Category Archives: General

Christy Clark: Faith & Politics II

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Last week,  I discussed B C Premier Christy Clark’s planned appearance at City in Focus’ Young Professionals Network‘s Faith and Politics event on February 5.  I would have like to attend Clark’s  talk; however, the event was live tweeted by CFI Vancouver and the Vancouver Sun reported, “Christy Clark stands up for her Anglican faith.”  Ethan Clow, from CFI Vancouver, wrote a comprehension post for Radio Freethinker, and an email from Pat O’Brien added a few details.

One of the first #Faithandpolitics tweets announced,

The first Event hasn’t even started yet and I’m already disappointed. They will take written questions only.

Asking for written questions was a disappointment, and Ethan Clow reports,

The event unfolded the way I thought it would, however; Clark managed to surprise me a few times. I’ve seen cartoonishly bad characterizations of secularism before, but Clark really upped the ante this time.

  • One of the irritating assumptions she frequently made throughout the evening was assuming we were all God fearing people who attended church regularly.

  • Secularism is bad because some religious groups do nice things. (I’m paraphrasing there)

  • Clark believes government should spend public money on faith based organizations because those groups are the ones doing the good work in society. Helping the poor etc. (Perhaps she’s not aware of the all the good work being done the secular groups like Insite, the Vancouver Food Bank, or Unicef)

  • She also remarked that it’s tragic that more people don’t go to church.

In an email, Pat O’Brien had very little to add to Clow’s “excellent summary of the event.” He mentioned that Clark

kept referring to the Salvation Army (who were there in uniform) as a good example of how religions support the poor. In the Sally Ann’s case, only if you are straight, they will not allow same sex couple in their shelters, they also use that “Kettle Money” to lobby against same sex marriage and abortion.

Best of all, Clark said,

she does not care about those who criticize her because she has “faith” that she is doing the right thing. And then, as if from heaven, this morning a poll came out saying that 39% of BCers find her “Out of touch” with voters and over 30% found her “Arrogant”. The shoe fits.

Introducing myexemption.com

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On Monday, February 4, I wrote a post on the Toronto Star article “Ontario parents fighting to have children exempt from religious studies.” After I posted the article, I was alerted to a website, myexemption.com, set up to help parents of high school students who are attending publicly funded Catholic schools to receive a exemption from religion classes. The parents have the right to ask for this exemption for their children, and the students have a right to the exemption.

myexemption.com explains,

When the Ontario Government agreed to extend public funding to the high school grades in the 80′s, the exemption was written into law for any student choosing to attending a local Catholic High School.

myexemption.com has been set up to

provide the information about the history and simple legal obligation outlined in Section 42 (13) of the Education Act.  The Catholic Boards have been suppressing this exemption right and denying the requests.  We hope to help those who need support to get their exemption.

Section 42 (13) of the Education Act reads,

no person who is qualified to be a resident pupil in respect of a secondary school operated by a public board who attends a secondary school operated by a Roman Catholic board shall be required to take part in any program or course of study in religious education on written application to the Board . . .

The myexemption.com website has a section that gives information on the history of Ontario Government extended funding to include high school, a section on how to get your exemption, a section telling you what to expect and a contact form you can use to ask for help. The myexemption team has

all the documentation to support your efforts and will guide you through the process.

Valentine’s Day Warning

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Trevor M submitted the church sign below.  The picture was taken in Banff, AB on Valentine’s day a couple of year’s ago. I don’t usually celebrate Valentine’s day, but staying in bed and shouting “OH GOD” sounds like more fun than going to church.

Valentine's

 

Thoughtful True Catholic

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Eric MacDonald at Choice in Dying has a new post entitled “The Church’s ‘Geheime Welt Polizei‘”:

‘Gestapo’ is the short form of Geheime Staats Polizei, or Secret State Police. The Roman Catholic Church has such an organisation . . . the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, usually called CDF, for short.

In the post MacDonald discusses a priest the CDF  has targeted, Fr. Tony Flannery:

a priest in Ireland who has been a thorn in Ratzinger’s flesh for some time now. He has now, after years of raising questions in books and articles read by Catholics who want to see change in the church, been placed under threat of excommunication, for he cannot in conscience simply recant and claim to uphold teachings that he cannot support.

Executing excommunicating disobedient priests sounds like typical RCC/CDF behaviour; however, a commenter, makagutu, asks

Why can’t [Fr. Tony Flannery] just leave the church and then continue to write, I think that would be a much more [sic] solution for him?

Another commenter, Kevin Alexander, replies,

Why can’t he leave the church? The usual answer is that thoughtful Catholics consider Ratzinger et al to be usurpers and shouldn’t be allowed to force true Catholics out.

As I say in my comment to the post,

I’m tired of that excuse. The RCC behaved badly before Ratzinger and will behave badly after Ratzinger. Please explain how someone can be “thoughtful” [and] a “true Catholic.” One cancels the other.

There are always excuses for why priests can’t leave the the Catholic Church:

  • They have been priests so long they can’t make a change; it would be too traumatic for them and their faith.
  • It is better to fight from within an organization than from outside the organization.
  • The church and the behaviour of the Church under Pope X is not representative of the “real” Catholic church and Christ’s teaching. Enough already with the excuses, Catholics.  “Thoughtful” disaffected Catholic priests should leave the Catholic church and encourage the faithful to follow them.

Think about it; it’s the only rational move Catholics can make.

 

Mature discussion

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It’s one of the pop culture/media clichés about religious discussion that’s emerged of late. Them durn gnu atheists, they just won’t talk about religion seriously, maturely…

I take some issue with this notion.

See, I think the truth is most of those so complaining don’t really want that.
Continue reading →

“Jesuit College Teaches Atheism!”

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As I was preparing a post on Regis College‘s course on atheism: “Responding to 21st- Century Atheism,” Jerry Coyne posted “Jesuit College Teaches Atheism!”  Coyne does such an excellent job of discussing and critiquing the course that he and his commenters have done most of the work for me.  Jerry does ask a question about the existence of a Jesuit run college at a publicly funded Canadian University, “(Why are Jesuits running a college at the University of Toronto, anyway?),” and JonLynnHarvey provides an answer.  I also submitted a comment to add some information I discovered while doing research for this post:

@eightyc

“I’m gonna audit that class if they start it!”

The course started on January 16; please see Catholic Register article: http://tinyurl.com/bgrstaz

If you don’t want to audit the 8 week course, you can spend $50.00 to attend a one day seminar on Saturday, April 13, 2013 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. However, “Seating is limited. Please register early to avoid disappointment.” http://www.regiscollege.ca/Windows_On_Theology

I am seriously tempted to register and fork over $50 to attend the April 13th seminar just to listen to Professors Scott Lewis, S.J., Gordon Rixon, S.J., and Jeremy Wilkins,

explore responses to the challenges presented by contemporary atheism. This one day seminar will discuss the role of Scripture, tradition, and theology to address the questions about human living posed by today’s culture and climate of disbelief.

If I do attend, the bagged lunch the poster above advises me to bring will be filled with the “disbelief” professors Lewis, Rixon and Wilkins plan to explore.

Christy Clark: Faith & Politics

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Pat O’Brien, the BC director for CFI Canada, was a guest on CKNW’s “The World Today Weekend.”  O’Brien and the show’s host, Sean Leslie, discussed BC Premier Christy Clark’s upcoming appearance at the City in Focus’ Young Professionals Network‘s Faith and Politics event on February 5.

According to the City in Focus’ Young Professionals Network website, this event is

A very unique opportunity not to be missed! British Columbia’s Premier, Christy Clark will be our speaker for this evening and her topic: how does she see her faith speak into her work as a political leader. . . . Do not miss this opportunity to have an up close engagement with our premier and field some questions with her.

Pat O’Brien and other members of the British Columbia team are planning to attend, and they will have a list of questions to ask Clark about her tendency to mix faith and politics.

But first, listen to Pat O’Brien discuss what he and CFI Canada see as “a worrying pattern“: Clark’s comments that she uses

the Bible as a source of inspiration for making political decisions and indicated religion is how ‘we understand ourselves’.

Note:  To hear Pat O’Brien’s discussion, choose January 27 and 5:00 PM on the drop-down menus and scroll forward to 33: 20.

Every Day Is Darwin Day

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Every day is Darwin day if you play the Ikea Monkey Game,

based on Darwin — the monkey who made global headlines during Christmas after he was captured wandering in a Toronto Ikea wearing a shearling coat,

produced by Barnabas Wornoff, a Seneca College animation professor, and a group of former Seneca students:

http://www.ikeamonkeyshirt.com/game.html

http://www.ikeamonkeyshirt.com/game.html

Toronto bylaws state the IKEA Monkey is an “exotic animal” and therefore should be put in monkey jail. Maybe it will get to go back with its mother at the end of January? For now let’s help him build an IKEA shelf for his new temporary home in monkey jail at Story Book Farm Sanctuary. Collect all the parts of the shelf without hitting people or cars. Good luck!

You can also play the game on newgrounds, a game website.

Wornoff and his team

are challenging everyone to try and beat the game, and if you manage to help Darwin build his BILLY shelf, then at the last screen after the credits your score comes up and you are invited to take a buddy shot with your cell phone and then email it to us at munke.sales@gmail.com. We’re posting all the buddy shots on our blog.

More Than a Beautiful Face

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Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr (1913 – 2000) was considered “the most beautiful woman in Europe” and “the most beautiful woman in the world.”  However, Rita J. King , in the Linkedin article, “Five Things that the ‘Most Beautiful Woman in the World’ Taught Us About Innovation,” highlights Lamarr’s additional qualities:

Her real accomplishments as an inventor, however, are far more dazzling than “the most beautiful woman on the world” was on screen.

Without her, we might not have cell phones, defense satellites and wireless Internet. So what can we learn about innovation from Hedy Lamarr?

1) Take risks. Hedy fled her country and husband in 1937. “It was his game to keep me prisoner,” she said, “It had been my game to escape. He lost.” On the trip to the United States she landed a Hollywood contract. She also gave herself a new name, Lamarr, after the sea, La Mar.

2) Collaborate. Five years after her film debut, at a dinner party in Hollywood, she met an avant-garde composer and shared her idea to protect US radio-guided torpedoes from enemy interference. She left her number in red lipstick on his windshield so the discussion could continue. The pair patented the invention and presented it to the United States Government for a “Secret Communications System” to help defeat Hitler.

3) Create the Future. Today, the science in this patent serves as the basis for the technology used in cell phones, pagers, wireless Internet and defense satellites, to name a few devices.

4) Don’t rush. “The world isn’t getting any easier,” Hedy Lamarr once said. “With all these new inventions I believe that people are hurried more and pushed more… The hurried way is not the right way. You need time for everything, time to work, time to play, time to rest.”

5) Be Curious. “Hope and curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. That’s the way I was. The unknown was always so attractive to me, and still is.”

Hedy Lamarr was beautiful and smart; the five pieces of advice she left us make her an excellent role model.

Philosopher Phriday Answer (11 January 2013)

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Here is the revelation of the identity of last week’s mystery philosopher:

Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia’s estimated date of birth was 370-350 CE;  in 415 CE, she was killed by a Christian mob, accused of meddling in the affairs of Church vs state – a conflict between the governor Orestes and the Bishop of Alexandria

She was an astronomer and philosopher, and teacher.  According to the Wikipedia article,

The contemporary Christian historiographer Socrates Scholasticus described her in Ecclesiastical History: There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared in public in the presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.

You can see a fictionalized account of Hypatia’s life in the recent movie Agora.  Though not strictly historically accurate, it’s well worth watching.

 

 

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