Whose identity?

The European Union's Human Rights Commission ruled that Italy must remove crucifixes from public school classrooms. They say it is morally damaging to non-Catholics. The Italian government says that compliance with this order would be a denial of Italy's Catholic identity. Italians resent the EU and question its authority to make decisions like this for them.

The voters of the state of Maine chose to strike down gay marriage. They say that gay marriage is not a part of the state's identity. Proponents of gay marriage say that this is a blow to equality and that Catholics organized a political campaign to deny homosexuals their civil rights. They question the validity of the Catholic Church's tax-exempt status.

Which of these two stories is more tragic? Which demonstrates more misguided fervour?

No overtly religious symbol of any kind should ever appear in a public classroom.

No Christian should ever restrict the rights of sinners to sin if the sin cannot be demonstrated to harm anyone else's democratic rights.

No Church should ever depend on state tax exemptions for financial stability. Removal of that particular crutch can only be good for the Church in the long run.

We can't confuse our identity with the world's.

You can mail order a University degree - it doesn't make you educated.

It seems that the same-sex marriage issue is reviving in this country, probably because of activity south of the border rendering us sensitive to developments in the True North. Today, of course, it takes centre stage on the backs of two Russian ladies who hope that their newly minted Canadian civil marriage certificate will support their bid for a twice-denied recognition of their union in their homeland.

This, of course, rouses the rabbles among Evangelicals. The notion that good-ol' christian Canada (read rich WASP Canada) might be not only a harbour for the godless sodomites but, yea, even an armory from which to launch offensives against the sanctity of marriage abroad, is like an infected and infecting sore on the consciences of those who still believe the joke that secular governments are for the promotion of holiness.

Watch for my belligerent brethren to claim righteous and prophetic indignation while they give away their true motivation (hatred) by mercilessly picking on the ladies' choice of clothing for the ceremony,

But Joey, I thought you were becoming more catholic, or at least more morally conservative. I thought your position on this issue would have changed. What gives??

True, I am so becoming. And the more catholic and morally conservative I become, the more I see the utter hopelessness of asking sinners not to sin without first lovingly obtaining their commitment to participate with the Holy Spirit and the Church in accepting Jesus.

You're developing a healthier respect for the sacraments - isn't the aping of a Christian sacrament an objective sacrilege that you must oppose?

Yep. And so is adultery, and taking the Lord's Name in vain (not to mention quite a few "communion" services, "ordinations", healing services, and even baptisms), but I don't think they should be illegal in Canada. As much as I wish for these things to submit to God and cease, I cannot support abolishing these practices by means of restricting a person's democratic rights where the exercise of that right does not impede the free exercise of another's. This is the price we pay for living in a democracy, which is, by definition, systemically godless.

So you don't think it should be illegal to claim a status you don't have? Doesn't that injure others' rights?

No. I don't think it should be illegal for a person to mail-order an academic degree or professional designation, either - it rests on society and competent members thereof to discern the authority and source of the designation. That is, I would not be relieved of responsibility for harm caused by a person with credentials from an unauthoritative body, were I to entrust the person with duties of potentially grave consequence which require the skill or authority of a valid credential. The same applies to marriage and all the sacraments. The question for any sacrament is "from whence and what authority does it come?", not "what do you say about it?". Any well-meaning monogamous couple can call themselves "married" without affecting anyone else's democratic rights. In many cases, (homo and hetero), the authority behind that designation is simply not valid within the vale of Christian orthodoxy, even if it is valid to the partners, their communities, or their governments (or the makers of Cracker Jack, or the operator of fake-marriage-certificates.com). The converse applies to those, who, living in apathy, ignorance, or opposition to the law of God, yet unwittingly enjoy the grace of matrimony. Neither state, licit or illicit, either invalidates, misappropriates, nor undermines in any way the sacred state of marriage, just as a fake physician's license does not undermine a real one.

But it's illegal to present a fake credential.

That's different. A credential from an illegitimate body is not illegal, just mostly useless. A falsified credential that deceptively purports to be from a legitimate body is illicit, as is knowingly presenting it. But philosophically speaking, if a true credential can be objectively distinguished from a false one by any means (i.e. verifying it with the governing body), the true credential is in no way undermined.

Are you saying that civil marriage in Canada is useless?

Yes. It is of very little value. Therefore, I have absolutely no problem with handing out marriage certificates like branded frisbees at a product promo.

But there are tax implications! And....visitor rights and stuff!

It always blows me away that objection to a tax evasion strategy should come from the right. Same goes for a way to undermine the public health system. Neo con's LOVE that crap. I don't get it.

So, you think that marriage should be strictly civilly administered?

Let's be perfectly clear, here. Only God can grant the grace of matrimony. And only His Church can authoritatively identify and witness true marriage. Any other kind of relationship under any name at all, including "marriage" can/should be administered by the state, yes. The Church should not be in the business of deciding who gets to be the default executor of an estate, who gets to transfer tax credits to whom, or who gets to stay overnight in the hospital. HOWEVER the civil government wants to define any kind of conjugal relationship for the purpose of determining default insurance beneficiary requirements should be left to the political arena exclusively.

I don't know. Christianity has always spoken for social justice, and the definition of marriage has pretty strong social implications.

No doubt. And if marriage laws start necessarily subjugating women, or neglecting children, or oppressing certain classes of people, the Church should speak out. I don't see too many evangelicals marching on Parliament Hill to protest the anti-father bias in Canada's family court systems.

You can't deny the integral role that the Church plays in government - even in the administration of marriage.

Which is why I believe that the most effective act of protest, purification, and protection that the Church could make at this time would be to RENOUNCE and divest herself all her specially granted civil powers. Every church bulletin board in every faithful church assembly in the country should advertise that no legal marriage documentation will be signed by anyone representing that church. Every faithful ordained minister should inform any marriage candidates that (s)he will not take any legal action with regard to the marriage, though (s)he remains willing to bless and witness the marriage in the name of the Church. Every faithful denomination should prohibit the processing of any civil marriage documentation. If the government responds by making religious observances of marriages by ordained ministers automatically civilly efficacious, then denominations and ministers should renounce their provincial license to solemnize marriages. If that requires the creation of a new class of ordination that is somehow disqualified from provincial marriage solemnization regulations, then every minister in every faithful denomination should be de-frocked and re-installed into this new class. WHATEVER it takes so that the religious observance of a marriage by a Christian minister has absolutely NO legal effect whatsoever, that is what should be done.

That way, we reinforce that only we can define marriage requirements, we purify ourselves from worldly interference in this most holy institution, and we protect ourselves from discrimination challenges by forcing government to administrate their own friggin' tax system.

Hardcore.

What, so there were no valid marriages in the catacombs?

When are we going to wake up and remember that we are not of this world?

They fire the coach, not the players.

I want Minister Caplan back.

He's way too valuable a politician to be let go because some fools under him abused their power and got caught and justly fired. I want people in cabinet who oppose their own private interests in favour of the common good, like Minister Caplan did a number of times. Case in point: his opposition of funding for non-Catholic religious schools on the grounds that it would divert from the public system, despite his own background in Judaism.

That and other anecdotes of self-sacrifice for the common good make David Caplan a very valuable resource to Ontario, and one that we should be clamoring to keep. Thank you, honorable sir, for your gifts to the people of Ontario.

Hudak is calling for Minister Smitherman's neck, too. What a ridiculous notion. Should the Premier ever pursue federal politics (and I pray he does), we need Mr. Smitherman at the helm of this province.

Instead of focusing our energy on the many bad apples in politics, let's march in favour of the good ones we need to keep.

The kids' devotional reading was about "Encouragement"

Setting:

Matthew and Samuel snuggling in Matthew's bed.

Me sitting at their feet, reading the devotional book and showing them the pictures.

[...after the reading and before prayer]

Me:

"Matthew, do you have any encouraging words that you could say to Samuel?"

Matthew:

(folding his hands, locking eyes with his brother, and looking angelic)

"Sam, you did a really good job staying still for devotions tonight."

Me:

"Good job, buddy. Samuel, do you have something to say to Matthew to encourage him?"

Samuel:

(folding his hands, locking eyes with his brother, and looking angelic)

"I want to go downthtairths."

Me:

[ROFL]

Things you learn from waiting

I wrote this sappy post while waiting for Joshua to be born. I saved it as a draft because I didn't think it was worth publishing, and now I don't care that it's not well polished.

1. God is never late.

2. I am rarely on time, even when I am early or punctual.

3. There is more to waiting than being inactive during a period of unrealized potential. There is active surrender of my own agenda.

4. I don't want to know what I'm missing.

5. Eagles' wings are still but heavy. Waiting is hard work.

6. Wait for the burning bush before you yell at Pharaoh.

7. Waiting is purgatorial in the truest and most valuable sense.

8. True waiting is a special grace: a Fatherly charism.

9. Waiting is the essence of Sabbath rest, a powerful and ancient witness to God.

10. The virtue of patience is rooted in equal parts of faith, hope, and love.

11. God has been waiting for me forever. It was hard, bloody work.

12. The longer the wait, the greater the reward.

Whatever. It is what it is.

Children's Aid is SO taking our kids away...

Samuel sat on the couch this evening singing ever so sweetly and right on pitch: "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to Matthew, baby, Mommy, Daddy, and meeeeeeee".

You would never know that he had any reason to disbelieve that unless you saw his blue cast sticking out of his track pants. He sure wasn't singing last night or this morning, unless you think "Screamo" is singing.

Nobody saw him fall from the jungle gym in the Valerios' backyard. I was engrossed in conversation with my good friend Conrad, while Annette was applying her customary vigour to helping Susan get dinner ready alongside Julie. Jason was tasked with the sacred duty of grilling the cowboy steaks. Samuel is seriously talented at climbing, so nobody thought it odd that the 27-month old was jungle-gym-ing unsupervised (first lawn-mowing, now this). Yet, even this honorary sherpa somehow mis-stepped, and the first sight which stopped my heart was Samuel rolling in a rather odd fashion at the foot of the tallest ladder in the backyard complex. One life-sustaining and adrenaline-forced beat later, it stopped again when, having traversed the 30 feet which separated me from the scene in roughly negative-4 seconds, I beheld Samuel flailing with one hand and clutching his right leg while his panic-stricken face and unearthly wail made it clear that something akin to the apocalypse was taking place. For the second time in less than two months, I involuntarily honoured Jesus' name by making it the first and only word of three consecutive desperate prayers which could not be made by any other means and which arose to the Throne from the deepest part of me.

A few days prior, Samuel had screamed for an hour and a half because of a moderately well-scraped knee, so both Annette and I did not react only to the crying (though the crying was more intense than I have ever heard). We did not react to swelling, because we could perceive none in the child's yet-present baby cankles. We let the screaming take its course and Samuel did what toddlers do at that time of day, namely, fall asleep. We took him home despite our lingering fears of an actual injury, and decided see what the dawn brought.

The morning was hellish. We stifled as much fussing as we could (no socks, duct tape, or sedatives involved), but Sam would not put weight on his right foot or stop crying for more than a minute. We finally got to see a doctor at 11am, who sent us to radiology with instructions to wait for the report (a sure sign), then next door to the fracture clinic, where Sam calmed down and mercifully napped while the technician casted his leg above the knee. We left the hospital around 3pm. We got home and talked about how we are going to deal with a new baby and an invalid toddler without my having to take leave from work.

God has a plan, and He is guiding us. He is very good to us. So are our neighbours. Annette is a phenom. Matthew was so patient. Sam's attitude is great, even though he doesn't like the cast that he woke up to discover. The health care professionals we encountered today were remarkably friendly and helpful. Our family and friends have responded in love. God was solving this problem before it came to be.

Post-Script:

My mind has a frightening tendency toward unreasonable pessimism. My first thought upon hearing the diagnosis of a buckle fracture of the tibia and fibula was not the challenge this will now present to a family about to deal with an active 5 year old, two immobile infants and and a potentially capacity-reduced mother. It wasn't the impact that this could have upon my job, or the pain Samuel must have been experiencing. No, all of those thoughts were far too practical for me. My first thought was: "Great, the only type of injury that Jesus decidedly did NOT experience". Yeesh.

It's a Family Thing.

You may or may not understand.

I have been meditating on one of the mysteries of the Gospel, often ignored by evangelicals until Christmastime.

Mary:

Full of grace. The model of submission to the will of God. Perfectly obedient and morally pure. Angelically honoured.

Joseph:

Righteous and gentle. Chaste beyond reasonable expectation. Morally courageous. Chosen for a divine mission to foster the Son of God and His Mother. Obedient to the heavenly vision he received.

Baby Jesus:

Sinless and divine. The very Word of God.

And yet they go to the Temple on the eighth day to present the Child to the priest for circumcision rites, as if they needed this kind of Torah observance to be holy.

LESSON:

In the family of God, it's not enough to wash your hands and face and brush your teeth and fold your clothes neatly if you're out on the curb. Our Father wants you to do those things.....IN HIS HOUSE.

It's not what you do, it's where you belong.

Yes, I realize the trajectory of my position. It's....well...., it didn't exactly sneak up on me.

Another Rusty Razor taken to the Gospel

No woman should ever have to give birth to a baby without the proper support. In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as the BBC reports, women are delivering while hiding in bushes, their labour having been triggered by the stress of fleeing the constant violence around them. Babies and mothers are dying from TETANUS. Not complicated low-frequency conditions that are a challenge to any health care system. Tetanus. A disease preventable with clean implements, clean water, and soap. Otherwise perfectly healthy moms and babies are being lost to conditions that the lowest-paid hospital orderly can correct. Some NGO's are providing clean birth kits, including rubber gloves, a clean razor, a piece of string, and some soap. But these, according to the BBC's source, are in "eggregiously short supply" in areas like North Kivu.

My wife Annette is about to give birth to our third child. This is an occassion for joy and celebration and blessing, and there is not hint of fear, apprehension, or worry about the baby's health or Annette's. I thank God for this grace, and I pray for it to extend very soon to the women of the Eastern DRC. I pray through flowing tears that the violence and the systemic rape will stop immediately and that some measure of dignity can be restored to as many of these beautiful people created in His image as possible. Jesus DIED for them. I call all the legions of angels in the name of the King of Heaven to bring the will of God to bear TODAY in the crisis. Stop bullets and divert sexual assailants in their tracks. Let God's plan for childbirth be enacted and celebrated, especially where mothers and midwives are relying on their own techniques without any backup. May the children traumatized by this senseless war be preserved supernaturally by the power of God.

And meanwhile, as God's work continues to be accomplished by the prayers and the FINANCES of God's people on earth, and as rich nations live in their opulence, may QUACKS like this guy be silenced.

(This video is actually the initial idea for the post, which evolved into a much bigger picture, but the point is that a pastor wasting his breath berating an excellent politician quite personally and vindictively for trying to bring some justice to a health care system that heavily favours the rich.....is just inconceivable. I don't know what to say about this. God have mercy on his soul.)