Hopewit

  Indonesia has revised its criminal code so that sex outside of marriage will be prosecutable and subject to one year of imprisonment. Same sex marriages do not exist. Do the math. In Iran, protests continue since the death while under arrest of a woman who didn’t wear her head covering properly. CBC’s The Fifth Estate recently interviewed an Iranian-born, anti-regime activist who said that she first became aware of her imprisonment to convention as a girl when she saw how her brother was free to swim in the river and she wasn’t. We can view humanity and our place in it through Ten Commandments eyes, or through the lens of The Sermon on the Mount, through Sharia Law or through the benefits of democracy, or however you understand what Jesus said in Matthew 5 about selfless love fulfilling, and exceeding by far, the moral requirements of compulsive obedience to law. 43  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  44...

  Poinsetta The death and destruction spawned by World War Two   doesn’t need to be reiterated for those of us alive during that unbelievable debacle and its aftermath. For “baby boomers” and others born after the blood had all seeped into the earth and the rubble had been cleared, a need for education about the facts of the war, the psychology and sociology making it possible can’t be overstressed. Two relevant allegories coming out of that war could be helpful, but only if reading skills are up to appreciating deep truths illuminated by story, like Jesus’ parables, for instance. The first— Animal Farm , by George Orwell—has been taught in schools as an exposure of the folly of Communism. Published in 1945, it’s “story” may indeed have been inspired by the descent into brutality of the Communist Revolution in Russia, but it much more importantly exposes the basic human tendency to sink into self-serving, into embracing doctrinaire ideologies that serve individuals over coll...

  (Note: There’s a painting following this text. Please give it a look before going on.) Were Jesus to be listening in on the current conversation in Western politics, and if he were to be asked what he made of it all, given that many who count themselves as his followers are loudly involved, what would his reply be? I, of course, can’t claim to know. I expect he would have replied with a parable like “The Good Samaritan,” or “The Prodigal Son,” and like the scribes, the pharisees and the teachers of the law (and his disciples, frequently) in his time, each would interpret what they’d heard as support for what they’d already embraced as truth. Maybe he’d shrug and say, “It appears subtlety won’t work … again, so here’s a thought: whatever you do or say, I judge on its conforming--or not--to one very simple standard, and that is that your words and actions respond to your love of God and that which he’s created for your benefit, and that it wishes for your neighbour every...

  I occasionally listen to Bill Maher monologues on one of the American Network’s late-night shows (also on YouTube). He’s one of those anti-woke, “stop being so sensitive” public figures who in a recent episode invoked that old “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” shibboleth plus the “get over it already; they’re just words” sentiment. The attitude seems to be an accompaniment to a larger “free speech” theme where taking exception to what people are saying or writing is interpreted as an attempt to force them to shut up, to rob them of the right to say what they’re thinking. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an American house representative—who’s gained notoriety for her outspoken, arbitrary pronouncements on just about everything—publicly decried the judgment against Alex Jones for lying repeatedly that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax: “He was just speaking words,” she said. I think thoughts and write words. More than that, I publish them occa...

  Henry J. Epp (1883-1965 )   (GRanDMA #433980) A Eulogy : Translated from the German and annotated by George G. Epp, nephew of Henry J. Epp. The document appears to have been written to be read at Uncle Henry’s funeral but I personally don’t know who wrote it or read it there. Henry J. Epp was born on October 3, 1883 in Gnadental, Baratow-Schlachtin, i Southern Russia. His parents were Jacob and Helena (Janzen) Epp. In 1893, he emigrated with his parents and siblings to Canada, spending an initial year in Manitoba. In 1894, they moved to what would become their homestead in the Rosthern area where Henry experienced with them a new beginning and the hard work that pioneer life required. Because his three older brothers (Jacob, David, Peter) were able to manage the work on the home farm, his father would often send Henry to help out at neigbbours’ farms; this resulted in his being able to relate how he had once ploughed with oxen for an uncle. His education was o...

  When a maturing offspring makes a decisive but unwise choice and we get into a quarrel about it, what do we mean when we say, “... but I just want you to be happy!” I’m wondering about that this morning because I just read an interview with an author who contends in her new book that we overload ourselves with romantic fantasies when we expect a relationship will bring lasting happiness. I agree that many of us may grow up with expectations of romance that are unrealistic; we only need to listen to a few country/pop songs to verify that observation. Fairy tales of our childhood sometimes ended with the line, “... and they lived happily ever after.” Our childish imaginations had to fill in what the rest of their lives were like... compared to ours, possibly. Defining happiness as relief from suffering, boredom, pain, fear, abandonment, etcetera might have some merit if such relief should bring on a feeling of euphoria. We might also talk about happiness brought on by conquest... ...

  Our balcony fig-leaf; just in case. In an essay I wrote once upon a time, I used an illustration meant to focus on the nature of believing as an act of choice … or as gift.                Two seven-year-olds are walking home from school when one, Devon, says to the other, Earl, “What is Santa going to bring you for Christmas?”                “I don’t believe in Santa Clause,” Earl says.                “Why not?”                “I can’t. We don’t have a chimney,” Earl replies, and leaves poor Devon to contemplate an existential question that lies well beyond his reach.                An adult equivalent might take place in a ...