Frank Gehry's "Cathedrals"

 The legendary architect Frank Gehry died last week at the age of 96 and his fame and Canadian roots warranted the front page of the Globe and Mail newspaper on the weekend.

 I discovered that Gehry began life as a Goldberg and his family was orthodox enough in its Judaism that as a boy he discussed the Talmud with his parents and grandmother with the give and take of exploration of the texts.

His family emigrated first to Northern Ontario and then California and experienced anti-semitism in both places. His first wife convinced his to change his name to Gehry because it sounded more gentile. 

                                                        Guggenheim Art Museum

Gehry wanted to be an artist but became an architect who infused his work with sculptural artistry. His early designs were more conventional but as the years went by he ventured into the astounding wave-like and fish-like structures that can now be found around the world. 

His two best-known projects are probably the Guggenheim Art Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Canadians may have experienced his work through the redesign and expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario with its wonderful staircase. There are many more worth seeking out online 

                                                                       Disney Concert Hall 

These galleries and concert halls have a soaring, cathedral-like quality and I wondered if Gehry had ever designed a place of worship. From what I can gather he did design a modest chapel and bid on a cathedral but didn't receive the commission. That's unfortunate from my perspective and we can only imagine how he would have addressed a greater building dedicated to the glory of God. 

There is an interesting Frank Gehry connection within our family. Our daughter Emily was quite involved in the sales aspect of the Gehry-designed Forma condominium project in the entertainment district of Toronto, where the first tower is still under construction. She met him several times through her work and then was rewarded with a trip to Los Angeles where she visited his studio and the Disney Concert Hall. While Gehry was known for being somewhat tempermental through the years she says he was sweet and charming to the team and delighted in the fact that he was a character on the Simpson's animated show. He had a still from his episode on the wall of his studio (see below.)

                                 Daughter Emily with Frank Gehry in Los Angeles 

                                                      Frank Gehry in his Studio 

Angels from the Realms of Glory

 

1 Angels, from the realms of glory,

wing your flight o'er all the earth;

ye who sang creation's story,

now proclaim Messiah's birth:

come and worship, come and worship,

worship Christ, the newborn King.

 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,[b] the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,[c] praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,  

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!

This year's version of our Christmas tree is in place and adorned with ornaments, most of which were gifts from my late mother who travelled the world and brought them back from hither and yon. Near the top are a number of angels of unknown provenance, although the ultimate angel was a gift from a friend of my mother's from 50 years ago.

These are lovely momentoes of Christmases past, as are the memories of adorable and even unruly angels in Christmas pageants through the decades. These aren't angels though, at least not in the biblical sense. In my early years angels in those nativity plays were girls and shepherds were boys. So they seem to be on our Christmas tree. Yet in the gospel of Luke it is Gabriel who announces the unsettling Good News to first Elizabeth and then Mary about the unlikely births of cousins John and Jesus. Michael shows up as well, including in Revelation. While I would be happy with Gabriela and Michaela but those aren't the biblical names.

Son Isaac is doing an angel series during Advent this year and last week he reminded us that the word we translate as angel is "messenger" in both Hebrew and Greek. I have always wrestled with the notion of angels (nerdy Jacob dad joke) especially because of the absurd popularization of the angelic beings during the 1980s. I've never experienced a visitation myself but can I deny their existence when they're so important to the biblical narrative? 

                                                    The Annunciation -- Henry Ossawa Tanner 

Where have all those promised guardian angels gone in a time when we could use a heavenly host declaring genuine good news in our troubled world? I wouldn't mind if some of them were smitey, doing some divine clean-up work at the Kremlin and the White House, but that's not the way it works. 

I suppose that I'm content with the notion of divinely directed messengers, although they may be in human form. I think of the late, inspiring Jane Goodall who felt that in later life she was compelled to share a message of hope for the planet with a sense of purpose that came from beyond herself. Similarly, Canadian climate scientist and Christian Katharine Hayhoe points us to the often grim science yet is also steadfast in her hope for the Creator's wondrous world. Would they describe themselves as angelic? I doubt it, still  they are rays of light in the gloom. 

There is a heavenly and earthly host of messengers who call us to be the people God intends us to be, to be light and hope even in the midst of fear and uncertainty. Let's keep wrestling. 

'I am the light of the world!

You people come and follow me!'

If you follow and love you'll learn the mystery

of what you were meant to do and be.

1 When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and the shepherds have found

their way home,

the work of Christmas is begun:  R

                                          Detail from Jacob Wrestling with the Angel -- Rembrandt 

To Remember and Persevere

 

God of hope and love,
Today we stand somewhere between peace and joy,
unsure where to find them
in a world where women continue to be subject to violence
because they are women, because they are Indigenous.
Today it is hard for us to imagine the lamb and the lion together,
to know that our hearts will rejoice at the arrival of justice.
And yet we persevere.
We remember, and we persevere.

—an Advent prayer by Sara Stratton, written for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and in honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

A couple of weeks ago we chanced upon these two lovely women as we entered the Belleville Library. As you can see they were raising awareness about all forms of misogyny including intimate partner violence. We let them know that our sign was already on the lawn and we let them know our connection with one of their group who is a key person in the Trenton United Church congregation. One of them mentioned that this cause is personal because a beloved member of her family had not survived partner violence. 

For many years, 14 lights have shone skyward during a vigil honouring the victims of the Polytechnique attack. Last year, a 15th beam was added in memory of all murdered women. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press - image credit)

Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and there will be vigils held in communities across the country, including Montreal where a total of 14 women were murdered in the anti-feminist attack in the Ecole Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989. I took part in my first such vigil a couple of days after this terrible event. This was half a lifetime ago for me and at the time we had two young daughters. 

The massacre led to tighter gun laws in Canada and greater awareness of violence against women yet In 2024 187 women and girls were violently killed in Canada. Since 1989 the term "femicide" has become more widely used and many communities have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. As well, different levels of government have dedicated more resources to this scourge. And yet...

For a decade Ruth worked in a shelter for vulnerable women and children and one of her projects was visiting schools to talk to teen boys about what it means to be male and the importance of respect for women. Since those days the level of misogyny online has grown exponentially, included the INCEL movment that led to a mass killing of women in Toronto. 

We need to be vigilant not just today but all through the year. Ruth found that while some Christian congregations, including the one I was serving at the time, were open to hearing about the work of the shelter some clergy were not interested, some even claiming that this wasn't an issue in their churches.  

We can't forget about what happened in 1989 and what continues to unfold every day in this country. We too can remember and persevere. 

Advent Turtles...Really!

 On Giving Tuesday we were awash with requests for donations from really worthy causes and organizations, some of them three or four times in the day. By nightfall it felt like "enough already!" 

I suppose the strategy does work because we did make a contribution to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre because, well, we love turtles and the health of turtle populations is a strong indicator of ecological health in an area. When we paddle from Spring to Fall we see painted, blandings, and snapping turtles and it always makes me happy. 

It turns out that the first page of the new children's edition of the All Creation Waits Advent resource features a painted turtle with a thoughtful reflection on hibernation, a state some of us may feel like entering during these gloomier days. I realized that the first iteration of this book also contained a turtle image. 

I do wish that there were references to turtles and tortoises in the bible, although the Hebrew scriptures takes a dim view of reptiles, so perhaps it's just as well. Dissing them as "unclean" might break my heart. I would much rather give them an exalted place in Creation. I do like the notion of the blessed Advent Turtle, although it may be little confusing. 

                                   Turtle image from All Creation Waits, illustrated by David G. Klein

The Statistics on MAID in Canada

The annual federal report on Medical Assistance in Dying has been released and the findings are worth considering. 

It will soon be a decade since Canada passed legislation permitting MAID. Not long before this historic decision in 2016 the congregation I served hosted one of the co-chairs of the joint committee of Parliament and the Senate which brought recommendations before the House. Rob Oliphant is a Member of Parliament and a United Church minister and we've known one another for nearly half a century. The event was open to the public and about 100 people showed up on a hot Friday evening on the long weekend in May. 

This group of mostly senior citizens was suprisingly receptive to what was shared with them, as were participants in a study group on Palliative Care and MAID, again mostly seniors, which we offered at Trenton UC a few years ago. Most of us oldsters get it that we're going to die and we've seen enough lingering and suffering along the way that we at least want to have the conversation about how the end comes. 

There are Christians who feel that any form of "euthanasia" as some choose to call it, is wrong in all circumstances, even though that term means, ironically, "good death." You may recall the Western Canada Roman Catholic bishop who instructed priests in his diocese to withhold the rite of burial from the families of those whose loved ones chose MAID. I still seethe about that monstrous directive and hope the priests ignored it. 

The United Church has been criticized for partially supporting Medical Assistance in Dying with provisos that this shouldn't include those with mental illness and that we provide societal  safeguards for the vulnerable along every support possible for those who are poor and desparate. The UCC has also been criticized for offering prayers of discernment and support for those making decisions about MAID that don't fit the "never, ever" narrative. 

The annual report was helpful in providing statistics about trends and realities. By far the majority were in their late 70s or older and with illnesses that were terminal. The percentage of Canadians dying by MAID appears to be plateauing. 

Why do some people feel that it is compassionate or the "will of God" that society insists these people prolong their lives? While I still have considerable concerns about MAID I sat at the bedsides of many individuals who longed for the end. At times it seemed unnatural and even cruel that they were being kept alive by extraordinary measures. 

As Christians we can continue to prayerfully consider the moral and ethical implications of choosing death and figure out how we can be a part of that conversation in meaningful ways. 

I have looked at the report itself and I'll share an excerpt from a CTV article with key information:

In 2024, 16,499 people received MAID — a figure that represents about five per cent of all deaths in Canada.

That figure was up 6.9 per cent over 2023, when 15,343 people received assisted death. The number of MAID cases grew by 15.8 per cent between 2022 to 2023.

Another 4,017 people who requested an assisted death in 2024 died before they received MAID, and 1,327 requests were deemed ineligible.

In order to be considered eligible, a person must have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition.”

The report identifies some trends in who is choosing assisted dying, and why.

The median age of those who chose MAID last year was 77.9 years. Cancer was the most frequently cited medical condition, affecting more than 63 per cent of MAID recipients. The most common types of cancer cited were lung, colorectal, pancreatic and hematologic.

About 450 people who received assisted death were diagnosed with the neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Around 74 per cent of people who received MAID accessed palliative care first.

Health Canada also analyzed the socio-economic status of people who received assisted death, and found that “people who receive MAID do not disproportionately come from lower-income or disadvantaged communities.”

It did find that MAID recipients were less likely to live in remote locations and the report noted that may reflect challenges in accessing health services in remote parts of the country.

“Overall, the report suggests that eligible people across Canada are accessing this end-of-life option appropriately and that reports of disproportionate access by those who are disadvantaged are not supported by the data,” said Helen Long, the CEO of advocacy group Dying with Dignity.

More than 95 per cent of those who had an assisted death last year had a condition that made their deaths “reasonably foreseeable,” the report said.

Just 4.4 per cent were “track 2” MAID patients — people whose deaths were not deemed to be foreseeable but who said they were suffering intolerably.

Our Technology & Seeking Silence

 

 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.  And Simon and his companions hunted for him.  When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”  He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”  And he went throughout all Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Mark 1:35-39 NRSVue

 But when the one who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with any human,  nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterward I returned to Damascus.

Galatians 1: 15-17 NRSVue The Apostle Paul

Back in July I wrote about a CBC Radio segment from tech reporter Manjula Salvarajah on Appstinance, the encouragement to reduce or eliminate online life. This might be for a few hours, a day a week, during a focussed retreat, or by getting a "dumb phone" to replace the supposedly smart one. It is essentially a form of fasting and the piece was well presented.

A few days ago Manjulah returned with a related theme, this time seeking out silence in a world where every moment can be filled with noise and sound. While noise-cancelling technology has become very advanced we often choose to tune out extraneous noise while filling the void with podcasts and music. We can stave off boredom and be entertained, but we're never alone with our own thoughts. 

There wasn't anything overtly spiritual about either of these segments but they speak to a hunger in a society where social media have an almost god-like power over our lives. I heard portions of this silence piece three times thanks to Metro Morning, Ontario Morning, and Fresh Air on the weekend and chose to keep listening to the latter two. After the Ontario Morning broadcast the host of the program and the news readers chatted about their own choices for silence, important for two of them. 

I've been on a number of silent retreats through the years in monasteries, convents, and in the Silence House at Taize. Not in recent years, although I still crave the disconnection and the gift of silence. While I travelled thousands of kilometres for these experiences in many beautiful settings, just disconnecting at home or on a walk or paddle can be so beneficial. 

In most major religions there are invitations to "retreat", to fast, and to seek out silence for the good of the soul. In those experiences we may be better attuned to the presence of God the Creator, the Redeemer, and Sustainer. The gospels tell us that Jesus and the apostle Paul spent preparatory time apart before their ministries and Jesus cultivated silence amidst the press of need in each day.  

Way back in 2010 the term "Tech Shabbat" was coined by Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg as a day of rest from the use of all technology, including television. It was based on the traditional Jewish Shabbat or sabbath. 

We need these reminders along the way silence is golden, and good for the body, mind and soul. And maybe we'll cast out some demons in a world that often seems possessed by them these days!

The Mona Lisa of Illustrated Bibles?

 Dan Brown managed to fanagle the world into being obsessed with the painting known as La Gioconda or the Mona Lisa through his thriller novel The Da Vinci Code. I first perused this early 16th century portrait as a 19-year-old, more than half a century ago, when it was a painting on the wall in the Louvre along with a number of others. No protective glass, security guards, line-ups, or selfies. 

The Mona Lisa was considered a masterpiece then, as now so maybe it's not surprising that an illustrated bible from roughly the same era has been described as the "Mona Lisa of illuminated manuscripts." It is a catchy way of emphasizing the beauty of this work, although to my mind it is comparing apples and oranges. 

The "illuminations" are the exquisitely painted illustrations in bibles and breviaries and books of hours that were often created to demonstrate the wealth of the donor or owner with a little piety thrown in. In many cases they were created in monasteries and convents by nuns and monks who were skilled scribes and artisans. Their work was an act of devotion and a source of income for communities of faith. 

.Here is a description of a display of the Borso D"Este Bible during this Vatican Jubilee Year in Italy and the Vatican:  

 A 15th-century Bible which is considered one of the most spectacular examples of Renaissance illuminated manuscripts went on display in Rome on Thursday as part of the Vatican's Holy Year celebrations.

The two-volume Borso D'Este Bible, which is known for its opulent miniature paintings in gold and Afghan lapis lazuli, was unveiled in the Italian Senate, where it will remain on display until Jan. 16.

The Bible is usually kept in a safe at a library in Modena and is rarely seen in public. It was transported to Rome under heavy security and its arrival in the Senate was televised, as workers hauled two big red crates from an unmarked van and then extracted the volumes, which were covered in bubble wrap.

The Bible, commissioned by Duke Borso D'Este, was created between 1455 and 1461 by calligrapher Pietro Paolo Marone and illustrators Taddeo Crivelli and Franco dei Russi. The Italian Culture Ministry considers it one of the highest expressions of miniature art "that unites sacred value, historic relevance, precious materials and refined aesthetics."

It will remain behind humidity-controlled plate glass during its Roman sojourn, but visitors can "read" it digitally via touch screen displays featuring ultra-high-resolution images.

Alessandra Necci, director of Gallerie Estense in Modena, where the Bible is usually kept, describes it as the "Mona Lisa of illuminated manuscripts" because of its exquisite artistry and religious inspiration.

I am fascinated by illustrated bibles whether ancient (Book of Kells) or modern (St. John's Bible.) It's wonderful that the Borso D'Este Bible will be shared with the world, at least for a time. Perhaps the Mona Lisa is the Borso D'Este of portraiture. 

World AIDS Day 2025

This is World Aids Day, worthy of acknowledgment, but I figured that I've blogged about this annual recognition enough in the past that I'd give it a miss this year. This morning I was reminded that while effective drugs have been developed to reduce the effects of HIV/AIDS there is no cure. And here in Canada the number of AIDS diagnoses is on the rise again. Even so, the AIDS Committee of Toronto will be closing its centre in 2026 after 43 years for a number of reasons, including reduced demand for services but also because of funding challenges. 

We should be aware as well that the financial support for HIV/AIDS programs in poorer countries, including a number in Africa, has been dramatically reduced, in part because of decisions by the Trump administration to defund global health initiatives. There is concern that Canada will follow suit. 

The Keiskamma Altarpiece pictured above was created in South Africa nearly 20 years ago in a community hit hard by HIV/AIDS. Dr. Carol Hofmeyr gave needles and thread to local women, many of them grandmothers raising orphaned grandchildren, who created this magnificent depiction of their reality, including crucifixion and resurrection scenes.  It is 13 feet tall and 22 feet wide. When we went to see it in Toronto while it was on tour in 2007 a group of those grandmothers came into the sanctuary of St. James Cathedral and began to mourn when they saw the altarpiece. It was a powerful moment. 

We can continue to mourn for the lost and pray that the scourge of this pandemic will be overcome. 

Today I'm also thinking of Tom Reid, a parishioner in Sudbury, Ontario, who invited me onto the inaugural board of the AIDs Committee of Sudbury in 1988, shortly after I became the minister of St. Andrew's United Church. I'm grateful that he did so and I see that the Reseau Access Network offices are now in St. Andrew's Place,

Here is a video link about the altarpiece:

https://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/the-keiskamma-altarpiece-transcending-aids-in-south-africa/

Advent Antidotes & Invitations 2025

 

1 All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,

and open furrows await the seed of God. 

All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty; 

it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.

2 Thus says the prophet to those of Israel, 

'A virgin mother will bear Emmanuel.' 

One whose name is 'God with us', our Saviour shall be, 

through whom hope will blossom once more

within our hearts.                   Voices United 5

Yesterday I lamented "Advent Calendar Creep" the ominipresent appropriation of the Christian season of Advent for commerical purposes. It is antithetical to the message and ministry of Christ but what is the antidote? 

It seems obvious that we seek out the resources and resolve to be Christians in the midst of secularization, not to impose it on others in a multicultural society, rather to contemplate and celebrate our own story. 

A few years ago I blogged about a gem of a book by Galye Boss with David Klein as the illustrator. As you can see below, the title is All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings. That was nearly a decade ago and for this year Boss has created a children's version of the book that is really for all ages. I have them both now and the illustrations for All Creation Waits 2.0 are wonderful as well. 

Each day through the 24 days of Advent a different creature is featured and are meant to be gradually revealed and savoured through the season. I hope you can make out Boss's "Dear Reader" introductory page which upholds the "expectant waiting" aspect of Advent. She describes the book as a form of Advent calendar with pages numbered to correspond with the 24 days of the season. There is even an online Explorer's Guide as a companion to the new version of the book. 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/supadu-imgix/paracletepress-us/pdfs/discussion_guides/DG-9781640608283.pdf

I delight in both of these books because often Christian Creation resources are about what we should be earnestly doing --always important -- rather than what we are noticing and receiving. It is important to remember that all Earth is waiting for the coming of Christ, not just humans. 

During this week I may share some more ideas about how Advent can be what it is intended to be for Christians in gentle but intentional ways. 

3  Mountains and valleys will have to be made plain, 

open new highways, new highways for our God, 

who is now coming closer, so come all and see, 

and open the doorways as wide as wide can be.

4  In lowly stable the Promised One appeared.

Yet, feel that presence throughout the earth today, 

for Christ lives in all Christians and is with us now; 

again, on arriving, Christ brings us liberty.

Advent Calendar Creep

                                                                  Traditional Advent Calendar

The season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the "coming of Christ" from three different perspectives:

 the physical nativity in Bethlehem, 

the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer, 

and the eschatological Second Coming.

Folks, now they're coming for Advent...

 The generation of those who could remember simple gifts at Christmas, often homemade, with perhaps an orange in the stocking, is almost gone.Baby Boomers decided that nothing succeeds like excess when it comes to Xmas spending. We are also the generation that concluded that while we have holidays as a celebration of Christ's birth in the first place it is verboten to acknowledge this reality in most public settings. 

For a long time Easter, the other Christian biggie, was safe, albeit with minor commercialization, but the spending creep has taken over in this season as well. Celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection? God, or no god forbid, as we've seen the alarming secularization of this season as well.

What could possibly happen to Advent, other than becoming the runway for Christmas? 

Well, make way for the "Advent Calendar." Advent Calendars were traditionally a way to build anticipation for Christmas with little doors or pockets containing maybe a verse of scripture and a treat for each day during the four weeks of this contemplative time in the Christian calendar. The one we used with our children was laughable simple but they still had a sense of excitement each day.

                                           from the Globe and Mail article, November 14, 2025

 In the past decade retailers have cottoned to the possibilites for selling secular versions of these calendars. And with this has come the obscenely expensive versions, some with swag costing thousands of dollars. A couple of weeks ago the Globe and Mail offered The best Canadian advent calendars this holiday season elbows up baby Jesus! The cheapest was $70 and the most expensive was about 300 dollars more. You can hit a gift-giving home run with a Blue Jays calendar. 

I hear about the growing number of people in our country crushed by food insecurity and debt. Last years statistics tell us that at least 60,000 Canadians are homeless on any given night. There are probably hundreds of thousands who will are anxious about the pressures of the season. The gap between rich and poor gets wider. How did we get here?

I may be a curmudgeon but I actually get emotional about all this. It seems soullous to me. There is nothing in the definition above about the arrival of retail excess. 

Tomorrow Advent 2025 commences and I will do my best to observe as a Christian with a sense of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. God being my helper. Join the resistance!

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

 

Mr. Scorsese & Christianity

We have been watching the five-part Apple TV series about revered film-maker Martin Scorsese. It seems that anybody who is anybody in the motion picture world is in awe of his lifetime contribution to the industry and story-telling on the big screen. We have seen a few Scorsese dramas and documentaries but a lot of his work is known for violence, for which we have limited tolerance especially as we age. 

He is a charismatic and candid figure in a quiet way, admitting to his own demons perhaps born in the raw Italian-American neighbourhood of his youth in New York City. The series has reminded me that Scorsese began studies for the priesthood but quickly realized he wasn't good at it. It seems that he has addressed the demons and his spiritual longing in various films including a documentary series called Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints. I think that once upon a time I blogged about his historical drama, Silence, about the travails of Portugese missionaries in Japan. It is another film with lots of violence that explores spiritual themes. 

Mr. Scorsese also explores the world-wide response to his film The Last Temptation of Christ, inspired by the Nikos Kazantzakis novel of the same name. The last temptation in the novel and film was for Jesus to forego death on the cross for the sake of his love for Mary Magdalene. When Scorsese pitched the film the question was why he would want to make such a controversial picture and his answer was that he wanted to get to know Jesus better. If Jesus was both human and divine he must have experienced human emotions, desires, temptations. This was an uncomfortable incarnation rather than a sanitized one.

Scorsese commented at the time: 

The beauty of Kazantzakis' concept is that Jesus has to put up with everything we go through, all the doubts and fears and anger. He made me feel like he's sinning—but he's not sinning, he’s just human. As well as divine. And he has to deal with all this double, triple guilt on the cross.

While this is honest theological exploration both the novel and the film were condemned by the Roman Catholic church and irate Christians everywhere, most of whom had not read or seen them. Why is it that people who would never watch certain films are insistent that no one else does either? You can see above that 25,000 gathered for one protest. 

The Last Temptation was banned in many communities and countries and the critics were certain that Scorsese, now 83,  was headed for hell, but he doesn't seem overly worried by the prospect. 

We have a couple more episodes to go so it will be interesting to see if there is any more God-talk from Mr. Scorsese. 

We are not far from Christmas, our Christian celebration of the Incarnation, although the safer part where a baby is born. Yet with the cradle there is always the foreshadowing of the cross and the challenging questions and answers that come with our God-with-Us faith. 

Thomas King, Accidental Pretendian?

More than a quarter century ago I listened to a CBC Radio show called the Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour a 15-minute segment (nuck, nuck) that poked fun at cultural stereotypes held by White People and "Indians." It was clever and often biting. 

The show had a number of regular segments, including:

• Gracie's Authentic Traditional Aboriginal Recipes, including puppy stew, fried bologna, and Kraft Dinners
• The Authentic Indian Name generator, featuring three wheels that could automatically create names like "Stewart Coffee Armadillo" or "Rosemarie Clever Tuna"
• Gracie's Conversational Cree, which taught simple but useful phrases, such as, "Please ask the chauffeur to bring the car around" and "How long will we be in port?"
• Recommendations from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples were ironically highlighted.

I liked the show because of its irreverance and because I was doing my best at that time to develop a greater understanding of Indigenous culture and to come to grips with the complicity of Christian denominations in Canada, including the United Church, with the horrors of the Residential School system that did it's best to extinguish Indigenous identity. A lot of that exploration was heavy stuff and the Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour made it's point in a humorous way. 

The host, Thomas King, is an author who went on to write many books including the excellent The Inconvenient Indian, the novel Indians on Vacation, and the Dreadfulwater mystery series -- I've read them all. He has taught Indigenous studies at the University of Lethbridge and received the Order of Canada for exposing “the hard truths of the injustices of the Indigenous peoples of North America.”

A family photo shows Thomas King, far left, and his brother Chris to his left, with their mother and cousins.Thomas King

King has written from the perspective of being part Cherokee, or so he thought. He has discovered that he has no Indigneous heritage and is devastated that the story he was told by his mother from childhood wasn't true. He chose to explore rumours that he wasn't Indigenous and the evidence is clear that he is what we might call an Accidental Pretendian. He just wrote an essay in the Globe and Mail in which he describes being told that there is no background in the Cherokee Nation: 

As you might expect, I didn’t want to believe her. I was sure she had made an error in her research, hadn’t gone back far enough, but as she talked about what she had found, as we matched the pieces of family history that I had with the pieces of family history that she uncovered, it became clear that the one piece missing was any connection to the Cherokee.

It’s been a couple of weeks since that video call, and I’m still reeling. At 82, I feel as though I’ve been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story. Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all.

I first read an online contention, by a Cherokee researcher,  that King wasn't Indigenous several years ago and commented to Ruth, my partner, that I hoped this wasn't true. Then it seemed to evaporate...until now. 

We'll see where this all goes. I have the feeling that despite the resonance with the scandal around Buffy St. Marie and other pretendians what has unfolded with King may be different, but we'll find out. I know that I benefitted from the insights of The Inconvenient Indian.  

In his confessional essay King reminds us that the sign-off for Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour was "Stay calm! Be brave! Wait for the signs!" My heart goes out to Indigenous people who feel that they may have been exploited and betrayed once more. The sign-off could be a prayer for all of them, but it shouldn't need to be.