Hopewit

110 years in Rosthern, Built of Rosthern Brick, no less. I’ve been reading websites dedicated to the conservative/anti-liberal cause, trying to understand the motivation behind their adamant stands.            A 2014 article by Randall Balmer in Politico traces the history of American evangelical churches’ current affinity with a right wing world view. Balmer shows how this Christian adherence to a rigid conservatism doesn’t have its roots in abortion or queer-equality issues, but in the reaction to civil rights. While America was desegregating on paper and on the ground in the second half of the 1900s, separate Christian whites-only schools were being set up, assuming that their income from tuition and their connection with the church would save them from government scrutiny. However, following an action brought by the Treasury Department charging that segregation in separate schools disqualified them from their tax-free status, the Supreme Court ru...

  Rosthern Mennonite Church, 1916 “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the  dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his  hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he  took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then  he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the  Israelites drink it.” (Exodus 32: 19-20, NIV)                 The legend of the receipt of the Ten Commandments in Exodus illustrates in graphic imagery the perfidy of the people of that time and place. Some might argue that it also reveals Moses’ weak leadership skills; while he was conferring with God on Mount Horeb, the people feared he had gone and had left them leaderless. They talked Aaron—the deputy Moses—into presenting them a new God-leader to guide them on their journey. Aaron concocted a plan to create an idol to satisfy t...

  The Bringers of Christianity to Aztec country. - a display in Guadalajara (Note: Most of you will know this, but when a word or words are underlined or appear in colour, it’s because the author has put in a hyperlink , or link, a quick way to get to a source or supporting material. For instance, clicking on this phrase takes you to a webpage on hyperlinks . Try it. Sometimes, you’ll be asked to activate your Control Key (Ctrl) plus a tap to complete the link. In many cases, hyperlinks take the place of footnotes or endnotes.) My last post was probably more off-putting than up-lifting , having to do with human sacrifice and, more importantly, with reference to a core Christian understanding that Jesus’ crucifixion was the sacrifice of a human life, an offering that would reconcile people to a sin-hating God. We could argue that Jesus’ being the Son of God took the crucifixion out of the realm of human sacrifice, but his agony in Gethsemane and his “Why have...

  Aztec symbols in the square in Guadalajara. To the right is a Quezalcoatl, a sacred bird/serpent to the Aztecs.  Fifth Sun , by Camilla Townsend, is a history of the Aztecs of Central Mexico before and at the arrival of the Spanish conquest. It differs from other histories in that it relies on the written work of the Aztecs themselves who learned phonetic writing from the Spaniards and committed their remembered history, their legends to paper.              Their religious beliefs included a pantheon of gods, one being the creator god and lesser gods of the sun, the moon, etc.           The book’s title comes from a legend of five worlds, and the belief that the sun had gone down on four worlds and the fifth—the present world—would require a sacrifice to appease the sun god and keep a sun alive. Two men volunteered to throw themselves into the fire as the sacrifice that would bring about ...