Religion

  • Conrad Black and Crossing Toward Truth

    Conrad Black and Crossing Toward Truth

    Peter Stockland

    May 14, 2013

    At our Cardus Convivium dinner last week in Calgary, where Black was the marquee attraction, he asserted, responding to a question, his innocence in the criminal case brought against him by the U.S. government. Just as stoutly, he insisted, digressing while answering a different question from Father de Souza, that his ill fortune be placed in proper context. He said:

    Conrad Black refuses to play the victim.

    At our Cardus Convivium dinner last week in Calgary, where Black was the marquee attraction, he asserted, responding to a question, his innocence in the criminal case brought against him by the U.S. gov...

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  • Contemplating "Realness"

    Contemplating "Realness"

    Julia Nethersole

    May 10, 2013

    It is the rare being who can be fulfilled by the Descartian notion "I think, therefore I am".  Throughout time, we have chosen to see our image reflected via our possessions or our achievements. For my friend, her "realness" is inextricably linked to freedom. The freedom to live life on her own schedule, to walk without assistance, to make her own tea and toast.

    Her words have been on my mind since I saw her at breakfast. Seated on the verandah of her retirement home, in between sips of tea and nibbles of toast, she uttered a phrase that I had heard from her many times before: "I just want to be a real perso...

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  • Reasonable Accommodation in Reverse

    Reasonable Accommodation in Reverse

    Robert Joustra

    April 26, 2013

    It is time, therefore, for religious communities to take a hard look at reasonable accommodation in reverse: not just as a "rights" flag to wave from our foxholes, but as a productive push for social and cultural conversation, and accommodation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Religious freedom is making bigger and bigger waves in the stormy seas of Canadian politics of late. It's not just that an Ambassador was appointed in February, although that's a fair hat tip to certain concerned constituencies. There also seems to be a ris...

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  • Three Cheers for Motion 382

    Three Cheers for Motion 382

    Robert Joustra

    April 25, 2013

    As I've said elsewhere, the measure of efforts like the Office of Religious Freedom will be not just the work of religious freedom, important as that is, but the inroads it can make into cultivating religious literacy generally in foreign affairs. If it's God's Century, as the academics and the pundits say, we have a lot of catching up to do.

    In the world of parliamentary business, motions of commitment and encouragement can get lost under the weight of debate and controversy surrounding more binding efforts. But in politics, governance culture can be everything, and yesterday in the House of Co...

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  • A Quiet Battle in an Echo-ocracy

    A Quiet Battle in an Echo-ocracy

    Peter Stockland

    April 4, 2013

    "Help is needed to support a young girl who was recently rescued from human traffickers. She was bought and sold into the sex trade for nine years. Now she is free. She needs food, clothing, shelter, medicine, counseling, and rehabilitation. We would also like to provide her, when she is ready, funds for education courses to help her restore her life.

    As Ottawa's echo-ocracy worked itself into stage five incoherence over a backbench MP's motion on sex-selection abortion, the following words quietly appeared on another MP's website:

    "Help is needed to support a young girl who was recently ...

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  • Small Things Done With Great Love

    Small Things Done With Great Love

    John Seel

    March 21, 2013

    What if Jesus wasn't kidding when he asked, "When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith upon the earth?" Too often we've taken this statement as a kind of hyperbolic warning. What if it is a serious possibility? A movement dies when it is no longer able to pass its beliefs from one generation to the next.

    "Where are my children?" is a question every parent has asked. "Not in church," is a likely answer.

    What if Jesus wasn't kidding when he asked, "When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith upon the earth?" Too often we've taken this statement as ...

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  • Candid Discussions Worth Having

    Candid Discussions Worth Having

    Ray Pennings

    March 20, 2013

    "Cardus is hosting an event with Mark Carney?" We look forward to both events advancing Cardus's mission of renewing social architecture.

    "Cardus is hosting an event with Conrad Black?"

    "Cardus is hosting an event with Mark Carney?"

    "Yes," we are delighted to answer our interlocutors. Many Cardus followers last week received invitations to two forthcoming events in the Hill Fami...

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  • Places of Worship Protected in City Core

    Places of Worship Protected in City Core

    Ray Pennings

    March 15, 2013

    The changes, which emerged out of a series of consultations and research spearheaded by Cardus will, according to the city staff report, "enhance the Center City Plan by acknowledging the impact that faith-based institiutions make in the Centre City’s build and social environments." The report notes that "while many community and cultural groups and organizations have been included within the Centre City Plan, there is very little mention of faith based institutions."

    The City of Calgary’s Municipal Planning Commission unanimously passed a series of amendments to the Calgary Centre City Plan on Thursday, clearing ...

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  • 'There's also another line of authority in Canada'

    'There's also another line of authority in Canada'

    Peter Stockland

    March 5, 2013

    Cardus: The Supreme Court's decision last week in the William Whatcott case is seen as both a setback for religious freedom and a major victory for those who favour tough laws against hate speech. As an intervener in the case, how does the Catholic Civil Rights League see it?

    (The Cardus Daily's Peter Stockland spoke to Toronto lawyer Phil Horgan, national president of the Catholic Civil Rights League, about two events last week that brought freedom of speech to the forefront of public debate. This is an edited transcript.)...

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  • Impolite Canadian Conversations

    Impolite Canadian Conversations

    Ray Pennings

    February 20, 2013

    The sophisticated elders at the table were a bit put off by the focus on religious freedom. On CBC's Power and Politics, host Evan Solomon worriedly asked about whether this was creating a "hierarchy of rights," while panelists mused about how to deal with the challenges that come when religious rights come in conflict with other human rights. While allowing that "a right to freedom of religion is part of a larger set of human rights," Natalie Bender still opined in the Toronto Star that "religion is too multi-faceted in its forms and contested in its practice to be championed impartially by any government office."

    Sex, religion, and politics are three topics said to ruin convivial dinner conversations. So it was interesting to pay attention to how Canada's media and establishment voices would deal with the Office of Religious Freedom meal that they were served by the...

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  • Are Missionaries the Henchmen of Empire?

    Are Missionaries the Henchmen of Empire?

    Robert Joustra

    February 15, 2013

    In some sense, says Andrew Preston, it is. There were missionaries who were hardcore imperialists. But based on his research, and primary historical accounts, he argues that these missionaries were actually the exception, not the rule. He says, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    It's long been accepted that missionaries are the ideological henchman of empire—maybe not by the missionaries themselves, but by much of the public. Just last week the Globe splashed the Christian ministry Crossroads across its front page for its li...

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  • Religion and Realism in Canadian Foreign Policy

    Religion and Realism in Canadian Foreign Policy

    Brian Dijkema

    February 12, 2013

    That is not a quote about Stephen Harper. That is a quote from Denis Stairs referring to Canada's golden boy of foreign policy, Lester B. Pearson. Yes, that Lester Pearson; the same one that won a Nobel Peace prize back in '57. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair suggests that CIDA's partnering with religious organizations, specifically Christian ones, contributes to a Canadian foreign policy marked by "more religion, less nutrition." Today he went even further, suggesting that religious relief and development organizations were "completely against" Canadian values. He says: "We don't understand how the Conservatives can ... subsidize a group in Uganda whose views are identical to those of the Ugandan government."

    "The manse, it seems, was a formative force in External Affairs as powerful as academia."

    That is not a quote about Stephen Harper. That is a quote from Denis Stairs referring to Canada...

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  • 'He Has No Longer the Strength'

    'He Has No Longer the Strength'

    Peter Stockland

    February 11, 2013

    Cardus: Ambassador Leahy, were you as shocked as the rest of the world seems to be by today's announcement of Pope Benedict XVI resigning, or were there signs you saw that the rest of missed? Cardus: What would Benedict's motivation have been for taking such an unusual step? We're told this hasn't happened for almost 600 years.

    [caption id="attachment_1789" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Ambassador Anne Leahy"] ...

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  • Why I am For an Islamic Law School

    Why I am For an Islamic Law School

    Robert Joustra

    February 8, 2013

    How would the Christian right react if someone wanted to open an "Islamic law school" in Canada? vancouversun.com/touch/story.ht…

    A few weeks back the Council of Canadian Law Deans fired an incendiary letter across the bow of the forthcoming law school by Trinity Western University. In their letter they argued that the rules of conduct and lifestyle at the Langley Christian university...

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  • The Peril of Christian Humanitarianism

    The Peril of Christian Humanitarianism

    Robert Joustra

    February 1, 2013

    In many ways, it is neither wrong nor entirely mystifying why one religious group would draw attention to the abuses or suffering of their co-religionists. Christian groups draw attention to the suffering of other Christians in part because they are often more naturally familiar with these groups, as a result of global networks, but also because there is an implicit self-identification with the victimized.

    It is only just beginning to come to light that one of the most powerful forces for global good can be the formal and informal networks of faith-based and religious organizations. These are the people that are, in the words of CBC correspondent Brian Stewar...

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  • Broken Hearts Mend

    Broken Hearts Mend

    Peter Menzies

    January 28, 2013

    It was in the spring of 1999 when a reporter from the Calgary Herald, of which I was editor at the time, knocked on my door to inquire about my neighbours—the family that lived behind us across the green belt. It was then that I learned that the two young children who lived there, Brittany, 5, and Joshua, 3, had been killed at the family's condo in B.C.

    Almost 14 years have now passed since tragedy struck very close to my home.

    It was in the spring of 1999 when a reporter from the Calgary Herald, of which I was editor at the time, knocked on my door to inquire about my neighbours—the family t...

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  • Hard-Won Religious Freedom

    Hard-Won Religious Freedom

    Janet Epp Buckingham

    January 23, 2013

    — Jason Kenney (@kenneyjason) January 21, 2013 The prospect of having harboured terrorists can certainly take the wind out of your sails. With allegations from Algeria that Canadians were part of the band of Islamist militants who attacked a natural gas plant in Algeria, we find another welcome opportunity to check ourselves. But if the allegations by the Algerian prime minister prove true, these would not be the first Canadian terrorists. In fact, the first terrorist convicted in Canada lived in the seemingly placid suburb of Orleans, Ontario. I have friends that live very nearby. It was pretty alarming to find out that Momin Khawaja was constructing detonating devices in his bedroom and his family had a shooting range in the basement.

    Can't begin to understand those who turn their backs on Canada to embrace the death cult of jihadi extremism,eg these 2 bit.ly/XswU8a

    — Jason Kenney (@ken...

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  • Identity Cooking

    Identity Cooking

    Julia Nethersole

    January 18, 2013

    Convivium contributor Julia Nethersole reflects on the power of food to set a framework for honest and open dialogue.

    I was recently asked about the best meal I've ever had. Being the daughter of a man who thinks about what he'll be having for lunch at breakfast, and knows what he'll be making for Sunday dinner on Tuesday, it is without doubt that I took this question quit...

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  • Theology Matters

    Theology Matters

    Brian Dijkema

    January 16, 2013

    No, says Derek Burney in a Canadian Press article. Burney argues that theology gets in the way of resolution of the problems facing aboriginals in Canada: "If one side is approaching it from a practical standpoint, and the other comes at it from a constitutional or what I would call an almost theological standpoint, it's very difficult to come to an agreement." In taking this position, Coyne and Burney are adopting a very common approach to religion in liberal democracies: that is, that theological questions are divisive "conversation stoppers" awhile real politics takes place in neutral matters of practical consequence.

    Does theology have anything to say to aboriginal affairs in Canada?

    No, says Derek Burney in a Canadian Press arti...

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  • Learning to Speak of Beliefs

    Learning to Speak of Beliefs

    Peter Menzies

    January 14, 2013

    The suburban Canada I grew up in contained people from many different backgrounds—German, Ukrainian, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Greek for instance—but was almost entirely white. In terms of belief, we were all either Roman Catholics (Habs fans) or Protestants (Leafs fans) although I was aware of a few Jewish kids here and there and couple of Chinese heritage families. Regardless, almost all of us came from a Judeo-Christian, European cultural context. The only major fracture in our country was that elsewhere in it, people spoke another language, which made Canada into an officially bilingual country founded by English-speaking people whose origins were in Britain and French-speaking people whose origins were in France.

    Recent shifts in language use and demography make it clear that Christians will have to broaden their understanding of other faiths or risk being isolated in their own cultural catacombs.

    The suburban Canada I grew up in contained people from many di...

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  • More than a Sports Story

    More than a Sports Story

    Ray Pennings

    January 9, 2013

    You may have noticed the Toronto sports media going a bit ga-ga today. Yesterday, the Toronto Blue Jays introduced recently acquired pitcher R.A. Dickey in a media conference and, almost universally, the reports focused as much on his intelligence and personality as they did on his pitching skills.

    ...

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