Hard Truths

Abortion…A View from Empathy Let’s play a game of Pretend. Your daughter/friend/church sister one semester shy of completing her degree says to you, “I can’t do this anymore. I’m quitting. I don’t have the money for fees; I can’t afford a babysitter; my car has broken down and I can’t afford to fix it.” What would you do next? 1)       Take out an ad in the local newspaper or organize a protest in front of her house, condemning the wrongness of dropping out of college 2)       Support legislation that would make it illegal—on pain of imprisonment—to drop out of school 3)       Review your resources: time (“Can I babysit for her 2 evenings a week?”); finances (“I believe in her potential. It’s worth postponing that Thing I was going to buy and use the funds to help her finish school”); social connections (“I’m going to canvas my Friend group and see how together we can help her”). Let’s say y...

                                                                   Hard Truths Oh, No...Not Grandma! Too late...She's Next! Just when we think it can't possibly get more amoral in American politics, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick puts it out there that seniors like himself would be "willing to take a chance on their survival (from COVID)" if it will keep the U.S. economy going amidst the pandemic. He would be, he says. His President wonders aloud if the "cure" (temporary business shutdowns) is worse than the disease. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-says-grandparents-are-willing-to-die-to-save-economy-for-their-grandkids-2020-03-23 And the Evangelical Christian Right, so ready to skewer 'liberals' for their immorality says? Nothing. Compare Patrick's perverted suggestion with my...

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...

Hard Truths Josiah Henson: A New Look at 'Uncle Tom' On October 28, 1830 residents in an area of Canada now known as Henson Landing witnessed a strange sight. A boat had just let off a man, his wife and their four children on the sandy beach nearby. The man fell to the ground, rolled around in the dirt and grabbed and kissed handfuls of sand, all with loud whoops of emotion. This man is surely mad, the residents murmured, loudly enough that the man heard. "Oh no, don't you know?" he asked, jumping to his feet." I'm free!" Thus began the life and times of escaped  American slave Josiah Henson, his wife Charlotte and their four children, to Dresden, then the heartland of Black settlement in Ontario. By the time of his death Rev. Josiah Henson had helped build a 500-person settlement for freed slaves; returned to America dozens of times to rescue 118 enslaved Blacks; won a medal at the First World's Fair in London; and been personally enter...

Hard Truths "Next!" “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I am not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me .” These troubling words were spoken by Martin Neimoller, a Lutheran pastor and avowed opponent of Adolf Hitler. Neimoller spent 7 years in a concentration camp for his views. Fifty-two percent of LGBTs in the U.S. live in States that do not have laws prohibiting discrimination against them in the workplace. The Arizona Supreme Court in 2019 allowed a cake business to deny services to a same-sex couple.    (In Canada LGBTs have equal workplace protection under federal and provincial human rights laws).   “It’s alright/I don’t care/Serves them right” one says. “Hey, I’m not gay. Won’t affect me! “ ...