a sobering reality: much of the world’s past is wrapped in deception.

Thanks for listening.