Abortion, Federal Funding and Religious Freedom

In December of last year the Federal Government announced that it would require all applicants to the Canada Summer Jobs Program to agree to a formal attestation that: Both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other …

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The Gospel of Stranger Things

I discovered a Netflix show called Stranger Things  earlier this summer.  Everybody else probably watched it when it dropped last fall. Either that, or you have no plans to watch it at all, so I am probably safe talking about it, but if you haven’t caught it and are planning to watch it, here are …

A Once And For All Faith?

Within my tribe (Churches of Christ) and within other groups as well, there is a danger in reading Jude verse 3 with an air of finality: "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith …

The Cost of Free Speech

I saw something on my news feed last week (Twitter feed to be exact) that I didn’t know still existed. On Sunday, July 9th, The Klu Klux Klan held a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from

Dealing with Silence

I recently watched "Silence," the latest Martin Scorsese film, based on the novel written by Shusaku Endo. It was a deeply troubling movie. The film portrays the fictional story of a 17th Century Jesuit Missionary from Portugal named Father Sebastian Rodrigues (played by Andrew Garfield) who sets sail for Japan in 1640, determined to help …

What Being a Leaf Fan Has Taught Me About Idol Worship

Seems like everyone's a Leaf hater these days, and I mean HATE. It's like everybody's gotta tell me that the Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967. (Thanks, I'll write that down somewhere) or tell me that the Leafs suck (no kidding). I know you're all having some fun, but some folks need to …

(Not So) Merry Christmas From the Pope

Today, Pope Francis addressed the Vatican in his annual Christmas address for the bishops, cardinals and other staffers who live and work in Vatican City.  Rather than offer up a pithy "Merry Christmas" and how-do-you-do, Pope Francis offered up what we in the preaching biz call an "epic verbal smackdown." Not an angry rant or …

Time Travel and the Kingdom of God

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert! If you're not into temporal mechanics or Eschatology you will likely find this boring but I just had to get this off my chest. Some of these blog posts I do just for me and, judging by the page counts, you already seem to know that. We usually think of time …

X-Men and Eschatology

(By the way, Eschatology is the study of the last days.) Spoiler Alert! Read no further if you were planning to watch Days of Future Past and haven't gotten around to it yet! In the most recent X-men movie, Days of Future Past, things are not going well for our mutant heroes.  The movie begins …

Attending a Church With 50 Members is Good For You (You Just Don't Realize It)

If you talk to church leaders – it won't matter what tribe you ask – they will likely tell you that attendance is down in their local congregation. Very few churches these days report numerical growth and many are in steady decline. That's bad news right? The problem with this issue is that there is …