Hard Truths

We in Canada have watched our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in recent weeks as he has handled the COVID-19 crisis. Let's take off the table for now any feeling you may have about what more the government should/could have done, or even any personal distaste you may have towards Trudeau. Let's instead put ourselves in the shoes of the British people during WWII as they watched the menacing cloud of Nazism barrel toward them; and as they picked through the rubble of their daily lives and their cities. Regardless of personal and political differences, the British people knew this: their survival rested on the courage of their gruff, cigar-chomping leader, Winston Churchill, pushing back against Hitler. I'm researching a concept called Everyday Leadership, for a book I'm writing. My proposition is that  real inclusiveness in a shared environment takes more than edicts from Head Office leaders. It takes everyday leaders, ordinary people down the line modeling the visi...

HARD TRUTHS By now most of you have heard the story of the couple (seen right) who amidst coronavirus fears bought out the entire stock of items like disinfectant wipes in three small Canadian towns, then sold them online at 4 times the cost. They raked in $30,000 profit before Amazon shut them down.  The couple's justification for what they did is interesting. Their children's  private school has closed and their business is facing tough times during the scare. So they need another way, they said, to raise the $20,000 a year school fees.  Most of us will no doubt question the morality of the couple's actions. We wonder, what happens then to the senior citizen (the most vulnerable of all the virus threatened populations) who lives on a small pension and who now has to choose between groceries; potentially dying from the virus for lack of disinfectant; and  buying a normally $20 pack of wipes for $80 ? Believe it or not, the couple's actions are merely a ...

Since Jesus is being used to support questionable socio-religious attitudes towards targeted populations such as women, Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, LGBTs and immigrants from certain countries, let’s start with a common understanding of what he DID NOT stand for… and what he actually DID do in his interactions with marginalized people and with The System. 1)  Jesus DID NOT look down on people deemed unworthy or unholy . Backstory (Matt. 15): Jesus came specifically to fulfill God’s promise to the ancient Israelites that He would visit them in the form of a human being…basically giving them first dibs at the Kingdom. So when a Syrian woman approached him for her daughter’s healing one would expect him to deny her. His disciples certainly had no problem with that. They advised him to send her away. Jesus didn’t. First he gave her the religious line. “I was sent only to the people of Israel! They are like a flock of lost sheep”. But the woman had a quality ev...