Author Archives: David

How to make a muddle of the Resurrection

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All it requires is an Anglican archbishop.

Here is Archbishop Linda Nicholls taking a simple historical fact and miring it in mushy obfuscation.

This starts well but quickly descends in treacly vagueness:

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the event that defines Christian faith. It is the unique event that affirms Jesus’s identity; and confirms, with power, all that Jesus taught about the love of God. It changes everything for the disciples, who must reframe all they expected through the lens that God is acting in life and even through death into new life. Without the resurrection, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor 15:13-14, 19, our faith is useless and we are to be pitied. With the resurrection we enter the lifegiving possibilities that God opens to us through Jesus Christ in every situation and moment of our lives. We share in the resurrection as the principle of God’s life in and through us.

[……..}

The gift of the resurrection of Jesus is the promise that—whether embraced slowly or quickly—the power of God’s love is stronger than the pain, sin and sorrows of what we see. Since Jesus lives, we will too, by entering into the reality that God is both with us now and waiting for us in the future, even if that future looks very different from what we have known in the past.

After emerging coughing from the fog of “entering into the reality that God is both with us now and waiting for us in the future, even if that future looks very different from what we have known in the past”, I consoled myself with the thought that I am a simple soul and, as such, merely cling to the hope that Jesus came back to life along with a real, improved body as evidence that he had overcome sin and death and reconciled us to the Father. Not only that, He a demonstrated that we, too, will rise from death with real bodies to join him. Just like it says in 1 Cor 15:13ff in the bits that Nicholls missed out.

“Take your vaccine” says the World Council of Churches

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Before I start, let me be clear: I am not trying to convince anyone not to take a vaccine. The choice is yours and I have no wish to influence anyone.

The WCC, however, does think it’s the church’s job to convince people to be vaccinated:

Is the new term for clergy “faith actors”? I didn’t know that. We can only assume it’s because Christian clergy see themselves as thespians playing a role rather than the genuine article.

We all suffer from a fatal disease. It’s called “sin”. There is no vaccine against it. The solution is Jesus. The church has forgotten that that is its primary message.

Bishops do strange things sometimes

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Sam Rose, Bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador is sleeping on the floor of his art studio to end furniture poverty. I didn’t know furniture poverty was a thing.

I have no objection to this if it makes the bishop feel better. Once he has furniture poverty under control, I hope he addresses art studio poverty; I wouldn’t mind having one.

Anglican Primate offers prayers of thanksgiving to St. Pfizer

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It was only a matter of time before the latest religion – the Cult of the Covid Vaccinated – was appropriated by the Anglican Church. Primate Linda Nicholls experienced a flood of emotion when she was injected with her first dose of Pfizer. I suppose we could call this cultural appropriation. She makes no mention of tongues of fire or a rushing wind, but she is probably just being modestly reticent in the Anglican fashion.

Since Nicholls feels guilty under the burden of her vaccine inequitable western white privilege, there was no vaccine selfie. Apparently, battling vaccine inequity has become one of our baptismal promises.

Nicholls warns us that rumours and misinformation are rampant. I have to agree with her on that. For example, just the other day, I overheard someone make the preposterous assertion that the organisation Nicholls runs is a church!

From here:

The gift of a COVID vaccination

Last week, I received my first vaccine dose for the novel coronavirus. As I did, I felt a flood of emotions.

A vaccine is a promise for a future without all of the restrictions we may be living under, so I was delighted and relieved at taking this first step. But even in that moment, I felt guilty that I have this privilege and sense of security, in a world where many may never see a COVID vaccination at all, or at least not for several years.

While some countries desperately seek access to the vaccines, there is resistance among some Canadians to receiving it and, in the midst of anxiety and fear, rumours and misinformation are rampant. Every day of life contains risks. There are no guarantees in any part of our lives, so we work to reduce the risks and make the world as safe as possible for ourselves and all of our neighbours. This requires trust in those to whom we have committed the work of protecting public health and a willingness to work with them to follow protocols.

“Justice for George Floyd was essential” says Justin Welby

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Derek Chauvin has been convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and is likely to spend much of what is left of his life in prison. That may not be very long in his new surroundings: his incarceration is probably a de facto death sentence.

Did he receive a fair trial? I really don’t know, but I think earthly justice is an elusive commodity. As Blaise Pascal noted:

Love or hate alters the aspect of justice. How much greater confidence has an advocate, retained with a large fee, in the justice of his cause! How much better does his bold manner make his case appear to the judges, deceived as they are by appearances! How ludicrous is reason, blown with a breath in every direction!….. Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the ermine in which they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in which they administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such august apparel were necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire respect. Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner, because indeed their part is the most essential; they establish themselves by force, the others by show.

This doesn’t bother Justin Welby, who has always seemed more interested in illusory temporal justice than the genuine eternal variety. Would Welby have been tweeting his satisfaction if justice had been served by the jury finding Chauvin innocent? Almost certainly not.

Will Welby also be praying for Chauvin? Let’s hope so: Welby believes Chauvin is a guilty sinner; didn’t Jesus come to save sinners?

I fear the truth is that Welby, like most others, wanted retribution not justice.

The curious case of Rev. Robin Barrett

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Ex-reverend now.

In 2003 Rev. Robin Barret was rector of Good Shepherd church in St. John’s. He had been married to a woman for 21 years and had three children. Yes, I know that’s unusual for an Anglican priest today – most male priests seem to want to marry men, but these were early days in the homoerotic devolution of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Finally, after 25 years in the closet Rev. Robin decided that he could no longer hide who he “really was”, so he announced to his congregation that he was gay. To put it bluntly, he liked having sex with other men. To pacify his congregation, he invited them to attend a “six-week educational workshop at the church on homosexuality”. Rev. Robin declared he hoped “it helps people to understand how I can be gay and a priest at the same time … there’s no going back.” Apparently, that left some in the congregation unconvinced.  Read more about it here.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of who Rev. Robin “really was”. In 2009 he was arrested for possessing child pornography; some of the images were of babies being molested. Rev. Robin must have decided that it was not yet the right time to come out as a clerical paedophile so there was no course on helping people understand how he could continue to be a priest while enjoying watching babies being raped. In fact, this led to a period of going in: to jail, not a closet.

Elizabeth Barnes, executive officer of the Diocese of Eastern Newfound and Labrador, was disappointed by Rev. Robin’s tastes. “I’ve worked with him directly. I always found him a genuine, caring individual and his call to social causes is exemplary of the kind of man he is” she declared. And Hitler made the trains run on time.

Robin Barret is in the news again. This time because he wants evidence presented at his trial to be excluded; so much for the Anglican mania for inclusion. He believes the evidence should be excluded because the police battered his door down unannounced, not leaving him any time at all to hide the photos of the raped babies.

Barret was jailed for two and a half years and placed on the national sex offender registry for life. You can read about Barret’s appeal to have the evidence thrown out here.

God, through Christ will forgive anyone no matter how heinous the sin. But where is Barret’s repentance? Of course, he may have repented – in the closet, as it were – we have no way of knowing. I do hope so, I would not want to meet my maker with that on my conscience.

Still, at least “his call to social causes is exemplary.”

And now for some humour

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The American Humanist Association has withdrawn the Humanist of the Year Award from Richard Dawkins because, well, he’s just too much of a biologist for the august body. He makes the audacious claims that a person’s gender is determined by her chromosomes and her blackness by the amount of melanin in her skin.

This used to be known as reality; now it’s called demeaning marginalized groups. The American Humanist Association claims to promote “Good without God”. So does Richard Dawkins. This must mean Dawkins has finally got what he wants: an end to objective reality and to his humanist award.

God frequently visits judgement upon us by allowing us to have what we want. Having worked tirelessly to remove God and Christianity from what is left of western civilisation, Dawkins has helped usher in a new golden age of superstition.

From here:

Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values. His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient. His subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity.

Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award.

No more master bedrooms in Toronto

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The diversity and inclusion committee of Toronto’s real estate board has outlawed the term “master bedroom” because it is either racist, sexist or slavish. Or possible all three. From now on the m***** bedroom will be known as the “primary bedroom.” That is until someone realises that “primary” implies something else is “secondary”, not to mention that most despised of all categories: tertiary. No-one wants to be third; “primary” is not inclusive at all.

As we are all being constantly reminded, Canadian organisations are riddled with systemic racism, none more so than the Anglican Church of Canada: it has the effrontery to advertise – yes, actually advertise – a Master of Divinity degree program. Has the church no shame?

From here:

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s president Lisa Patel says it will use the word “primary” in place of “master,” when referencing the main or principal bedrooms in homes in the coming months.

The word “master” is often seen as a reference to racism, sexism and slavery.

Patel says in an email that the change in terminology will apply to any entries in its MLS system, on TRREB.ca and on its Webforms platform, where realtors share forms with clients.

TRREB’s board of directors approved the change following a recommendation made by its diversity and inclusion committee.

And we think we will escape the wrath of God with a vaccine

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And we think we will escape the wrath of God with a vaccine that uses cells grown from an aborted baby’s kidney to test its efficacy (Pfizer and Moderna) or in its production (AstraZeneca. Janssen uses cells grown from a baby’s iris). The following is happening in Canada. Now.
God help us.
From here:
As a sonographer, I had the unfortunate experience of having to assist in a D&E “uterine evacuation” procedure………
Upon my arrival, I was told to place the ultrasound probe on the mother’s pelvis and scan during the entire procedure. Not knowing what was actually happening, I was stunned as I watched the doctor thrust a catheter into the amniotic sac. I watched the fetus dodge the catheter and try to hide in the top (fundus) of her mother’s uterus to get away. (Yes, the pregnancy was far enough along that I could see gender). Then, to my horror, I watched as he inserted a forceps clamp and grabbed her tiny leg. She writhed around in pain trying to break free but there was nowhere for her to go.
Then the doctor pulled hard until her leg ripped away from her body. She recoiled and violently writhed around in pain and curled herself into a tight ball. But it was no use, the clamp grabbed her arm and she struggled to pull away, a little less because she was dying, as he pulled her arm off of her body. (It was hard to see by this time because I had tears rolling down my cheeks). The child again curled herself into a tight ball but again the device grabbed her other leg and it was ripped from her body. By now, her heartbeat had slowed significantly but she was still alive (they didn’t inject anything).
Then the clamp grabbed her last limb and ripped it off. She wiggled and writhed around and then her heart finally stopped beating. That is when I announced that there was no more cardiac activity. The nurse and scrub tech in the room gasped, realizing for the first time that this was happening to a fetus that was still alive

The rise of the vaccine selfie

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Before all this started, I used to travel a lot and enjoyed photographing the places I visited. I was both amused and irritated (yes, I can be both simultaneously) at travellers who suffered from the compulsion of inserting themselves between their camera and what was often a spectacular view. No matter how good looking or vain the person, the effect was always to diminish not enhance the scene. I believe this is known as a selfie, the contemporary tribute to shameless narcissism.

As I like to remind my grandchildren, things are not getting better, they are getting worse: to confirm it, we now have the vaccine selfie. People are photographing themselves being injected with a COVID-19 vaccine. The preferred pose is to have the needle buried in a bare arm while the candidate smiles knowingly at the camera. What is this all about? Is it the next step in advanced virtue signalling? Is it a primitive superstition, an appeasement to pagan pandemic gods to convince them to pass over the vaccinated when the next variant sweeps the country? A type of masonic rite like rolling up your left trouser leg to welcome the initiate into the ranks of the immune?

I have no idea, but here is a good example: a vaguely familiar grossly overweight fellow who cares so much about his health that he is being Pfizered so he can go unimpeded into McDonalds for another cheeseburger.

For those who think I have lost all sense of proportion, take a look at this: CNN is complaining that their competitors have failed to display their vaccine selfies.