Category Religion

Choosing Evil

The line haunts me still, 40 years later, as Canadians go to the polls today to elect a federal government. The book was The New Left and Christian Radicalism by Art Gish. I bought it because my political thought in those days was more left leaning than right. (These days I would probably be classified […]

The Evangelical Prime Minister?

The intersection of religion and politics fascinates me. In the United States, where church and state are constitutionally separate, the religious beliefs of presidential candidates are always part of the public discourse. In Canada, with no such wall of separation, I suspect 99% of the populace would be hard pressed to name the religious affiliation, […]

War Room

Hollywood does not have a monopoly on film making, though the movie moguls there wish they did. I’m sure it galls them when a movie like War Room tops the box office as it did a couple of weekends ago in the United States. War Room is the latest from the Kendrick Brothers, whose most […]

On Church and State in Rowan County

The case was huge on Twitter and Facebook. Depending on your slant, either a Christian was jailed for her faith or a scoff-law was put in her place, when Kim Davis, County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, was jailed for contempt of court (she has since been released). Her crime was to defy a court […]

In The Beginning…

My wife from time to time reminds me that I have a problem with procrastination. I don’t really agree, but I keep putting off telling her that. But that explains today’s post. I saw a newspaper story in September 2014 and thought, “I should blog about that.” So I put the paper aside. Given that […]

Judgement Is Coming

He seemed like a relic of a bygone era, a street preacher standing on a park bench in Ottawa’s Major’s Hill Park. No-one was listening, not even me. Okay, I half-listened, but I wasn’t his target audience. The tradition of oral persuasion, of Christians standing on street corners proclaiming their message is over. Has been […]

Mr. Walker Had A Car

I was running errands with my mother. That means I drive her wherever she needs to go, wait until she is finished, then drive her to the next place she wants to go. I don’t mind doing this. She is 86, and while her mind is still sharp her body has begun to fail her […]

Well Done

I have been to too many funerals. I have never liked them. I know they are about supporting the living, an opportunity to come together and mourn as a community, but that doesn’t mean I have to like the process. Culturally we have a tendency to say nothing but good things about the deceased. It […]

Truth and Reconciliation?

The truth part is easy. It’s the reconciliation that is going to be difficult. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission wrapped up its six-year inquiry this week. Modeled after a similar venture in post-Apartheid South Africa, the Commission was struck to hear the stories of the survivors of Canada’s residential schools for Aboriginal students, a system […]

Sunday Morning in Bucharest

I am away until the end of May. Until I get back I am re-posting some favourites so you don’t miss me too much. It is an island of English in a sea of Romanian and was completely unexpected. I was raised in a family where the expectation was that everyone would attend church on […]