I think the author nails the fundamental tension between religion and secular society in Canada on the head right here: “Worse yet, we are becoming a nation that has come to equate agreement with tolerance and acceptance” Well said.
Here’s another article highlighted by Simon on the merging of politics and religion in the U.S. in particular:
Rapture Politics by Henry Giroux (a McMaster professor, actually), Toronto Star 07/24/05
Again, there’s a very anti-Christian slant in the article (people opposing the “Christian” view are labeled as “progressives” ), but the media’s idea of the “scary evangelical Christian” certainly isn’t being helped by some of the amendments currently proposed by “fundamentalist” Christian politicians. Even if you have zero interest in American society and politics, though, it’s still absolutely worthwhile reading the last half of the article which gives a really interesting analysis of why religion is making a comeback in North America: the search for community and meaning in an increasingly subjective and individualistic society.
Had to post this… talk about political correctness run amok. This is the text of a motion brought forth this week at the Professional Association of Teachers, a British teacher organization, who later today are voting on a motion to replace the designation that a student has “failed” a class with the phrase “the student has deferred success”, fearing that (and I quote) “Some people find failure very hard to cope with, and you should try not to face them with things they can’t do.” Umm, didn’t that used to be called “the educational process”? Maybe I’m just an old fogey — but decide for yourself, check out one of the many articles populating the Internet on this motion here.
But wait, it gets even better… I now present to you the leading early nominee (in an incredibly crowded field no less) for “Most Misused Biblical Reference of the Year” with honourable mention in the “Worst Metaphor of the Year” category - here’s an excerpt the motion’s main advocate’s speech at the conference in support of the motion (read the whole thing here for a hearty chuckle):
“I make lots of jam and marmalade, the natural sugar content of which, like pupil ability, varies from batch to batch; Accordingly, I test it for sweetness. If it is not quite sweet enough, I would be an idiot of certifiable proportions if I decided I had to throw it all away, and start all over again. I put a bit more sugar in and “top it up”. Yet failing a pupil and making them re-sit the entire exam, or worse still, re-take the entire year, is what we so often do with apparent equanimity. If we hire a builder to build a garden wall 4 feet high, and he tried to pull a fast one and only did it 3’ 9”, again, we would not knock it all down and say “start again”, he would lay another course of bricks, and would get it right 2nd time round.
If all these examples from the “real” world are such good common sense, why on earth does education need to still work in the Stalinist Era and require its quota of failures, rather than give out “referrals” to encourage going the extra mile? Many of you will know I like to quote the Bible, especially the New Testament. In a few places, we can even improve on that, so I’m going to add my bit to “top up” the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are they that persevere, they deserve to succeed in the end”. We would then really be able to say as in v12 of Matthew ch 5: Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven”. But of course, it would also be nice to have a bit of a reward on earth as well.”
Ugh.
Here’s all I have to say — if you didn’t enjoy this post, don’t blame me, I’m just deferring my success as a blogger.
While the author has conveniently left out the many examples of righteous anger and non-peaceful responses to evil found throughout the non-Gospel books and, indeed, even manifested in the life of Jesus (you wouldn’t say Jesus was necessarily seeking the mediation/negotiation route when he overturned the tables of the vendors in the temple in John 2), there are some interesting points raised here which, given the overheated religious rhetoric happening during the War on Terror, warrant at least a thoughtful response from Christians. What do you think of the points raised in the article — how would you respond to the author’s critiques of Christians and our leaders?
As we work our way through the “Hot Topics” sermon series this summer, the growing gulf between evangelical Christian thought and the post-modern philosophies of our society at large is becoming increasingly obvious. Post-modernism is one of those terms that generally drives me crazy because it’s thrown around by everybody but very few people actually know (at least beyond a superficial level) what it means. Its basic tenet, the lack of absolute truth, is also totally mystifying to me, as it would be to most Christians coming from a faith where “good” and “evil” are clearly defined and tangibly real. In order for us to effectively minister to our culture, we need to understand post-modernism better to try to bridge this fundamental gap - so I did a bit of research and thought I’d share some good/fun links I found:
Postmodernism and You - This is a great site which describes the approach of post-modern thought not only to religion but also to education, health, justice, science, and more… the underlying theme of “all truth is relative” is certainly found throughout all these sub-topics but is manifested in very different and interesting ways.
WTC Disaster and Post-Modern Thought - Here’s one of the most compelling arguments I have read illustrating the logical fallacy of post-modern thought — scary stuff though that 90% of “young adults” (18-34 - that’d be us) in the U.S. believe that there is no such thing as universal moral norms or truth.
Vaclev Havel - This is the text of a speech given by former Czech Republic leader Vaclev Havel which, in very secular terms, gives a really interesting and well-stated argument against post-modern thought and an interesting vision for where the world needs to go in order to overcome its current tensions. It was delivered in 1994 but seems even more relevant today in the face of the War on Terrorism. Great quote: “It seems man can realize liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it.”
How to Minister to Post-Modernists - The crux of the issue - some really good and practical advice on how to evangelize to a post-modern thinker without compromising our absolute truth. It’s a little long but totally worth the read. Some of the ideas: focus on spiritual disciplines, prayer, and abiding in Christ (we have through Jesus what many post-modernists are looking for - a connection to the spiritual realm), and an emphasis on practical living in our culture and meeting real needs in the world.
And then, the fun stuff:
The bedrock of post-modernism is the idea that nothing is certain but everything is possible… that philosophy spills over into post-modern writing, in which it appears nothing is really comprehensible (all the better to keep us uncertain of course…
How to Speak and Write Postmodern - some good advice on how to make your writing more incomprehensible and, thus, on the leading edge of contemporary thought (we engineers are all of a sudden cool through this, being illiterate and what not )
Generate Your Own Post-Modern Essay! - This site will automatically generate a nonsense post-modern essay for you based on a simple computer algorithm… one essay generated by this site was actually accepted for publication by a real cultural studies journal (what am I doing writing about real stuff for my thesis???) Mine was called “Deconstructing Derrida: Constructivist posttextual theory in the works of Gibson”… fascinating reading indeed! There’s also a fairly classic post-modern description of the plot of Gilligan’s Island (truly a high-water mark of Western civilization) here which is quite fun.
Here’s a challenge for you: what do you think these pictographs mean? Think creatively, no idea you may have will be too stupid (believe me). I only got two of them right, but apparently these are 13 of the over 600 now “approved” international pictoral symbols which you may see on a sign post near you giving you information which you may or may not actually need (if you actually need the information the middle picture on the last row is trying to give, I’ll be really impressed/ appalled). Interesting fact: the first ever pictographs, the man and woman figures usually put on washroom doors, were invented by a Canadian for Expo ‘67 in Montreal.
As usual, please post your guesses as comments (again, no answer is likely too crazy based on what some of the right answers actually are) and I’ll post the “real” answers in a week or so. We’ll number them across the rows, so the first row is 1-5, second row 6-10, third row 11-13. Good luck (you’ll need it).
UPDATE - The answers are now posted in the comments — take a read and (even more amusingly) read some of the guesses which were taken — too funny!
OK, a disclaimer: as a male engineer, I am genetically predispositioned to find this funny… however I think you will also enjoy it. Read the Dave Barry article first which sets this thing up:
“Anyone got a light?” by Dave Barry, Miami Herald 07/05/05 (or, if that doesn’t work for you (I don’t know if you need a registration or not to read it) there’s an abridged version here)
And now that you have the background, the real thing complete with movie footage:
Unfortunately, the stuffed shirts at Purdue University (Gobel’s employer) ordered his original website on the university server to be pulled in response to 9/11 fears about using his technique to build bombs… yep, I have no doubt Al Qaeda has been plotting BBQ charcoal strikes on the United States for years… however, this is a cached version of the site which preserves the brilliance (check out the Quicktime movie near the bottom of the page - best line as the grill is obliterated - “there’s no cleanup”.
So, Sean, how about that BBQ on Saturday? I can make some arrangements…
I seem to have confounded the test since I scored an identical high score in three of the nine categories… I prefer to think of it as being “well-balanced” as opposed to being “confused” and/or “schizophrenic”. However, I think it got me approximately right (hard not to I suppose when 33% of all possible results apparently apply to me):
“Your highest score was a tie between Type 1, Type 3, and Type 9. Type 1 - The Reformer - The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic; Type 3 - The Achiever - The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious; Type 9 - The Peacemaker - The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent”
Slightly troubling to be compared to both Al Gore and Bill Clinton by the same test, but what the hey.
Again, always interested to hear from you on these via the comments!
Yet another reason why people go north to cottages during the summer - this was taken from a boat on Redstone Lake in Haliburton on the Canada Day weekend. Too nice.
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