Prophets for Peace?

This past Wednesday marked the 69th anniversary of the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima during the Second World War. That one bomb immediately destroyed 80,000 people, mostly civilians, and another 50,000 died at Nagasaki. Ultimately the death toll was between 200 and 250,000 due to the effects of radiation. I have often marked this somber anniversary in worship, usually with origami peace cranes like those pictured above. The story of these cranes is quite touching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_and_the_Thousand_Paper_Cranes

This week the Christian activist Shane Claiborne posted comments, really a verbal repentance, made by the Roman Catholic priest, forty years after the bombings. Father George Zabelka, blessed the pilots in 1945 as they set out on their fateful flights. Zabelka's call to become prophets for peace is well worth reading http://www.redletterchristians.org/chaplain-blessed-hiroshima-bombers-repents/

Once again we are reminded that we are called to be peacemakers in this world of violence by the Prince of Peace.

Water Walkers

Earlier this week I chatted with a colleague in ministry who conceded that while the Older Testament stories of the summer lectionary readings are intriguing she is sticking with the rich passages of the gospels because they are a bit more in her comfort zone as someone relatively new to preaching. I certainly appreciate this. I have chosen the stories of Jacob, Joseph, and Moses because after years of preaching the lectionary it is stimulating to go off what is a well-worn path for me.

Still, I have thought about the gospel story this week which tells us of Jesus walking on water and Peter's "sinking feeling" when stepping out of the boat doesn't turn out the way he hoped. The 19th century artist Gustave Dore is currently featured in an exhibit at Canada's National Art Gallery and this is one of his images.

There is a book called The Walk-On-Water Syndrome: Dealing With Professional Hazards in the Ministry by Edwin Bratcher which I purchased 30 years ago when still a young, brash, and relatively new-to-ministry pastor. It was helpful then as I began to realize that no matter how much energy and time I put into my vocation it would never be enough. Over the decades I have served active congregations and I have enjoyed the work of developing their mission and ministries. I had to learn that there would always be more to do than I could possibly accomplish,  and there would always be people who expected the impossible.

In his book Bratcher encourages establishing a realistic perspective in ministry, acknowledging our human limitations, and resisting the temptation to "walk on water." We serve Jesus but we must remember that we are not small or capital letter saviours.

Now in my 35th year of ministry I have come to realize that neither my energy level nor my resilience are what they once were. I tend to thud more than I bounce! I'm hoping that what I can bring to ministry is experience and perspective. I am still passionate about serving in Christ's name, but I realize that being a "non-anxious presence" in the lives of others requires the faith not to have a saviour complex. Establishing personal balance is a virtue, not a sin. Living and ministering with this balance is even more important in the tumultuous times we find ourselves in as mainline congregations.

Any thoughts or comments on this?

A Lifetime of Generosity

The summer tends to be a sleepy time in congregational life but a couple of eye-openers came my way this week. Two elderly members let us know of monetary gifts they are making for the mission and ministry of Bridge St. One has promised ten thousand dollars for the purchase of a new restaurant-grade gas range for the kitchen. Our Inn from the Cold and Thank God It's Friday meal ministries served more than 8,000 meals out of that kitchen in 2013. The ancient stove used for preparing those meals is incredibly slow and runs up a huge electricity bill, This is a wonderful gift.

The other gift has already arrived, $50,000 to be used in whatever way the congregation chooses. The combined ages of these two is roughly 175 years, and they both have health issues, but they are still passionate about the ministry of this expression of Christ's body. I have spent a fair amount of time with each of them and they have a deep faith which I have found uplifting.

In a little more than a year since I arrived at Bridge St. there have been about $100,000 in special financial gifts from elderly members who are still in the land of the living. These are over and above regular tithes and offerings. One substantial contribution made it possible to install visual display monitors in the sanctuary. Yes, there have been gifts for more traditional projects such as the organ restoration, and these have made a significant difference, but several have been for work which is less along conventional lines, or for the general wellbeing of the church.

Not everyone is able to do what they have done, and stewardship takes many forms. Every gift, every act of kindness, is a blessing gratefully received. It is important, it seems to me, to acknowledge the practical generosity of people. They have worked hard for what they are giving. They have often consulted with their adult children to let them know what they plan to do. They want to be faithful as Christian stewards and we are the better for it. And generosity begets generosity. Thank you!

Comments?

For the Common Good in a Time of Suspicion

Brian Zahnd is a thoughtful evangelical writer who has written worthwhile books on peacemaking as the way of Christ (Farewell to Mars) and the core value of radical forgiveness in our Christian faith (Unconditional?) I follow him on Twitter and often retweet his messages in 140 characters. Recently he tweeted a link to a statement he drafted a few years ago with Ahmed El-Sherif, an Arab Muslim scientist, and Samuel Nachum, an Israeli Jewish artist. It is a declaration of peaceful, respectiful co-existence. I thought it was excellent and timely, so I share it with you.
 
For the Common Good

We are Jews, Christians and Muslims.
And we are friends.
We seek to follow our respective religions faithfully.
We do not believe all religions are the same.
We recognize the reality of our religious differences.
But we are friends.
We are devout in our faith and respectful of our friendship.
Our faith and friendship need not be mutually exclusive.
We recognize that we share common space — the common space of a shared planet.
For the sake of the common good we seek common ground.
We do not share a common faith, but we share a common humanity.
In our different religions we do not practice the same rituals or pray the same prayers.
But in our shared humanity we hold to a common dream: Shalom, Salaam, Peace.
We hold to the dream that our children may play in peace without fear of violence.
And so…
We pledge not to hate.
We pledge not to dehumanize others.
We pledge to do no harm in the name of God.
As individuals we do not compromise the truth claims of our respective religions—
But we will not use truth claims to fuel hate or justify violence.
We will practice our respective faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
But we believe our faith can be practiced in the way of peace—
We believe our faith truly practiced need never be at odds with humanitarian ideals.
Our religions share a complex and intertwined history—
A history of interaction that has too often been tumultuous and bloody.
We believe there must be a better way and we seek that better way.
The way of peace.
We are Jews, Christians and Muslims.
And we are friends.
We seek common ground for the common good.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace.

Ahmed El-Sherif,  Samuel Nachum,  Brian Zahnd

I should note that I admire Zahnd for his expansive and deeply gospel-rooted Christianity, but there are some evangelicals who consider him a heretic -- which makes me like him even more!

Does this statement work for you? Does it capture your hope for respectful co-existence between religions and their followers? Do you know people from other religions and have you engaged in meaningful conversation?

Are you a fan of fireflies? Read my Groundling blog today http://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.ca/2014/08/this-little-light-of-mine.html

Ebola and a Greater Love

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 (NRSV)

You may have seen that two Americans have been flown from Africa to a special unit at Emory University in Atlanta to be treated for the deadly Ebola virus. The current outbreak is the worst ever, spreading to several countries and resulting in nearly a thousand deaths. I remember reading about Ebola in the book The Hot Zone back in 1992 and shuddering at the prospect of a disease without a cure which kills a high percentage of those infected.



There is hope that both of the Americans will survive, but others treating the poor souls who contract the illness in countries with little in the way of medical infrastructure have succumbed. One, Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan had emigrated to the United States but returned to Sierra Leone to offer his medical assistance. It's estimated that his intervention saved a hundred lives before he succumbed. After his death a prayer service was held in Maryland which involved both Muslim and Christian prayers. Many of the medical personal responding to the Ebola outbreak are members of faith communities and the two at Emory are Christians.

I really do think they are heroes, putting their lives at risk in a selfless manner which is a true reflection of Jesus' statement about love. It makes me wonder how deep my faith is. What would I be willing to do and what risks would I be willing to take on behalf of others. Let's keep these workers in our prayers and also pray that the international community will respond to this latest outbreak all the resources necessary to fight it.

Have you been following this story? Where you aware that many of the frontline responders were people of faith?

Take a peek at my recent Groundling blog posting called Blue/Green Commute http://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.ca/2014/08/bluegreen-commute.html

WW1 & Hope for Today

Our son Isaac and daughter-in-law Rebekah don't own a television, which I think makes them honorary Amish people. They do watch TV series on their computer but they are quaintly out of sync with the rest of the viewing world. On the weekend Ike texted that they had just finished season one of Downton Abbey and mentioned what I had forgotten, that it concluded with the announcement of the beginning of World War One. Go figure. They were so out of touch that they were entirely topical with the hundredth anniversary of The War to End All Wars coinciding with their episode.

I spoke about chaplaincy during WW1 on the Canada Day weekend and pointed out that every effort was made to demonize the enemy during the conflict. No matter that in the European theatre it was largely Christians fighting Christians. The fallen of one's own nation were martyrs for the faith. The fallen of the enemy were vanquished demons. While chaplains often supported this outlook in sermons,  it was a different story when it came to ministering to the injured and dying. Some British and Canadian chaplains learned the Lord's Prayer in German to repeat with captured enemy troops. At Vimy Ridge Canadian padres prayed with dying German soldiers as well as their own.



I wanted to write about this yesterday but I found myself overwhelmed by the sadness of the occasion, the futility of war, and the truth that all wars have not ended. We have simply become much sophisticated in the ways in which we annihilate one another. War is the parent of lies, and still we are determined to portray the enemy as other than human.

Prince Andrew pointed out yesterday that the somber commemoration in Europe included representative from Austria and Germany, the arch-enemies of the Great War. He named this as a sign of hope that enemies can become allies and friends. For Christians there can always be hope for a different way, the way of peace and reconciliation.

What has been going through your minds as the commemorations of the beginning of WW1 unfold? Is there hope in 2014?

Call to Action for Palestinian Children

I heard Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish on CBC radio this morning. He is the Palestinian doctor who now lives in Toronto. His remarkable book called I Shall Not Hate recounts his life growing up in Gaza, his drive to qualify as a physician against the odds, and his eventual work for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. During the last war between Israel and Hamas three of his daughters and a niece died after an Israeli tank shell smashed into their home. Despite the tragic death of his loved ones Abuelaish stills advocates for peace. He is a Muslim, a man of deep faith, and an extraordinary example of someone determined to uphold peace rather than retaliatory violence.

Today he was calling on the Canadian government to allow one hundred Palestinian children to come to Canada for medical treatment. We know that many children have been killed and maimed during this conflict and even in peaceful times there is not adequate medical care in Gaza. During this conflict five times as many people have been displaced from their homes than in 2009 and the toll of dead and injured is much higher. As I looked for a photo of Palestinian children some of the images were far too disturbing to include, but the carnage is terrible.



I pray that the federal and provincial governments will heed Dr. Abuelaish's call to compassionate action. I have no doubt he would be tireless in supporting these children upon their arrival and we have the resources in this province to provide care. A stumbling block might be a prime minister and foreign affairs minister who have shown little subtlety in assessing this conflict and the humanitarian crises. Wouldn't it make sense for churches to get behind this proposal and whatever would be necessary to assist the children and their families while in Canada?

Does this call to action make sense to you? Should denominations and congregation lend their support?

Under God's Roof

A month ago reader Larry sent me a link to a story about a practical interfaith initiative in Berlin, Germany. There are plans for the construction of a place of worship which will house a Muslim, a Jewish, and a Christian congregation. It is an unprecedented proposal which still has a long way to go, but the notion of one building including worship spaces for all three faiths, as well as a common room sounds wonderful to me. In the BBC News piece the Christian cleric is interviewed:

Each faith will keep its distinctive ways within its own areas, Pastor Hohberg says."Under one roof: one synagogue, one mosque, one church. We want to use these rooms for our own traditions and prayers. And together we want to use the room in the middle for dialogue and discussion and also for people without faith. Berlin is a city where people come together from all over the world and we want to give a good example of togetherness."

There is no desire to homogenize the three faiths, simply to demonstrate that distinctly different religions can literally find common ground for mutual respect and understanding.

Since hearing about this I listened to a CBC radio interview with a Toronto rabbi and an imam whose lengthy relationship has been built on trust, humour, and an obvious affection after more than twenty years of friendship. Their places of worship share a parking lot, but they share a great deal more as congregations.

This can happen! In a world where mistrust and violence rooted in tribal religion cause us to be discouraged we need the stories of dialogue and respect.

Comments?

Boyhood, Childhood and Our Hope

A voice says, “Cry out!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
    their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
    when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
    surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades;    but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40

On Saturday we drove daughter-in-law Rebekah and grandson Nicholas to Toronto where we rendezvoused with son Isaac for their return to London. I was delighted to spend time with their family, including six successive days with Nicholas. He is eighteen months old and was a different person than the year-old I saw at Christmas. He walks, has started talking in both official languages, loves music and books, has likes and dislikes. It was a pleasure to get him out in a canoe twice and watch him trailing his hand in the water with great fascination. I wish I could see him more often, but it was also fun to see so much development and change in a matter of months.

We went downtown from our meeting place and watched a movie at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the drama called Boyhood. We watch as an American boy named Mason becomes a young man. What makes this film remarkable is that it is filmed over the course of twelve years with the same cast or primary characters throughout, a considerable risk given all that would have changed in the lives of everyone involved. They came together every year to film the next sequence of the story. As a result we watch Mason and his sister grow from young children to young adults. The film is nearly three hours in length but remains fascinating because of the direction, the acting, and the transformation unfolding before us.

We found that we were both emotional at the conclusion, and knew that in part it was because of our time with Nicholas. When I was in London to pick them up Nicholas would point at his father and say "Papa" and then at me, quizzically offering "Papa" as though he was trying to figure out the generations.

While he was with us he played at a wooden table we have hauled around with through the years. He sat in a chair marked with a red "I" for Isaac, his father. He loved the bucket of cars and trucks including a selection of the metal Matchbox toys from my childhood. As life unfolds we aren't always aware of the passage of time in our busyness, and then we have the reminders of how fleeting and rewarding our existence is.

I am grateful that my faith helps me put life in perspective. Even though the brevity of our time here can be unsettling and even scary, God is our companion on the journey in all its changing seasons. I want to trust that in Christ these years have meaning and be the source of hope.

Comments?

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all who breathe away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

 O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.

Radical Religion

Ah yes, the irregular schedule of vacation does knock me out of the rhythm of blogging. I have been thinking about the recent reports of a young Ontario man who became a radicalized Islamist and went off to fight in Syria. When he was wounded he came back to his family to recover, but eventually returned.


What struck me was that this man was discouraged from taking the radical route by his mosque and actually participated in seminars to this end. His family also attempted to dissuade him to the extent that his mother hid his passport. Somehow he got back to Syria, claiming he is willing to kill and to die.


Often those who are anti-Muslim are critical of the religion in a couple of ways. One is to assume that all Muslims are violent extremists. The other is to accuse non-violent Muslims of not doing or saying enough in opposition to the terrorists. But we all have free will, and none of us can insist that another do as we direct them, especially as adults.


This week the world is recognizing the beginning of the First World War, a conflict which resulted in the deaths of nine million combatants, most of them young. Many young Canadians enlisted for a war whose purposes were vague and with little idea of the horror they would encounter. It is the way of war, and the young are recruited to fight and die for a variety of causes. Religion is often used to justify conflict, and to make casualties into martyrs.


I applaud the imams and the congregations of mosques and the families of those who are being recruited in their efforts for peace and counteracting the way of terror.


Thoughts?

Clamming Up

This morning we were off to paddle a portion of the Moira River north of Belleville with precious cargo. Our daughter-in-law Rebekah made sure that our eighteen-month-old grandson,  Nicholas, did not enthusiastically pitch himself into the murky water. We want Nicholas to gain an early appreciation of being out on the water and he did seem to enjoy himself.


It didn't occur to me immediately that we had an expert onboard. Rebekah is a freshwater ecologist and has just completed an aquatic study for McGill University. She explained some clam shells which were not as impressive to me as the blue herons and osprey and the school of gar swimming past, yet they are remarkable. They have developed a lure-like appendage which attracts certain fish. When they come close the clams squirt their young into the gills of the fish where they live until they are fully formed and release themselves. This is all the more amazing since clams are blind. How do they know what would attract the fish?


Rebekah is a scientist, yet she wondered aloud at the complexity of this evolutionary development and can appreciate why people are convinced that this is the work of a creative force, what we call God. I agree. I suppose I'll continue to make room for both and continue to be amazed by the variety of our wonderful planet.


Thoughts?

Chef Jesus

We went to see Chef this past week, a Jon Favreau film with a great cast. At times it is rather predictable but in the end it is a worthwhile story of a precocious chef who realizes he has drifted from edgy to establishment in terms of his menu at a high-end restaurant. After a melt-down directed at a critic who is withering in his disdain for the predictability of the chef's fare he is disgraced and fired. He returns to his roots in Miami and then hits the road in a food truck as a kind of pilgrimage to re-establish his creativity.


Chef's ten-year-old son accompanies him, a boy who  has longed for time with his over-worked and distracted father. Along the way the boy learns to cook and demonstrates his own strengths through promoting the truck on social media.


Of course, I see this story as a Christian parable -- would you expect anything else from a minister? Jesus was something of a foodie, enjoying meals with people at the edge of a culture where there were strict dietary protocols. His last meal has become one of the key sacramental aspects of our Christian faith. Somehow, though, our menu has become very predictable and many expressions of the Christian church are dismayed that people find our fare bland and uninspiring. Maybe we can reimagine Jesus as the creative, innovative chef of our faith once again.


In Chef the word gets out that the food truck is coming to town. The hungry and the curious line up for what is being served. Wouldn't it be great if we could set out on a new adventure, a new pilgrimage with Chef Jesus?


Have you seen this film? Do we need more than "comfort food" in the church today? What would our faith-full food truck look like, and what would we put on the menu? And what about making little chefs, as disciples?

Good Listeners

Shush! Did you hear that? I hope so, whatever it might be. This is World Listening Day and we are nudged toward attentiveness, to one another, to the natural world, and, in my worldview, God. I consider the three to be related. If I'm not listening to God I tend to be tone-deaf to the real voices of others. If I am not listening to nature then I lose an opportunity to hear God's expression through Creation.


This morning I dropped Ruth at work and then drove north of Belleville to the Frink Centre, which is a beautiful conservation and interpretation centre along the Moira River. I was there before the gates were opened and there were no other vehicles. I walked through the mixed forest and listened to the birds, the frogs, and the mosquitoes. The wind picked up in the maples from time to time and I stopped to listen. At one point walking along the river I crunched across the clam shells likely left by otters.


I decided to also make my way along the marsh boardwalk to the north of the road. The sounds were quite different with the breeze in the grasses. I met Kenzo, a tiny man of Japanese background who I often see on the Bayshore Trail in Belleville. I told him about World Listening Day and he smiled and nodded his head. He comes to the boardwalk nearly every day to listen and look. He showed me a photo of a baby sora, a very elusive marsh bird, and a rare Blanding's turtle. As I walked away I heard him tell his equally tiny Pomeranian dog that it was World Listening Day and that they must pay attention. It was sweet.


How are you when it comes to listening? Are you able to receive as well as transmit? Will you find some time to listen to God, others, and Creation today? Are you a good listener?

A Toast to Bernie

Tomorrow will be the memorial service for a former parishioner and I will not be there. Once again I am struggling with the necessary but painful reality of keeping my professional distance from my former pastoral charge. I thought the world of Bernie, who was actually Bernice, but as with many women of her generation took on a male nickname. In the same congregation there was a Billie and a Georgi. Bernie was anything but male. She was an elegant, accomplished, vivacious woman. She was seventy-nine when I met her and ninety when she died, but she was beautiful to the end, with the panache of an aging movie star. Our two daughters loved her fashion sense and style, as did my wife Ruth.  


Bernie was a person of depth, thoughtful in conversation, often engaging me after worship to talk about the sermon or give the service her stamp of approval. Her opinion mattered to me.


Aspects of her life had not been easy, yet her spirit was not dampened. She was compassionate, concerned about the well-being of neighbours, and she was a lot of fun. Bernie was the matriarch of a group of women who were all her junior by many years, including Ruth, and they gathered periodically to share a meal and the fullness of life. These women are mourning her death, and one of them, reader Lynn, will reflect on her full-to-the-brim life tomorrow.


I am reminded again that our loss has nothing to do with the deceased's chronological age. Is this a tragedy? No, and Bernie would scoff at the notion. Are we saddened to the point of tears? I know I am.


Thank you God for the life shared with us in Bernie. Condolences to her family. A toast to a classy lady.

Ramadan and Understanding

The world's Muslims are well into the thirty day observation of Ramadan, an annual period of fasting and spiritual purification. I freely admit that I am not well informed about Islam even though I have tried to learn more through the years, both by reading and in conversation with Muslims.


It hadn't occurred to me that the geography of Canada would create challenges for some of the faithful. If a Muslim is allowed to break his or her fast at sundown, what if there is no sundown? In the Far North daylight hours are so long that observing the fast could be life-threatening:


Islamic scholars have ruled that in Far North places such as Inuvik, Muslims can go by the time of cities in the south. So for Mr. Suliman and the roughly 100 observant Muslims in Inuvik, when the sun sets in Winnipeg it also sets in Inuvik, at least for the purposes of Ramadan. Otherwise, Muslims in the North would be fasting non-stop for an entire month.


Ahmad Alkhalaf, an engineer who also lives in Inuvik, says observing Ramadan in the North still requires a bit of an adjustment, even though he has lived there for 11 years. “You’re supposed to break your fast when it’s dusk and we eat when the sun is out. So it’s psychologically tough for the first couple of days,” he said. “But we follow time, more than what we’re seeing outside. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do this. It’s an abnormal situation.


This is a reminder that Islam is not as rigid as some might think. These are real people dealing with the real challenges of our faith -- just like the rest of us. I wrote before about Osgoode Hall prof Ziyaad Mia who started a program of contributing a loonie a day for hunger relief, a nice tie-in with the theme of fasting http://www.give30.ca/ This morning I listened to young Muslim women discussing an Iftar, or communal fast-breaking meal which allows them to support one another in a culture where they are the minority. Another group is working on information sharing about Ramadan and Islam to address stereotypes.


It is important to be aware of these challenges and initiatives in our pluralistic society, Maybe this will lead to greater awareness and acceptance.


Do you agree?

The Dawn of Understanding

On Sunday afternoon I went with wife Ruth and daughter Jocelyn to see the film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Blockbuster action films are just not my thing, but the reviews have been so positive we decided to don our 3-D glasses and took a look.


We found this prequel to the prequel to the...well to all the others...to be entertaining and even thought-provoking. Without undermining your possible viewing, a virus wipes out most of humanity and one pocket of survivors lives a tough existence in  shatteredSan Francisco. The apes, escapees from medical research labs,  have established a healthy colony in the forests beyond the city. A human scouting party encounters the apes, and conflict ensues.


The themes of suspicion of "the other" and the conviction that violence is a solution to problems over diplomacy run through the film, sometimes in an overly obvious way and sometimes with nuance.  The voices of reason from both sides are often ignored.


The resonances with "first contact" between Europeans and First Nations, and the current conflict in Israel and Palestine came to mind. Lest that sound demeaning given that one group is apes, it is the apes who often come across as wiser and more restrained.


It was a bit of a relief that there were no heavy-handed references to religion as a factor in justifying the enmity between the two groups. That seems to be the flavour of the day in many films, although God knows fundamentalist religion is often "guilty as charged."


Have any of you seen this film? Are you intrigued?

Tit for Tat

As I write this I'm also listening to a piece on radio about the tragic, deadly mess in Israel and Palestine. We know that three Israeli young men were murdered while hitchhiking through the West Bank. It was risky behaviour, but these students didn't deserve to be attacked, let alone die. Then a Palestinian teen was brutally murdered, burned alive. He had done nothing to provoke the attack, and it was as cowardly as the murders of the three teens.

In both cases extremist religion appears to have been a factor. The three charged with the death of the Palestinian teen, two of them only seventeen, are clearly connected to an radical Jewish group. On both sides terrible cruelty is justified in God's name.


The outcome of these murders was sadly predictable. The fools of Hamas began to fire rockets into Israel.  Whenever they do so they create huge uneasiness in Israel but do limited damage. The Israeli government has justifiably responded with force, although once again with a heavy-handedness which has resulted in nearly 100 Palestinian deaths and thousands are homeless. Most of the dead are civilians and a large percentage are women and children.


Nothing about this makes sense. Both sides shout "they started it!" and both claim that they have a right to do violence. And the prospect of some workable truce, if not true peace slips further away.


God help them all.


Any thoughts?

Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Not long ago we were reminded of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massaqcres in China.. Commentators noted that despite the courage of the participants in the cause of freedom, little had changed in terms of freedoms and basic human rights.




Last Saturday the Globe amd Mail newspaper offered a feature look at the situation for   Christiaenzhous in China today. The church is growing to the extent that China now has one of the largest Christian populations in the world at around 70 million. But harassment and persecution of leaders and congregations has increased under the current regime. Leaders are being detained and incarcerated, publishers are restricted and church buildings forced to take down external crosses. Documents indicate that there is an imperative to stem the growth of religion and Christianity specifically in China, even as officials deny this.


 Even though Christians represent just 5% of the population, in 1949, at the time of the communist revolution, there were only four million Christians. Clearly they are perceived as a threat today. In the city of Wenzhou a huge new church was demolished shortly after it was finished.Wherever the churches are knocked down officials claim it is because of faulty building practices.


We need to pay attention to the plight of Christians wherever they are harassed and persecuted and marginalized. In Iraq ten thousand Christians in the north of the country have fled their homes and communities because of ISIS, the militant Islamist group. While we should be concerned about religious persecution of any kind, these are our brothers and sisters in Christ and their plight must matter to us.

Belle

Last week we went to see an entertaining movie named Belle. It is costume drama, set in eighteenth century Britain, a time when the slave trade still flourished. Belle is a lovely mixed-race young woman, the daughter of a British naval officer and a woman of colour who may have been a slave. After the mother's death the child is taken to live with wealthy and influential grandparents who struggle with the social stigma of a "mulatto" grandchildren. Still, they raise her with love despite some of the social restrictions to which they adhere. The grandfather is the chief justice of England and is called upon to rule on a case involving a slave ship.


If this sounds a bit far-fetched, it is based on true. We know nothing about Belle's personal life from historical records but her existence and the manner in which she was raised are documented. It was unusual for the time, and the film does a good job of imagining what her life might be like, including the prospects for marriage.


What the story ignores altogether is that the movement to abolish slavery in Britain was passionately carried forward by Christians, including William Wilberforce. If anything the film minimizes the role of religion in favour of the law in regard to the end of slavery. Just the same, it is well worth seeing.


Have any of you heard of Belle, or seen it? Do you know much about the history of slavery in Britain? Do a search on William Wilberforce. You will be inspired.

Step Five Revisited

Some of you will recall a blog entry in which I described meeting with a guy who wanted to address the Fifth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is essentially the "come clean before God and somebody else about how you have messed up" step. This fellow did well, admitting that he has always tried to blame others, including two ex-wives, for his problems. Never once did he use the word disease, which means he didn't say that he wouldn't  been such a mean son-of-a-gun if it hadn't been for an illness. At the end we prayed and I haven't seen him since.


I wish I could find this fellow and send him to have a chat with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Ford returned from rehab earlier this week and set out to tell us once again that he was humiliated by his actions. We get that part, but then the recovery movement jargon just flowed out of him and in no time all the racist, sexist, homophobic bile he splashed around was dismisses as the result of drugs and alcohol. Once again Rob Ford has proven what a self-absorbed character he is. He has conveniently mistaken quasi-confession with true contrition. And he appears totally unprepared to accept that there are consequences for his actions. There is no definitive medical proof that alcoholism is a disease, but even if it is, it doesn't give a pass for any and all socially unacceptable behaviour.


It may sound as if \I am being unnecessarily hard on the mayor, but I saw all this play out when  I was a chaplain intern at Kingston Pen. Some inmates realized that 12-Step groups were an opportunity to reclaim their lives. Others saw them as one more "con" to garner sympathy and manipulate others.


God invites all  of us to "come clean," acknowledge our transgressions, and accept the consequences. I sure hope Toronto voters aren't conned by the Artful Dodger. I really do think he needs a genuine "come to Jesus" moment. Then again, we all do.


Thoughts?