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Oct 12

27 Comments

Good For Us

Later this month Prof. John Stackhouse from Regent College will be here in Nanaimo to talk about the New Atheists (can we still call them “new?”) and whether or not it is crazy to be a person of faith.  Those who have been long-time readers of this blog will know that this is an event that has special interest for me because a) I wrote about the New Atheists for my masters thesis a few years back; and b) John Stackhouse was my supervisor for this project.  So I’ll be there with bells on.  And if you are on Vancouver Island on Saturday, October 23, I would encourage you to attend this event (you can register here).  I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say. Read more

Oct 11

9 Comments

What’s Old is New Again (NHL Style)

According to WordPress’s new, more comprehensive statistics page the second-most popular post I have ever come up with—at least according to number of page views—is a post from last year on hockey jerseys (naturally, of course… What else would you expect, on a blog that deals primarily with faith-related subject matter?).  Apparently I am not alone in my life-long fascination/curiosity with hockey jerseys!  So, because fall is here and hockey season has officially begun, I thought a hockey post might be fun for a holiday Thanksgiving Monday (my apologies to the non-hockey aficionados who read this blog :)). Read more

Oct 9

2 Comments

The Love More Lovely Than the Rest

Fall is a beautiful time of year on Vancouver Island, but yesterday and today it’s been pounding rain, driving wind, and lots of time indoors. I’m usually the first person awake in our house and occasionally I will begin the day by throwing on the headphones and listening to the music of Canadian singer/songwriter Steve Bell. Steve has that rare gift of being able to combine fantastic music with lyrics that are deep and insightful and illuminating and life-giving. I remember a few years back when I had a part-time teaching gig at a college for one semester, I would listen to Steve Bell every day on my 45 minute commute. His music invariably did a very nervous and apprehensive soul good. Read more

Oct 6

8 Comments

The Whole Jesus

Next month, the British Columbia Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (of which the church I serve at is a part) will be holding another event to further discuss some of our differences (or perceived differences) regarding how we are to understand the cross of Christ. The atonement debate has been simmering in these parts for a while now (I’ve reflected on it here, here, here, and here if you’re interested in any background). Some see a decreasing emphasis in the penal substitution component of what the cross accomplished, and think that this represents a compromise of the gospel. Others see room for locating penal substitution within a broader understanding of what was achieved at Calvary. This event is an attempt to better understand and talk about these differences. Read more

Sep 29

12 Comments

Religious (Yawn) Knowledge

Well, the blogosphere is abuzz this week with the results of a survey on religious knowledge conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life—particularly the fact that atheists and agnostics scored highest on the quiz.  The sheer volume of words being devoted to these results makes me hesitant contribute still more.  Whether it’s Christians desperately explaining the results away or atheists/agnostics pointing to them as yet one more piece of evidence demonstrating their intellectual superiority over their benighted religious brethren, it all gets very tiresome. Read more

Sep 28

4 Comments

Sacred Spaces

Anyone involved in church work in a twenty-first century, Western, post-Christian context is familiar with the common trend toward declining church attendance (see here, for some figures from the American context). The story is a well-rehearsed one: people are interested in “spirituality” not institutional “religion.” Churches are places of lifeless formalism. And if churches don’t do anything for us, why bother with them? Why not spend a Sunday morning enjoying the outdoors or our kids’ sporting activities, or a quiet cafe and a newspaper, or… fill in the blank. Read more

Sep 24

11 Comments

You’re Not Awesome (and Neither am I)!

Last week I was driving back from a breakfast meeting and happened to catch a bit of a CBC radio program where the hosts were discussing an apparently growing service dedicated to reminding people of how awesome they are.  At Awesomeness Reminders, it’s all about you and your awesomeness and being continually aware of this awesome reality.  For the low, low price of only $10/month ($20 outside the USA and Canada—apparently non-North Americans begin with an awesomeness deficit), you can receive a daily phone call carefully crafted to convey just how awesome you are in order to fortify you to face the challenges of the day ahead. Read more

Sep 20

6 Comments

Us and Them

Perhaps it’s some kind of strange back-to-school induced nostalgia, but today I’m thinking about parenthood and family and just how it is that my little twins have somehow become these big grade four creatures that no longer need (or want, sometimes) their hands held, or to be walked to school, or shepherded to their various activities, or any of the other things that have just been a part of life for what seems like forever. They’re growing up, I suppose, as kids are prone to do. It’s an interesting journey, this business of raising children. Read more

Sep 19

2 Comments

Bumper Sticker Theology

Some lighter fare for a sleepy Sunday afternoon… I couldn’t help but chuckle at this bumper sticker, spotted yesterday at the Saturday Market over on Salt Spring Island.


Sep 15

8 Comments

Who Is This God?

Richard Dawkins famously opens chapter two of The God Delusion with the following oft-quoted, adjectivally promiscuous salvo:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Read more

Sep 14

A Thousand Glad Answers

It’s been a while since Walter Brueggemann made an appearance around here, so I thought I would share another one of his prayers as I sit down to begin another work week.  I came across this prayer from Prayers for a Privileged People during last week’s service preparations.  Among other things, it seems to me a good reminder of the continual process of disorientation and reorientation that is inherent in the life of faith: Read more

Sep 11

5 Comments

Listening for Life

Of the many things back to school week represents a return to, more regular breakfasts with the kids is among them.  Yesterday morning, the kids were poring over a calendar that mom had laid out on the table in an attempt to get our fall schedule coordinated as a family.  Aside from the events that happen to pertain to them, the kids have always taken an interest in the various holidays that show up on the calendar. Read more

Sep 6

5 Comments

The Question is Worth Asking

A few more loosely connected thoughts and links for a (holiday) Monday morning…

“The Stone” is a New York Times philosophy forum that I have enjoyed spending time at recently. Yesterday’s post by Tim Crane called “Mystery and Evidence” is one of the best attempts I have seen from an atheist to honestly lay out the difference between religious approach to the world and a scientific one. Crane critiques the view popularized by Richard Dawkins (and others) that religion and science are two competing alternatives for the same explanatory slot—as if religion were a kind of primitive science that offered the same kinds of explanations that science now offers in a much more comprehensive, rational, and intellectually satisfying manner. Read more

Sep 3

23 Comments

Faith, Technology, and The Suburbs

A couple of loosely connected thought, links, and quotes for a Friday morning…

A few weeks ago, I came across an excellent new collaborative blog called Wondering Fair (a number of contributors are alumni from Regent College).  Interesting and engaging topics, good writing, nice accessible look and feel… definitely worth adding to your reader.  Due to my ongoing interest in how technology shapes us as human beings, I was particularly drawn to David Benson’s post on why he doesn’t own a mobile phone.  His summary hits the nail on the head, in my view: Read more

Sep 1

26 Comments

Slip and Slide

Over the last little while, The Biologos Forum has been posting a conversation between Pete Enns and N.T. Wright dealing with various questions about faith, culture, science, politics, etc. Today’s video has to do with the perception, in parts of the evangelical world, that there is a “slippery slope” in evangelical-dom and that it always goes to the left (i.e., to more “liberal” understandings of faith).  The questioner wanted to know if the “slippery slope” argument could also be applied to the right? Read more

Aug 30

Jesus is the Answer

There is a sign at a local church that I pass by regularly that says this: Jesus is right for what is wrong in your life. For whatever reason, I almost always have a negative response to these kinds of church signs. They strike me as theologically naive and simplistic. I instantly think of a number of smart-alecky type responses that I could supply, thus demonstrating my obvious theological acumen and sophistication. Even though if pressed and given the opportunity to explain and qualify sufficiently, I would affirm the message of the sign, my initial reaction to “Jesus is the answer” type signs is almost always negative. Read more

Aug 27

7 Comments

Eat, Pray… Huh?

I haven’t read the book or seen the movie (and plan on neither), but I’ve heard enough about both to be cynical.  And to find this article by the Vancouver Sun‘s Pete McMartin, recounting his trip to see Eat Pray Love, absolutely hilarious in a depressing, if-only-this-wasn’t-so-true sort of way.  I just about sprayed coffee all over my computer screen after reading the title alone (“Bleat, Flay, Loathe … One Man’s Search for God on a Cineplex Screen”). Read more

Aug 25

8 Comments

Informationism

A lot of my reading for this week’s sermon has been focused on Sabbath—how to keep it, why it ought to be kept, what prevents us from keeping it, etc.  Whatever else a consistent and deliberate observation of Sabbath might protect us from, I think that our societal addiction/enslavement to technology would be high on the list.  A couple of articles I’ve come across over the last few days from the New York Times’s “Your Brain on Computers” series (see here and here, for example) have simply reinforced my sense that one of the things that the inhabitant of twenty-first century postmodernity is most desperately in need of is unplugging. Read more

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