In the 1960s and 70s, Calvin Theological Seminary counted among future Christian Reformed Church pastors not a few who ranked anti-Vietnam War demonstrations higher than class attendance. We wanted to “change the world.” I remember how Professor Henry Stob did not oppose social justice, but often sternly criticized public protests that could turn people into…
On June 22, 2021, the Senate of Canada approved Bill C-218, making it legal for Canadians (19+) to participate in mobile sports betting. If you are uninterested in sports, this probably has little effect on you except for the frequent advertisements and commercials from FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, PointsBet and many more. But it’s worth paying…
In team sports, it’s common for the coach to call a time-out when the game has gotten off track. At the pitching mound or hockey bench, a time-out is a brief opportunity to get back to fundamentals. After the way that the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Synod handled the Human Sexuality Report (HSR), I wonder…
Many Christians know firsthand the challenges that come from studying scripture and the concern of interpreting it accurately. Questions arise as a reader tries to piece together the dense and rich information of the text, and these questions many times are not answered so simply on a Sunday morning. The BibleProject podcast excels at tackling…
Summertime is the season for boats, or at least boating analogies. Angela Reitsma Bick and I have a book (to be released this September) that features boats as a spiritual analogy for the deconstruction and reconstruction of faith. We write mostly about canoes that run aground or get capsized. That’s how it feels in the…
“One should act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can, at the same time, will that it becomes a universal law.” – Immanuel Kant “I will show you a still more excellent way.” – I Cor. 12:13 Many years ago, I and three other undergraduate friends would meet for discussions over pizza…
In what might have been one of the most dramatic meetings in Canadian Christian school history, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Edmonton Society for Christian Education (ESCE) began at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, and didn’t end until nearly 2 a.m. the next morning. When the gym doors opened at 6 p.m.,…
“I don’t think we should use that song. In fact, I don’t think we should ever use that song again.” Strong words for a leaders’ meeting to decide on youth worship repertoire, but I meant them. I had just named a favourite song being sung in countless churches. It was full of engaging musical features:…
“It’s a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.” Sometimes I cringe when I hear this. Is the Israel-Palestinian conflict fulfilling prophecy? What about the Ukrainian war or recent political chaos? Is the end near? Throughout history, well-meaning believers have tried to understand difficult times with the light of Scripture. End-time claims sell books and get publicity. Consider…
Freud’s Last Session is an imagined conversation between the psychologist Sigmund Freud and the author/theologian C. S. Lewis. The film uses the interaction to bring the work of these two men into a space where they comment on and critique one another. There is, of course, discussion on the limitations of religion and the problem…
This past weekend we learned that Bob Goudzwaard has departed this life at the age of 90. Goudzwaard was a political economist who was steeped in the Christian tradition, especially in that branch of the faith downstream from Augustine, John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, and Herman Dooyeweerd. Born and raised in Delft, the Netherlands, he lived through…
Leadership. What comes to mind when you hear the word? If you are like most people in the western self-determinist part of the world, you think of a person, an individual. History and Scripture would not necessarily dissuade you. Lincoln, Churchill, Moses, King David. We immediately gravitate toward their successes. The individual is, for us,…
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