Death

  • Remembering How?

    Remembering How?

    Brian Dijkema

    November 11, 2013

    We can try to remember by way of the glory or the courage of war, or indeed by the horrors. We can remember viscerally—feeling the planes rumble overhead, hearing the cannons fired, seeing the veterans in their dwindling numbers. So how do we remember, as people living in a time vastly different from the great and tragic battles at Vimy, Amiens, Passchendaele, Dieppe, or Juno?

    Perhaps we seek to remember by means that are not helpful.

    We can try to remember by way of the glory or the courage of war, or indeed by the horrors. We can remember viscerally—feeling the planes rumble overhead, hearing the cannons fired, seeing th...

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  • Creature Comforts, or Putting the Past Behind You

    Creature Comforts, or Putting the Past Behind You

    Peter Stockland

    November 5, 2013

    Good old-fashioned means, like, you know, the one that paralyzed the city at the very beginning of time in, like, you know, 1998. "It sounds like it was so much fun," she told me the other evening. "Everyone got together at each other's houses and had parties. Some guy wrote a book about how much fun it was. We need another ice storm to bring everyone together like that again."

    My daughter is hoping—kinda—for a good old-fashioned Montreal ice storm this winter.

    Good old-fashioned means, like, you know, the one that paralyzed the city at the very beginning of time in, like, you know, 1998.

    Among the 20-somethings in m...

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  • Transcendent Humans

    Transcendent Humans

    Doug Sikkema

    November 1, 2013

    I guess what has changed—or so the writers here argue—is how we think about death now, and how conflicted the modern Western mind is when it reflects upon that inevitable day when we'll "shuffle off this mortal coil." Our current saturation with images of death for entertainment is perhaps unparalleled, yet I wonder if such a morbid fascination is simply a byproduct of our capacity, also unparalleled, to stave off the Stygian shore.

    Gearing up for Halloween, the National Post ran a spate of articles last week on "How We Die Now." Spoiler alert: we still stop breathing.

    I guess wha...

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  • Rasouli Case a Win for Patient Rights and Beliefs—And Cause for Concern

    Rasouli Case a Win for Patient Rights and Beliefs—And Cause for Concern

    Albertos Polizogopoulos

    October 18, 2013

    The case dealt with the issue of consent to medical treatment and, in particular, whether or not doctors require consent from a patient's substitute decision maker to remove a patient—in this case, Hassan Rasouli—from life support when the doctor believes such support is futile. I acted as counsel to The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, one of the interveners in the case.

    Today, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Cuthbertson v. Raso...

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  • A Culture Breaking Bad?

    A Culture Breaking Bad?

    Doug Sikkema

    October 4, 2013

    Either way, I think that we get a good reading of the cultural climate if we look at the heroes gripping our collective attention. And with the final demise of Walter White, the heroic centre of AMC's Breaking Bad, there is something more than a little troubling about the type of hero for whom we find ourselves cheering.

    If you haven't been caught up in the Breaking Bad buzz for the past few years, then you likely didn't tune in with the other 10.3 million people last Sunday night to watch the show's finale and, more lik...

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  • Assisted Suicide for All?

    Assisted Suicide for All?

    Derek Miedema

    October 3, 2013

    "Medical aid in dying." If that sounds like a euphemism, rest assured that it is. Bill 52 hearings are going on at Quebec's National Assembly from September 17 to October 10. The bill hopes to protect vulnerable people from pressure to die using four criteria. Patients must be of full age and "capable of giving consent to care." Secondly, their illness must be "incurable" and "serious." Thirdly, they must "suffer from an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability." And finally, they must be in "constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain, which cannot be relieved in a manner the person deems tolerable."

    Editor's Note: This article was originally published last week by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. Reprinted by kind permission. Follow the IMFC on ...

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  • Too Soon to Tell?

    Too Soon to Tell?

    Ray Pennings

    October 2, 2013

    I recalled this quote last Friday while listening to Dr. David Bebbington, the renowned University of Stirling historian. He was demonstrating how the role of religion in history is frequently miscast. Through a historical survey (grossly reduced here), he outlined how the seventeenth century is often defined by politics, the eighteenth by philosophy, the nineteenth by social reform, and the twentieth (in Britain, focusing especially on Ireland) by religious wars.

    Legend has it that Chinese Premier Chou En Lai, when asked if the French Revolution two hundred years earlier had been a success, told President Nixon in 1972 that it was too soon to tell.

    ...

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  • Christians in the Middle East: More than "Leaseholders"?

    Christians in the Middle East: More than "Leaseholders"?

    Paul S. Rowe

    September 30, 2013

    But will Christian response repeat errors of the twentieth century, or aim instead for a more productive movement?

    The violence that has befallen Christians in Egypt is a crisis that threatens the most important bastion of the faith in the region. It falls on the heels of crises that have forced massive emigration of Christians from Iraq and the Palestinian territories ...

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  • Be Not Afraid: Prophecy in War-Time

    Be Not Afraid: Prophecy in War-Time

    Doug Sikkema

    September 13, 2013

    While fear may seem the only option, Doug Sikkema reflects on the work and life of Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who used his last words to urge against being afraid.

    This article was first published in 2013 during the Syrian conflicts.

    If you've been sucked into the 24-hour news cycle lately, or ever, it might seem that fear and hopelessness are ...

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  • Talking Hell in Public

    Talking Hell in Public

    Ray Pennings

    September 11, 2013

    I would be surprised if the social media commentators thought through the literal or theological implications of their hell references. They were simply using a cultural shorthand metaphor to communicate disgust at the indescribable crimes Castro committed. I share that disgust. However, the repeated reference to hell was jolting and made me wonder when, if at all, is it appropriate to talk about hell in public.

    Checking my social media feed last Wednesday morning was startling. "Hell's gates are opening" and "may he rot in hell" were just two of several similarly themed status updates. News had just broken of the suicide death of ...

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  • Buying Groceries in Egypt

    Buying Groceries in Egypt

    Janet Epp Buckingham

    August 19, 2013

    In July, however, I gained a new incentive for keeping a close eye on unfolding events: my niece moved to Cairo. She moved not for journalism, nor for Mennonite conflict resolution. She relocated for love. Her fiancé is an Egyptian Eastern Catholic, a minority among minorities. Through her, I'm getting stark reminders that amidst all of the chaos, most Egyptians are just trying to live their workaday lives. The demonstrations in Tahrir Square were successful in ousting Mubarak and moving to democratic elections. The Muslim Brotherhood won that election and Mohamed Morsi took office as president. The terms of the election required that a new constitution be negotiated and, once ratified, there be new elections. Instead, Morsi developed a pro-Islamic constitution that gave him more power and refused to go to subsequent elections. Anti-Morsi demonstrations led to the military ousting Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood responded with demonstrations. The military crushed the demonstrations with violence leading to 1000 dead. The Muslim Brotherhood retaliated against Coptic churches and by marching through the streets of Cairo.

    The world's eyes are on Egypt. Mine are, too—even before the regime change from Hosni Mubarak, there was discrimination and sometimes violence against the minority Coptic Christian population.

    In July, however, I gained a new incentive for keeping a...

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  • Zombies and the Quest for Consumption

    Zombies and the Quest for Consumption

    Emily Scrivens

    August 12, 2013

    What is it about zombies that so captivates us?

    Zombies are in fashion. The mindless, soulless creatures of haunted house nightmares are showing up in TV series, books, video games, and even academic literature. They have invaded the blogosphere i...

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  • The Play-Date Apocalypse is Upon Us

    The Play-Date Apocalypse is Upon Us

    Brian Dijkema

    August 9, 2013

    They will drop their trowels, shake their heads and wonder why they didn't see this earlier. They will head back to their tents and consign earlier theories of civilizational decline to the dustbin. It wasn't climate change, political corruption, economic inequality, a sudden collapse of global bee communities, plague, pestilence, or even aliens from outer space.

    Centuries from now, when historians are sifting through the archaeological remains of our great civilization and looking for clues about the cause of its demise, they will come across a Pottery Barn wicker basket of petrified newspapers. At the top of that ...

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  • Holding Onto Relics

    Holding Onto Relics

    Peter Stockland

    July 23, 2013

    She has been wreaking a clearing and cleaning path since mid-June, making landfall in the overcrowded slum of our laundry room just before the solstice, then churning her way up the coast with lightning speed toward the densely-packed districts of the garage. In the chorus of the Jimi Hendrix classic from the Summer of Love, "the wind cries Mary." In my household this summer, The Hurricane howls: "Old! Useless! Out!" You will appreciate the many nerve-wracking moments when I wondered how long it would before I, too, was lifted and deposited firmly on the curb.

    There was a tree-demolishing windstorm in my Montreal borough last week, but it was a zephyr beside the summer long in-house hurricane known as my wife.

    She has been wreaking a clearing and cleaning path since mid-June, making landfall in the overcro...

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  • Reflections from the Calgary Flood Plain

    Reflections from the Calgary Flood Plain

    Ray Pennings

    June 24, 2013

    In a sense, the flood barely affected me. My suburban neighbourhood is well clear of the evacuation zone and the only impact on our family involved briefly hosting a few friends in need and the cancellation of various planned events. We tried to be good citizens by conserving water and staying at home and out of the way of the rescue workers. Responding to the phone calls and emails from acquaintances around the world, concerned about our safety, felt strange. I was watching the same media reports as they were.

    Record flooding in Calgary has placed my hometown in the international spotlight. A state of emergency and the ...

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  • Cultural PTSD

    Cultural PTSD

    John Seel

    May 31, 2013

    Academic terms are not normally thrown around the set of NBC's Today Show. More commonly it is the source for fluff pieces, pseudo-news, and celebrity interviews. But recently with great earnestness host Matt Lauer asked Zachary Quinto, "What is it about our zeitgeist that so many of the blockbuster films are apocalyptic in nature?" Zachary was on the show to promote his film, Star Trek Into Darkness, where he plays the character of Spock. Zeitgeist is a German word meaning "spirit of the age or time," and is often attributed to the philosopher Georg Hegel. Sadly, Spock had no meaningful response to Lauer's query. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: "An asteroid named 'Matilda' is on a collision course toward Earth and in three weeks the world will come to an absolute end. What would you do if your life and the world were doomed?"

    Zeitgeist?

    Academic terms are not normally thrown around the set of NBC's Today Show. More commonly it is the source for fluff pieces, pseudo-news, and celebrity interviews. But recently with great earnestness host Matt Lauer asked Zach...

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  • There's a life at the heart of the matter

    There's a life at the heart of the matter

    Andrea Mrozek

    May 30, 2013

    There's some irony in the passing away of Dr. Henry Morgentaler. Regrettably, Morgentaler, whose name will forever be connected with opening Canada up to abortion on demand, cannot be celebrated. Making abortion mainstream is something few can celebrate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Editor's Note: In yesterday's blog about bridging differences, Peter Stockland wrote, "we have the means to speak our particularities honestly, openly and authentically, shorn of e...

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  • Greatly Troubled

    Greatly Troubled

    Ray Pennings

    May 15, 2013

    Tragedies of this sort are theological and practical challenges for me, as I seek to live out of my faith in the midst of a society that does not share it. Why does God allow evil of this magnitude to take place? Although there are "right" theological answers to that, owning those answers is difficult—and is even more difficult for those far closer emotionally to the situation.

    Yesterday's email alert advising of a "breaking development" had me watching the Hamilton Police Service news conference regarding the Tim Bosma case live online. The chief's openin...

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  • Neither Too Simple Nor Too Complex: The Bangladesh Tragedy

    Neither Too Simple Nor Too Complex: The Bangladesh Tragedy

    Brian Dijkema

    May 3, 2013

    Let's begin, where we should, with the simplicity. Over four hundred people are dead and thousands are injured. It's a shame that in our rush to get at the complex nature of the context in which these people died, we forget this very simple fact. Four hundred people, made in the image of God, are gone from this world, not to return until the resurrection, and their loved ones are forced to pick up the pieces and continue living.

    The tragedy in Bangladesh last week is at once maddeningly complex and very simple. A proper response to this tragedy should keep a tidy ...

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  • Stone, Tablets, and Miracles

    Stone, Tablets, and Miracles

    Peter Stockland

    April 30, 2013

    "In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet any more. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model," Thorsten Heins was quoted by Bloomberg news service. Blackberry's attempt to get into the tablet game was, after all, among the worst corporate howlers of the century.

    It seems the new CEO of Blackberry was being anything but ironic when he declared this week that tablet computing will be all but dead in five years.

    "In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet any more. Maybe a big screen in y...

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  • Airports and . . . Train Stations? Where Freedom is Put Out to Pasture

    Airports and . . . Train Stations? Where Freedom is Put Out to Pasture

    Peter Stockland

    April 23, 2013

    Those who find such a claim slightly excessive should spend extensive time travelling, as I do, by VIA Rail and then return to air travel via one of our major landing strips. But ultimately it's not a matter of geography, architecture, or airport/airline personnel. It's the airport as institution that is emblematic of freedom foregone.

    Canada's airports may not exactly meet all the qualifications of a gulag archipelago, but they are arguably our single most significant institutional reminder of liberty lost.

    Those who find such a claim slightly excessive should spend extensive time...

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  • First Human Beings

    First Human Beings

    Peter Menzies

    April 22, 2013

    Mrs. Thatcher was, in my view, one of Britain's great figures of the 20th century. Others have a different opinion. Mine is based on the decade I spent living in a Britain that may have boasted the Beatles, Kinks, Stones, and several more of Peter Stockland's favourite poets and musicians but was an economically dis-spirited nation seemingly incapable of halting its descent from Empire to colony in the course of a couple of generations.

    The kerfuffles here and there in the days following the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher should prove to each of us the need for civility in "civil" society.

    Mrs. Thatcher was, in my view, one of Britain's great figures of the...

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