As Angela Reitsma Bick noted in a recent editorial (“An Other Perspective,” CC Jan. 27), it’s distressingly easy to fall into facile “us vs. them” assumptions; and in our present cultural moment, a lot of these assumptions have to do with class distinctions. During my university years, I worked as an intern for the U.S. federal government in my home state of Alabama, a job which required me to carry an ID card.
The Vietnam War was raging, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated, the counter-culture movement was in full swing and Jimi Hendrix had just released his stunning retake on Bob Dylan’s song: “All along the watchtower, princes kept the view […] outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl.” It was 1968 and I wonder if Morris Greidanus had such an apocalyptic sense of the times as he launched a Christian Reformed (CRC) campus ministry at the University of Toronto.
In this season of my life, the Lord has granted me a front row seat to what he’s up to in the lives of the “rising generations.” I’d like to serve as an ambassador between the rising generations and our church. Young adults love Jesus. They’re great with Jesus, but they’re much more skeptical when it comes to the church. Their concerns can be roughly gathered into three categories: money, sex and power. These are old gods – Mammon, Eros, Mars. And our young adults are warning us that these old gods are seducing the church in ways that they find deeply troubling. Let’s look in particular at money.
When Nabil Saeed* arrived in Vancouver in late 2016, he came full of hope. Having fled his home in Syria in 2013, he spent three years in Turkey awaiting resettlement and was eager to begin rebuilding his life in a safe and stable country. As he describes it, he neither wanted, needed, nor expected a red carpet upon arrival in Canada. What he most dreamed of was opportunity to make a life in a place where he could use his gifts and skills.
I see that the abortion debate has once again been in the news. As Christians, we usually take the stance for no abortions. But is making abortion illegal the right stance to take?
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Over the March Break, my 15-year-old son Cameron and I spent a good deal of time in downtown Toronto, visiting the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. We also ate in various ethnic restaurants that serve up the kind of food we can’t get back in our small town.
Death is pervasive in the Christian story. Our central symbol? The cross. More than 1/3 of the Psalms? Psalms of lament. One of the central metaphors of the Christian life is dying to the old self and putting on the new self.
I read a news story recently that’s stuck with me. It was about the experiences of undocumented Hispanic women who had worked at several of Donald Trump’s golf courses.
Public awareness that courts and the police don’t work like Law and Order shows on TV is a good thing. But loss of public confidence in our justice system is a serious issue, especially when it is deepest among groups who feel like they are on the margins.
When Canadians say to me, “I don’t get Americans and guns,” I say, “I don’t either.” I don’t fully understand the violence or the inadequate reactions.
Some Christians resolve the tension by arguing that religious freedom trumps all other rights. That is not the position in law and I don’t think it is biblical either. Basic tenants in human rights are universality – all people have equal rights – and indivisibility and interdependence – all areas of rights are interrelated. I work at the intersection of rights.
Hopefully 2018 will be a year of tackling the very real challenges in the way we govern how we live together in Canada. It will take citizen power, focused on our common good, to get the quality of governance we need for Canada. I hope to explore how in coming articles.
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