Religion

There are few things more entertaining than watching the editorial board of the Calgary Herald (Canada’s Largest Christian Daily) go into fits of apoplexy anytime people exhibit the good common sense to separate church and state, particularly when the church is demanding taxpayer’s dollars. The separation of church and state is a foundation of our democracy but the Herald is against it because it means Christians can’t promote their religious beliefs at taxpayers expense. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Easter Sunday and it’s a beautiful day in Calgary. The sun is shining and the snow is melting giving us hope that spring is finally upon us. Today, I will resurrect the use of my deck and take in the sunshine while sipping a nice Chardonnay from Burgundy.  Resurrection, of course,  is today’s big theme, filling the pages of the  Calgary Herald (Canada’s largest Christian daily). I confess to being somewhat astonished that people actually believe in the resurrection of Christ. The good news is that fewer and fewer people do. That’s probably why the faithful feel the need to pump up the marketing volume every Easter. Read the rest of this entry »

Pastor Terry Jones  finally got around to burning some copies of the Qur’an and sparked the outrage he was looking for. Responding to the desecration of the Qur’an, devout Muslims in Afghanistan killed 10 United Nations workers shooting eight and beheading two others.  Isn’t religion wonderful?

We wrote about Pastor Jones before (See: ASkepticRTN: Qur’an Burning for Fun and Profit) noting that the pastor is effectively makes his point that Islam is a hate filled religion (evidenced by the response of some Muslims) while making the unintended point that so is Christianity (by burning the Qur’an in the first place).

This has prompted the typical response of the religious – questioning whether those who engage is such acts are ‘true’ Christians or Muslims or whatever. This was the tack taken back in September by Calgary Herald (Canada’s largest Christian daily) Editor Licia Corbella when Pastor Jones  first proposed to burn the Qur’an. It is more or less the same direction taken by columnist Naomi Lakritz in her piece: Book-burning pastor gives religion a bad name, in the Tuesday April 05 edition of the Herald. Actually, religion doesn’t need Pastor Jones to give it a bad name, it’s doing pretty well on its own. What is not going so well is the laughable efforts of the religious to distance themselves from these obvious acts of religious bigotry and hate. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Calgary Herald columnist Naomi Lakritz published a stunning piece of bigotry and ignorance deftly entitled Oh, Lord, please help Tremblay win against bigots, which allows Ms. Lakritz to promote bigotry, while accusing anyone with a differing opinion of the same offense.

The Tremblay referred to is Mayor Jean Tremblay of Saguenay, Quebec. Mayor Tremblay has announced he will “thumb his nose at a ruling from the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal which has ordered that a Christian prayer must no longer be recited before council meetings and the council chamber’s crucifix removed.” Instead, Mr. Tremblay is: “going to fight the ruling at the highest court in Quebec.” Ms. Lakritz says she hopes Mr. Tremblay wins his case and then uses the Tribunal ruling as a launch pad for a rant against human rights. Read the rest of this entry »

The New Canadian Values of Licia Corbella and the Calgary Herald

Recent events in Winnipeg have created a media backlash of sorts particularly from politically right of center columnists.  About a dozen or so recently immigrated families to Canada are demanding the right to have their children excused from music class for religious reasons. As Muslims, they believe that music is un-Islamic. Or, as Lois Riel School Division Superintendent Terry Borys put it  in the inane language and logic of  our day, “Music was not part of the cultural reality.”

Charles Adler, daytime talk show radio host, went ballistic on air and in his blog calling for an end to Canada’s multiculturalism policy. “Let’s declare that Canada is not for sale on the corrupt and corrosive altar of multiculturalism.” Licia Corbella, Editorial Page Editor of the Calgary Herald (aka, Canada’s largest Christian Daily) expressed similar sentiments. In a piece entitled Time to change tune on official multiculturalism in the Saturday February 12, 2011 edition of the Herald,  Ms. Corbella states:

The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way – that is , bending itself into a trombone to try and accommodate these demands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country, music and phys-ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum. Read the rest of this entry »

My days usually start waking up to the local CBC Radio show, The Calgary Eyeopener. Nothing like greeting the day with the latest news and views on Calgary and beyond. Today, I learned the Catholic Church has evidently abandoned faith in favor of  science. Talk about eyeopeners. I’m tempted to say it’s about time, but you just know it is a little more complicated  than that.

This apparent change in religious direction came up during an interview with Calgary Bishop Frederick Henry concerning the progress of having Pope John Paul II declared a saint. Rest easy, progress is being made. According to Bishop Henry, the path to sainthood requires ‘proof’ of having conducted at least two miracles. The first of these miracles was confirmed just the other day. Well thank god. I was getting worried there.

But how do you confirm a miracle? According to Bishop Henry, with science. I’m guessing here as there is no record of the interview on the CBC website, but I reckon the interview lasted about 5 minutes. In this space, Bishop Henry must have used the ‘S’ word (science) ten times. He seemed very anxious to sell the idea, ludicrous on its face, that a claim of a miracle must undergo the most rigorous scientific examination by the Church to be confirmed as  a miracle. At one point, Bishop Henry states that he is familiar with the science involved and, therefore, can personally assure listeners that this miracle of Pope John Paul II is a scientific fact. No hubris there. I found a number of things troubling in all this. Read the rest of this entry »