Archive for the ‘I’m A Believer’ Category

More Pedophilia?

- May 26th, 2010

Let’s see how the media report this one. One of Italy’s most outspokenly dissenting and pro-homosexual priests, Domenico Pezzini, has been arrested for abuse of a male teenaged victim. 73-year-old Pezzini was arrested on Monday in Milan and the police also revealed that a large quantity of pornography had been found in the man’s home. The Italian media is describing this, predictably, as “pedophilia” but the police have stressed that the victim was not a child but a minor adolescent, aged between 13 and 16.

As I’ve written before, a crime is a crime and the people we need to listen to are the victims. But we also need to be brave enough to listen to the truth. The overwhelming majority of the victims in the entire church abuse scandal have been adolescent boys. This is not pedophilia but the abuse of young men by homosexuals who have lied their way into the priesthood.

As part of the response to this horror the Church quite rightly placed restrictions on homosexuals entering seminaries, and was immediately condemned as being homophobic by the very people who had criticised the Church for not doing enough to protect the innocent and deal with the abuse crisis. Pezzini has championed homosexuals and homosexuality for years and been one of those critics of the Vatican and the Church. Less ironic than horribly dishonest.

Categories: Crime and Punishment, I'm A Believer, Religion | 43 comments

God Bless America

- March 11th, 2010

My goodness I’m tired of anti-Americanism. So as my response I give you why every Canadian should really be saying God Bless America.

For leaving half-a million men on the battlefields of Africa, Asia and Europe during the Second World War, a conflict the United States could easily have sat out. God Bless America.

For that farm-boy from Nebraska who had never even heard of Normandy or Sicily, who wanted so much to walk back from the hill but continued on. For his determination to do his duty and for his dedication to freedom. For his mother and for the stars and stripes flag she hung in her window. For his life, and for the fact that he gave it. God Bless America.

For being prepared to rip the country apart in a bloody spasm of civil war because, however delayed and reluctant in some quarters, the leaders and people knew that slavery was wrong. For seeing the future dawn when others could only see the enveloping night . God Bless America.

For the legion of Nobel Prizes won with grace, for the medical breakthroughs celebrated with decorum, for the sporting records, the intellectual triumphs, the moral victories, the glory. For embracing yes rather than hiding behind no. God Bless America.

For jazz and pluralism, baseball and religious tolerance, burgers and equality. For inventing and pursuing an ideal that, though not always achieved, is still glorious in the making and pristine in the chasing. God Bless America.

For the Marshall Plan and Marshall Dillon, for Tom Sawyer and Tom Hanks, for New York and for the New Deal. God Bless America. For not minding when foreigners actually show more ignorance about American culture than Americans ever do about theirs. For in fact being more polite and sensitive when abroad than many other peoples but merely smiling when described as ugly. God Bless America.

For inviting Irish, Jew, Italian, Pole, German, Hispanic, black, Asian, man and woman, all and every into the highest levels of government. For being the first nation in the world to treat the outsider as a guest rather than a problem. For being a melting pot rather than a melting society. God Bless America.

For allowing God and prayer and faith to enter public life and for not running scared of gratitude to the almighty for all that He has given us. God Bless America.

For your comedies and your dramas, for your movies and your novels, your sentimentality and glamour, your self-parody and self-criticism. For your splendour and for your silliness. God Bless America.

For being right more often than being wrong. For being the nation that still leads the way in so many ways, still lights the path on so many days. For being you. For being. God Bless America.

Categories: I'm A Believer | 57 comments

Me on the CBC!

- January 24th, 2010

I appeared on CBC’s Test the Nation on Sunday night as part of the “Believers” team. We were competing in IQ tests against teams of atheists, nerds, contact sports players and politicians. I have to admit that I was doubtful about the whole thing and have been highly critical of some of the CBC’s positions and the biases of some of their staff in the past. Not this time. The whole thing was arranged and organised with charm, generosity, style and fun.
George Stroumboulopoulos and Carole MacNeil were the hosts and while neither of them are close friends they are both people I’m very fond of and highly respect. Again, the warmth they showed to me was quite overwhelming. I had our 19-year-old daughter Lucy with me, who has just won the University of Toronto playwriting award. Wanted to show her off and all that. People could not have been kinder.

This is what the CBC does so well and I was proud to be a part of it. No, my team didn’t win. The cup went to the nerds, composed of scientists, doctors and assorted Star Trek and Star Wars fans, including a Muslim Klingon who was a fan of my TV show and chatted with me for some time – terrific guy and the first Klingon I’ve met personally!

Categories: I'm A Believer | 5 comments

It’s about Christ

- December 14th, 2009

Last Christmas in the Sun I wrote a column that provoked thousands of responses. They were divided fairly evenly. I thought it worth re-publishing that column on my new blog. Merry Christmas.

It may have been in June and the winter might have been chosen because there was already a popular pagan festival in December. Completely irrelevant. What matters is that Jesus was born. Jewish records refer to Jesus of Nazareth and did so even before Christ’s own followers had written about Him. Obviously these Jewish sages did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but they refer to him quite clearly as the son of Mary, the alleged father being a man we know little about.

The writings of Josephus, a Jewish general who became a friend of the Romans, are vital for any understanding of the Jews in the first century. While Christian enthusiasts probably edited his work, we know that the original text is explicit about the Jesus having existed. The Roman historian Tacitus was not edited and he discusses the great fire in Rome, how Nero was thought responsible and how the emperor blamed the Christians, named after Christus, who was crucified by “one of our governors, Pontius Pilate.”

The Roman biographer Seutonius also refers to Jesus and a riot across the River Tiber by supporters and opponents of Christianity. Pliny the younger, Governor of Asia Minor, also speaks of Christ and Christians. Then there is the Gospel evidence for Jesus. Written by those who followed Jesus of course. But the more we learn about the Gospels the earlier we can place them and the more authentic they are shown to be.

New research and the latest discoveries tell us so very much. The Ryland Papyrus on the Nile includes parts of John’s Gospel. Serious scholars now agree that the Gospels were completed well before 100AD. That is, while some who were present during Christ’s life still lived. No genuine Biblical expert doubts that Jesus lived, that He claimed to be The Messiah and that many who knew Him believed that claim. The idea that He was just a great moral teacher or that we can believe some but not all what He taught is, frankly, absurd. He claimed to be the Son of God. If He wasn’t, He was lying or insane. Liars are not to be believed and madmen are not to be followed.

But should we believe? Consider the first generation of martyrs. People die for the wrong reasons, but they assume them to be the right reasons. Yet men and woman who knew Jesus, lived with Him, saw Him die and saw Him rise again. They then went to their death with a smile.

His followers were in chaos when they saw Jesus crucified. It was the resurrection, an event He had promised, which thrust them into belief and, frequently, a martyr’s death. There is no explanation for the documented martyrdom of those who knew Jesus other than that they knew, without doubt, that He was the Messiah and that He had been raised from the dead.

They were not few in number and they were not fools. Intelligent, street-wise people. Dockworkers, fisherman, former terrorists and prostitutes, collaborating bureaucrats and brilliant teachers. People like you, me and everyone.

So in a few days time when the world tries to show its cleverness and stylish cynicism by ignoring Christmas or claiming that it’s all a sham, consider the facts and the arguments and the faith. Most of all, consider Jesus Christ. Really consider Jesus Christ.

Categories: I'm A Believer, Religion | 40 comments