God Is My Only Master

A Christmas Gift For The Earth?

2011-12-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

Give a little less electronic gizmos (making them produces a lot of polution, they don't last very long because planed or perceived obsolecence and it's really hard to dispose of them in an eco-friendly way). Give a little more time, energy and care to your loved ones.

Merry Christmas to you all!

2011-12-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

Received by e-mail today.

No one wants to help what's not cute

2011-12-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

I am convinced that if baby seals were ugly and baby cod fish were cute, seal products would not be forbided in Europe. I am writting to express my frustration about the refusal to help the "uncute" of this world!

Have you ever seen a "classy" women giving monney to a begger that has a cute dog and saying "That's to feed your dog!" with a look on her face and a tone that adds "... Because YOU don't deserve to be fed!"? I have. More than once. And every time, I feel like spitting in that "classy" person's face. I meen WTF? Because a human being has a hard time, he or she diserves less than a dog? Yes, some beggers make more than minimum wage (and tax free) begging downtown. Yes, some use that monney to get hammerd or play videopoker... But how do you know if it's the case? Why do you have to juge? And why, oh why do you have to make that person feel like he or she deserves less than a dog?

In the last 3 months, at least 4 people told me they wanted to volunteer at the Mission where I work... I say: "Yeah sure! We need volunteers to go to senior homes and help the elderly come down to the service once a month." But no! All of them want to volunteer for our Breakfast Club (the only part of the Mission that has enough volunteers) with all the cute children. Forget the teenagers, the needy adults and the old folks... We want cute!

Ok, don't get me wrong: I am happy that people want to volunteer for Breakfast Club. Even if we have engough volunteers now, we always need back up in case someone gets sick are is not available anymore. That's good. What frustrates me is that no one is interested in helping the seniors. The only women who does it is over 70 (she won't tell me her exact age and I won't ask) and she has to go up and down the 12 floors of the residence to bring down the seniors with their wheel chairs in the elevator.

I am not saying to stop helping the cute people and animals... I am saying to start helping the uncute! Next time you are asked for help by someone you find somewhat repulsive (it could be someone smelly or very sick or disfigured by pauverty), think about Jesus actually TOUTCHING a leper to cure him. Grosse! But he did it anyway!

For my american readers

2011-10-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been at the Summit of Americas in Québec City in 2001 and I can say Canadian police is not any better.

Christian Left

2011-10-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

It seems like there IS a Christian left in the USA! Halleluia!

And they happen to have a great gallery on their website!

Have a look:

http://www.thechristianleft.org/gallery/gallery

2011-09-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Back to Church Sunday, September 18

2011-09-02T04:50:00.000-07:00

I found this video on my church's blog... It seems like I am not able to get it on YouTube to integrate it on my blog, but please, go see it! It's really worth it!

Goodbye Jack

2011-08-25T14:33:00.001-07:00

He was a good man. I am going to miss him.

Anything is possible

2011-08-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Trey's gramma realy did it!

Predicting failure is no excuse not to try!

Inspiring man of God

2011-08-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

In the middle of absolute evil, he did not give up. After meeting the devil, he still has faith in God.

"I could not stand the loudness of silence." (Roméo Dallaire)

Quiet Revolution

2011-07-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

I am on vacation now, so I devour books! :D I want to share this little glimps of hope for the Kingdom of God with you. I read it in Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's New Monasticism: What it Has to Say to Today's Church.

When I was in high school, my brother and I started a landscaping business. We cut grass, trimmed weeds, sowed yards, and put in flowerbeds. During those hot summer days in North Carolina, I learned that some weeds are smarter than others. I don't remember what they're called, but some big suckers with long thick stem would grow up almost overnight. They could easlily grow taller than me, mocking our efforts to keep yards looking nice. But those big, fast-growing weeds weren't very smart. They looked big and strong, but their roots were so short and shallow that I could pluck them out of the flowerbed with a single pull.

The weeds that I remember are the rhizomes. They were smart weeds, and I never could outwit them. Usually their stems were very small, if they had any stems at all, and it was easy to whack them away with a Weed Eater. The next week, though, they would be back. Only there were more of them. I started trying to pull them up with my hands, but the stems would break off at the ground, just like when I whacked them with the Weed Eater. And the next week there would be more. I finally decided to read up on these little guys. That's when I learned that they're called "rhizomes" because they spread through an underground root structure, thriving beneath the surface and growing stronger all the time. There's really no way to get rid of them unless you tear up a whole yard. Fact of the matter is, they always win in the end.

Now, this is not a book about my adventures in landscaping, but those rhizomes did help me see something about how God moves in the world. The "quiet revolution" of God's kingdom doesn't spring up big and tall, parading it's supermacy over all the other kingdoms of the earth. Instead, it spreads underground. It thrives beneath the surface. When you whack some littles piece off, it just spreads somwhere else. And in the end, God's kingdom wins.

-pp. 31-32-

I love my church!

2011-07-07T17:15:00.001-07:00

War

2011-06-04T17:37:00.001-07:00

I usually like what the skit guys do. I even put a link to their website on my blog! I suscribe to their channel on YouTube!

From time to time, they post a video that I find a bit tacky or not as funny as the other ones, but not so long ago, they posted their first video I can say I really dislike!

Not only is it tacky, but to me, it's plainly war propaganda! I sometimes feel like some Americans confuse Christian religion and American patriotism.

Today, totally randomly, in the "recommanded video" section of my YouTube account, I happen to find the words that explain where my discomfort came from in front of this skit guys' video. Again, Shane Claiborne spoke my mind in a better way I ever could have!

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Why go to Church?

2011-06-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

(This is a translation of a post from my French blog.)

Recently, a friend of mine told me she probably would not come back to church every Sunday, because she gets bored in church. She said she lived her faith in other ways, much more by the choices she makes in her daily life.

I think it is very important to live our faith on a daily basis, to pray and also to make choices and act in a way that reflect Christ's teaching. So I aked myself why I should go warm up the piews every Sunday morning. I just vagly, randomly asked that question without really thinking seriously about it... I let the question float in my mind, hoping that the answer would come out of no where... And it did!

This morning (remember, it's a translation of something written a few weeks ago), in church, a child was baptized, a man lit a candle in memory of his late wife, a sick friend was named in the prayers of the people.

I did not know the child who was baptized, but his great grandmother had been part of our community for a long time... I knew neither that man, nor his late wife, but I felt like our prayers had touch his heart, like the support from the community was helping him in his time of grief. And my friend... I would not have known him if it wasn't for church. He is 52 years older than me, we do not speak the same language, we have a completly diffrent background and yet, we became friends.

Afer the service, we went downstairs to have tea and cake. I made eye contact with the man in mourning and he smiled at me. I talked with friends (again, people so different from me that I could not have met them anywhere else). We talked about a common friend for whom we are worried. We exchanged informations, worries, the assurance of a prayer, the promess to help whenever we could. Than I talked with the choir director about my possible change of carriere. She gave me advice and offered to revise the English version of my resumé.

On my way home, while riding my bike, I was thinking about all this... And thinking I should not forget to call a friend who is in depression. We were in church when she asked me to call her if I would not see her for a few weeks. She told me it would help her get over her depressive episodes quicker. This morning I felt like we had been there for the family of that child who was getting baptized, like we were there for the mourning man, like we were there to help eachother and our friend, like I was there for that depressive parishioner, like the community was there for me and I was there of the community, like we were closely knit, but open to new comers.

The answer came out of no where: "Love one another" Jesus said. How can we love eachother, really love eachother, concreatly, with actions, prayers, worries, shared joys and shared sorrows, if we do not know eachtoher? How can we know eachother if we do not see eachother? Yes, there are people that are just passing through, that we do not really get to know because they do not stick around... But there is a "core group", a community filled with love and ready to welcome it's neighbours. I remembered why I started going to church in the first place: to meet other beleivers, to have a community. It did not happen overnight. There were people I did not trust, people I was scared of, people I found intimidating, people I was not comfortable with... But the more I got to know them, the more my fears and worries went away and the more I love them.

Going to church is not essential. You can have a community and build relashionships elsewhere. But going to church, if we make the effort to get involved anough to get to know people, is not useless.

Who is your neighbour?

2011-05-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

A conversation with a teen from my youth group, in the suburbs, this afternoon:

- Wow! There are a lot a trees in this town! It smells good! It's alomost like the country!

- Yeah! But there is too many people here for the country.

- It's more the suburbs...

- I guess.

- It looks like a nice place to raise children.

- Yes, indeed... But it seems like the kind of place where everyone knows everything about everybody.

- What makes you say that?

- I don't know... Just the way the houses are built.

- It doesn't meen anything... I grew up in the suburbs and even if the houses were close to one another, people didn't care much about their neighbours, so they didn't know much about eachother.

- I grew up in the city, so I am used to that attitude, it doesn't bother me.

- It's kind of sad, really.

- Not that much if it's just here. But if you tell me there is no place in the world where people know their neighbours, yes, that is definitly sad!

I think we could give it a try... Make this world a little bit less sad. I think I will try.

In the last week of December, I received my neighbour's mail. I checked the address went next door and rang the bell. A woman I had seen before open the door:

- Yes?

- Miss B.?

- It's me... ?

- I received your mail by mistake. Here it is.

- Oh! I thought you were brigning us a New Year's card!

- Maybe I should have! Happy New Year!

- Thank you! Happy New Year to you as well!

Almost every morning of the winter, she watched me carry my bike down the stairs with an amazed look on her face. After snow stoms, we talked about the weather while shoveling our balconies and stairs. Why don't I talk to her more? Why don't I bring her season's greetings. Why don't I invite her for tea in my kitchen or beer on my balcony?

Is this mean?

2011-04-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

I went to visit a friend at the hospital. He can't eat. The last time he had food in his mouth was on January 2nd.

When I got home, I ate exactly what he craves (salad and cottage cheese). Is it mean?

Purim

2011-03-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Purim tov leyeladim shel Abraham!*

Reading the Old Testament made me want to know more about it, to have a deeper understanding of these books. I read some introduction books about the Bible in general and about the Old Testament... But it wasn't enough for me. I borrowed some theology books about some of the Old Testament books, but I was soon frustrated by the frequent untranslated Hebrew words in them. I did not find any biblical Hebrew courses offered at night or during the weekend, nor did I find any biblical Hebrew methods in any library I know. So I have started learning modern Hebrew for now.

In my mind, a language cannot be learned properly without the culture that comes with it. In other words, to learn a foreign language, one has take interest in the culture of those speaking this language. So it is because I am interested in understanding the Old Testament that I started learning Hebrew, and it is because I am learning Hebrew that I am trying to know more about the Jewish faith and the Jewish holidays. Unfortunately, I don't have any observing Jews in my surroundings to tell me about his or her faith and traditions. My friends are google and wikipedia!

Today is Purim! That's the commemoration of the days when the Jews were permitted by the king of Persia to defend themselfs against their Persian persecutors. According to what I read on Internet, it is a tradition to read the book of Esther and to make noise with rattles when the name of Haman (the bad guy) is said, so his name will be erased from collective memory forever.

This year, I felt like celebrating some Jewish holidays and try to figure out what meaning these holidays could have for me today. To me, Purim represents the right to express one's faith. What I would like to celebrate today is Mordechai's refusal to bow to someone else than God, his refusal to yield when pressured by a political regime that would make him betray his faith. For me, celebrating Purim is celebrating resistance.

Since I did not have time to organize a Purim supper with friends and rattles as I had originally planed, I am celebrating on the my blog! I found an animated version of the book of Esther on YouTube. If you feel like it (and if you have tolerant neighbours), I invite you to watch it and make noise when the name of the bad guy is mentioned! I did not have time to buy a rattle, but I am taking out my kazoo!

*Happy Purim to all the children of Abraham!

And hurray for freedom of religion, freedom of beliefs, freedom of conscience for all the children of God (yes, even the atheists!)! :)

Fasting

2011-03-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

Lent just began this week! I thought it would be a good occasion to share this funny video about fasting.

For a long time, I wondered what fasting was all about. What's the point of not eating? How can you be more connected with God when your blood sugar level gets lower and you have a hard time focussing on anything at all?

I heard Shane Claiborne say the ancient Christian community used to fast so the ones that did not have anything to eat could have something to eat. It makes much more sens to me. If there is not enough for everyone to be well fed, why would some be aloud to be well fed (and maybe even over-fed) while others starve to death?

Happy women's day!

2011-03-08T04:40:00.001-08:00

Should we be perfect to be used by God?

2011-02-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

I have once been told to stop touching my girlfriend and become a saint. Many years later, I have been told that after sanctification, comes action...

I belive that sinners can be saints and saints can be sinners. I've heard of people called "saint" by the Catholic Church who killed people because they had a different understanding of Christian faith than theirs. The Apostle Paul wrote he did evil stuff even if he wanted to be perfect as the Lord is perfect. He is still officially called a saint...

Today, I read this sentence in a book about restorative justice:

Turning Christianity into a cult centred on an expiatory death achieved long ago, and honoured in the present by other - or inwordly - asceticism, represented an easy option, a refusal of the costliness of the gospel ethic, of realization of the Jubilee prescriptions. (Corringe, God's Just Vengence, p. 82)

I beleive God uses imperfect people to do His perfect work. He chose a stuttering prophet to deliver the 10 commendments. He chose a persecuter of the disciples of Christ to spread the good news of Jesus' resurrection. He chose someone who has always been afraid of teenagers to be a youth leader in a church mission.

The Bible tells us (in many passages of the Old and the New Testament) that God does not want fasting and sacrifices, but love, care and justice. More than our devotions, He calls for our attitudes, feelings and acts of justice.

Pray as you go

2011-02-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

Thank you Isaac for this suggestion!

This website provides a daily prayer guide in MP3 or WAV format. Every podcast lasts between 10 and 13 minutes and icludes music, scripture reading, a reflexion about the readings and a moment for personnal prayer.

The beauty of this concept is that you can put it in your MP3 player and carry it with you. So you can pray on the bus, on the subway, during your lunch break... It's really well done!

Interesting fact

2011-01-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

Humility is the one quality you can never be proud of.

Smells like Christmas

2010-12-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

Think of Christmas... Picture it... Not just with your eyes and ears... Smell it!

What does it smell like?

Like cinamon? Like a Christmas tree? Like tourtière? Like turkey?

It depends on what you pictured in your mind when you read the word "Christmas".

This year, when our pastor told the Christmas story (on Christmas Eve and this morning), he asked us if we could smell the stable where Jesus was born. Odd question, isn't it? It must not have smelt so good... Wet hay, sheeps' manure... Yuk! What a weird place for the Son of God to be born! Our pastor likes to point out how scandalous and unsual God's actions can be.

This morning, our Christmas service was at the Mission. It's a space that we rent in a school. An old lady from our congragation once said, when she attended a service at the Mission, "It's like worshiping in a barn!" The service was fallowed by a community meal. I think the pastor must have invited every one he talked to during the last month. We must have been about 100 people! There were seniors, families with kids, young people, francophones, anglophones, Christians, Muslims, non-believers, a very nice melting pot! We ate together, we played games, all the kids received gifts. It felt like a huge family! The family of God rejoicing in the birth of Jesus! I did not know who came from where... Except for the folks I recognised from Church and some of my family members I had invited.

After the meal, we had a lot of left overs! It is so much like Jesus to do something like that! We come with a bit of food to share and we leave with 12 baskets of left overs! During the meal and the games, but aspecially during the food distribution, I smelt the scent of the stable... Some folks don't smell so good, aspecially when they are poor (I am not sure why). I some how found that foul smell reasuring, because in Luke 14.13, it says: "When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind". There were so many people and we were all so close together that I did not know who brought the smell of the Stable on a Christmas Sunday, but I knew the poor were invited and that they had come.

This morning felt like the most authentic Christmas experience I have ever had.

2010-12-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

I would love the Advent season, but...

2010-12-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

I work in retail!!!

I am soooo sick of hearing the same 3 Christmas songs played on the radio all day long!!!

In between the same hyper-tacky 3 songs, there are some obscure versions of classic Christmas carols. I heard a dreadful jazz version of God Rest You Marry Gentelmen... In the church choir, we are singing a more classical version of it, so I know the tune pretty well and the words almost by heart... It took me a few verses to recognize it in the jazz version!

They even played a song from Alvin the chip monk! Thank God, they haven't played cats and dogs jiggle bells yet!

Conversation I had last night

2010-12-05T04:48:00.000-08:00

- What exactly do you meen by Christian Anarchism?

- Well, the name of my blog in English is "God is my only master" and I think it sums it up pretty well. It meens that I will obey only if what is asked of me by humans is not in contradiction with what is ask of me by God. I think that even when it's the Church that is asking, we should always confront what is asked of us with the Scriptures. In fact, it's a dialectic movement. We confront our lives with the Scriptures and the Scriptures to life and we go back and forth between the two to try to discern God's will. The theological foundation of this, for me, is simply Jesus saying that we should not let anyone call us Master or Rabbi, for we are all Children of God and we are all brothers and sisters.

2010-12-03T20:01:00.001-08:00

Ex-gay therapy

2010-11-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

I had heard of so called "ex-gay therapies" before and how harmful they can be, but I had never heard anyone who has been thought this experience testifie about it. Here is a testimony I found on YouTube. I post it here because it should be known to the entire world that homosexuality is not a choice and that people are not gay because they turn away from God or have a demon inside them.

Thank God he prayed before trying to kill himself so God could tell him, through his Pastor and his friend, that He loves him no matter what.

Prayer party! :)

2010-11-19T03:43:00.000-08:00

Shane Claiborne

2010-11-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine asked me what Simple Way is. So I started talking about Shane Claiborne and the books I have read and the conference I have seen. She wanted to know more. She said she felt too lazy to read a book and asked me to tell her more about him and what he does. I can't explain who Shane is... You've got to meet him! So I looked for videos on YouTube, and I found a complete conference! Here it is! Enjoy!

Would you like to join a potatoe pealing party?

2010-11-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Our mothers and grand-mothers fought for their rights and ours. They fought to have the right to work outside their homes after they got married.

Did they win? Did we win? When it comes to work, I think we all lost because of an unforseen economical twist! Our mothers and grand-mothers fought to have a choice and we ended up with a double obligation. Salaries are no longer thought to sustain a family, but half a family, because the employer assumes that both parents will work to sustain their family. The consequences are everywhere in today's society.

Families often do not have enough time to cook properly and buy industrial food full of salt, sugar and transfat. No one has time to take care of their elders, so they are parked in homes. Women used to volunteer for all sorts of charity and participate in different activities during the week.

I herd a rumor about the rumage sales in our church. I herd last month's rumage sale was the last one, because the volunteers are old and tierd. No one younger can replace them, because they are working during the week. I thought: "Who goes to rumage sales on week days anyways?" Now days, every thing is cramed up during the busy weekend.

I often herd comments like: "I don't go to church every week, because I need time to do my house chores on the week end." House chores used to be done all week long... Now we have to squeeze a week of work in a two days week-end. Where is the Sabath in all that??? We are all tired and stressed out and wish we could do more.

The next feminist combat: Fight for the possibility of staying home! But this time, let's get our brothers on board!

Brothers and sisters unite! We need someone (male, female or other) to stay home, cook, clean, volunteer, take care of the children and the elderly!

Why don't unions fight for this? Because the smallest unity in our society is no longer the family. It's the individual. Unions fight for the rights of individual workers, not for working class families. How can we change this to have a healthyer, more balance society?

Saints

2010-10-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

I always saw praying the saints as a supersticious practice and I even tend to see it as a form of idolatry. All these objects, these medals, these statues of saints... It all seems like a gamic to me... But seeing the saints as role models makes much more sens. Yes, we have Jesus as ultimate role model. But the saints are those who succeded in imitating Christ in their own time, their own society, their own political context. They actualize the Message.

When I write "saints", I am not necessarily talking about those the Vatican name as saints. We don't need the Pope to tell us who is a saint and who is not. Every Christian in Quebec knew brother André was a saint way before the Pope said so. And the entire world knew mother Thereasa was a saint way before she died!

Bible in a Minute

2010-10-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

Quote of the day

2010-09-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

"True faith must be distinguished from fideism. Fideism says there comes a point where we must stop asking questions and must simply believe; faith keeps on seeking and asking."

Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: an introduction to Christian theology, on google books, p. 3.

Hesitations

2010-09-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, talking with a Mormon Sister on the subway:

Me: Where are you going anyway?

Her: To Place-des-arts station. We are going to sing in the subway today!

Me: Oh cool! My ex-w... My ex used to do that all the time!

Why would I be afraid to let her know I have been maried to a woman? It's not like I am going to see her ever again anyways!

Today, talking to a parent:

Father: My sons are not going to come to Youth Group today. The oldest is in the hospital and the youngest is overthere with his mom to visit him.

Me: Oh! I am sorry to here that! I totally understand! When you see them, tell them...

My thoughts: Will this man be offended if I use religious language? Oh, right! He is the one who's sons have been raised with VeggieTales Bible stories! It safe then.

Me: Tell them that I'll be praying for them.

Why should I be afraid to tell a father who's kids have been attending a Christian Youth Group that I'll be praying for his children? Why should I be afraid to offend ANYONE by saying I am praying for them?

For the last... Two years and a half, maybe? I have been a proud Chritian without going back in the closet in regards of my sexual orientation. When I got confirmed, I made a comittement to fallow Christ, but I also made a comitment to myself to not put my identity (sexual, spiritual or other) in the closet ever again!

What's got into me lately? Why am I such a coward?

Stuff and TV

2010-08-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend this morning. I was telling her about an observation I had made recently. I saw a documentry about the decline of traditionnal religious practice in Québec. The documentary was made in the early 1970's. (If you read French, see my French blog for more details.) In that film, we see the congregational meeting of a church that is about to loose their main building, because it is too big and too expensive to maintain since the church attendance droped. There is one parishoner that suggests something that would sound silly nowdays, now that we know that this phenomenon is not just a temporary situation. He said something I would translate by: "Why don't we ask for government funding to sustain our church utile the families come back?" There are two very important things that struck me in this sentence. The first one is that this poor man seemed to think the families were gone for no reasons and were going to come back eventually without any changes from the institution. I am not going to address this one in the present article. (Again, if you read French, see the article titled "Tranquillement pas vite..." on my French blog.) The second thing that struck me is one word he chose... He did not say "people", he said "families". The smallest unit that was attending a church, in the mind of this man and many others, was not an individual, it was a family.

I think we see things diffrently nowdays. I look around me, and I see many families with diffrent religious beleifs in them. I've got a friend who's parents are budhists and he is kind of budhist as well, but also very interested in christianity... Another friend who was raised a Catholic and who now sees herself as closer to budhism. My grand-parents were Catholics and would never ever have even thought of changing religion or denomination. Amongst the grand children, you find some Catholics who don't really beleive but who identify culturaly to that religion, some whom, I think, may beleive but never talk about it, a Protestant, a Mormon and one of the ones who is a "cultural" Catholic maried a Babptist who does not go to church anymore. Why so much diversity?

As I was talking to my friend about this, I though the change must have happend within my parents' generation... The ones that where young adults in the 70's and were making their own decision about not going to church like there parents did. What happend there? Why were there "families" going to church and then "individuals" leaving it. What changed so much? What technolgy appeard about when they were born, in the 1950's? TV. What I am about to write is just my own reflection and is not based on any sociological studies, but if I'd be studying sociology at a high level, I'd definitly want to investigate the fallowing hypotheses. Before the 1950's, socialisation was made mainly by family, church and school. The three systems where pretty much saying the same thing... Something like: work hard, worship God and honour your parents. Why would anyone want to live any other way their parents lived before them? Then TV arrived and sent a very different message: "You are unique! You are an individual! Explore your own way! Be different!" which is not a bad thing on it's own, but has the consequence of making the individual the most important unit instead of the family. This message is sent by TV mainly through advertisment.

My friend said: "Wait wait wait! There was the radio before. Why would the radio have less impact than the TV." Well I think that TV, because it uses images, was made much more accessible to a much younger audiance... And because families spent way less time around the radio than they did around the TV... But my friend brought to my attention that something else had changed in the 50's: consumerism! In the 50's, manifacturers started to make stuff cheaper that would break faster and make it cheaper than ever so people could aford to buy more stuff. And she told me about this little explicative film:

So to sell all that crap, publicity had to become increasingly intense. It takes more and more space in the program we watch and puts more emphasis on the individual, because one person is much easyer to manipulate than a family. Publicity tells us all day long every day that we are not truly ourselfs unless we buy the product that reflects our personnality. Why so many diffrent types of breakfast cereal, of shampoo or cell phones? Because you are so unique, you need a product that is different from the one your neighbour has... Or because you might buy 4 boxes of cereals and three bottles of shampoo to please every individual in your family? Or to give you the oportunity of changing your mind all the time, wanting more options, wanting new gizmos, creating new needs?

I spent all my adolescence complaining about TV steeling my family from me. They would rather watch TV at dinner time than talk to me. My sister would rather watch TV than play with me... TV is just a meen of communication and entertainment. It is not an evil machine that is destroying everything... Althouhg the abuse of it can seriously damage communication within a family... It's consumerism that is the evil machine destroying our planet and our social fabric. TV is just one of it's instruments.

Mass production of cheap (and short lasting) televisions just help putting more brainwashing publicity into every household... And now the Internet is taking it's place... What we need to change is not the meen of communication the consumerism system uses to reproduce it self... What we need to change is our way of life and even our way of thinking. We do "spiritual shopping" going from one church to another, from one community to another, from one volunteer implication in a community service to another... Just like we shop for anything else (entertainment, education and goods). One of the consequence of "spiritual shopping" is that we grow shallow roots. We don't know our community as well as we could, we don't weave links as solid as we should, because we keep moving!

I do not think that such a radical change is going to happen anytime soon in our society... But I do hope that I will be able to grow deep roots in staying close to my family, getting deeply involved in my church community, maintaining healthy long lasting friendships... And if some day I have a family of my own, I hope I'll spend more time nurturing my children's healthy spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical development than I'll spend in front of my computer.

Free Market

2010-07-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

What is this joy?

2010-07-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

What is this joy? It's flowing through my heart like a spring. I'd like to splash it around, but no one is near. If I'd still have room mates, I'd give a big round of hugs and suggest that we throw a party!

I can't help to think that today, I have done your will. I did not feel like it at all. I felt like a piece of garbage this morning... But you don't make junk. You took me and used me. There is no grater joy than to serve you, Lord! There is no greater reward than your love.

I want to work for your glory. Your light shines brighter than any other, brighter than all the stars in the univers. In personal glory lies the danger of personal fall and sorrow. In your glory resides only your warm light and infinit love.

I love you Lord.

Amen.

2010-06-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

A coworker just told me about this stand up comic. She is very edgy.

I don't relly like the conclusion (easy sex joke), but I find the rest hillarious!

My sisters from Africa

2010-06-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

I just had the honnor and pleasure of welcoming tree members of the Watoto Children's Choir in my home for one night. I had been told that I would welcome two girls and the woman who takes care of them. I have been given their names in advance. I read: "Barbara, 12 years old, Brenda 9 years old and Auntie Ruth" and I imagined Auntie Ruth would be an old and severe woman... I don't know why... It's just the image I had... But Auntie Ruth happend to be a joyfull 22 years old woman! We bounded right away. She is an open minded responsible funny young woman! She has been taking care of Brenda and Barbara for 11 months and she calls them her daughters. Althought both little girls pay her the kind of respect we have not seen children pay to their parents in Canada since the 50's, they seem to have the same kind of relationship with her one would have with a big sister. They teese eachother and laught all the time!

The girls payed me the same kind of respect they pay their Auntie Ruth, calling me Auntie Joëlle. Ruth treated me like a sister. She told me stuff about Uganda and asked me questions about Canada. When we made the sandwishes together for their lunch, she pointed at the alfalfa sprouts and asked me what it was. I said: "It's alfalfa sprouts. You can taste it and see if you like it." She did not taste it. She just took a bunch and put them in the sandwishes saying: "It looks nice. I am gonna have some. It's the one thing I like most about traveling: I get to try all sorts of new things!"

Their visit to my home ended with many thanks and a big hug!

I wish we could all trust and respect eachother like this all the time. I wish I could welcome people in my home more often and share stories and laugfter like this every day. I wish we would always treat eachother like the brothers and sisters in God that we are.

The Lord's Resistance Army

2010-06-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

This week, the Watoto Children's Choir is coming to perform at our church! It's a choir of orphan children from Uganda. Their parents were killed eather by AIDS or war.

I wandered what "western" language was spoken in Uganda, so I went on Wikipedia and found out they speak English. Of course, once I am on Wiki, I can't just find the info I was looking for and stop there... I read a bit about the recent history of Uganda, wandering what kind of war killed theese children's parents... War is always horrible, but the kind of war going on in Uganda is beyond horrible!

I read that, for about 20 years, a resistance army has been trying to overthrone the official governement. The name of that army cought my attention: The Lord's Resistance Army. I was curious, so I clicked on the link to read the article about it... I found out that their official goal is to establish a government based on the 10 commandments of the Bible... I also found out that 80% of their fighters are children soldiers!! 80 f*cking %!!! They kindnap kids and force them to be sexual slaves or killing machines and they do it in the name of the Lord!!! It makes me sick! Words cannot express how outraged I am right now!

Food inc.

2010-05-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

After I put "Our Daily Bread" on my blog, I have been suggested to watch this documentary:

What is said it that documentary fits what I have learned everywhere else about the food industry. I think it is pretty reliable.

Go Habs Go!

2010-05-08T20:02:00.001-07:00

Our daily bread

2010-05-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

A german documentary that a collegue suggested me.

One image is worth a thoulsand words.

Silence

2010-05-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

My special someone says of himself that he is not very talkative. It's true. He is very quiet in general. It makes me reflect on my own lack of silence. Even when I am not talking, I am having conversations in my head. I am thinking of what I could say if I would be talking. My mind is rarely quiet.

When I was 7, I had a teacher that was always saying that words are silver but silence is golden, because God talks to us within silence. At the time, I only took it as a teacher's trick to make us shut our trap in class (and it worked! I have never been in a class as quiet as hers since!). Now that I am a grown up, I think that there was something much deaper than a teacher's trick in that sentence.

I remember a reflection from the pastor's substitute in church... He was talking about Martha who was "overly occupied"... She was so busy preparing supper and taking care of everything that she did not take time to sit and enjoy Jesus' company and she was mad at her sister, because she was listening to Jesus' teaching instead of helping her preparing dinner. My mind is like Martha: overly occupied, busy. My mind rarely takes time to sit and listen to Jesus (or the Father, or the Holy Spirit).

I think I could learn from the silence of my not-talkative-special-someone.

Quote Of The Day

2010-04-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

"The Church is a whore, but she is my mother."

-St-Augustine-

I thought of making myself a t-shirt with that quote on it, but then I thought my biological mother would not like it very much...

Abortion

2010-03-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

The religious argument I hear most often against abortion is the sacrality of life. Pro-life activists say life begins way before a baby is born and that life is sacred and must be protected, etc, etc... For me, this argument makes no sense. Have you noticed that we cannot, as humans, create life? We can only stretch it and multiply it, but we cannot create it from scratch. There is no beginning to life, but only an infinite continuity. Even when something dies, there is so much life that is active it the decomposition process.

A friend just showed me this hilarious video. I was tempted to post it on a Christian forum I often visit where there is actually a debate about abortion, but I thought it would probably be flagged as offensive.

The Irresistible Revolution

2010-03-09T04:14:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical. At every page, I feel like quoting him on my blog! I will just put a few paragraphs of his book here and send you to The Simple Way's wep page, so you can buy his book if you want to read more!

People sometimes ask us what we do all day on an "avrage day" at the Simple Way, and my answer has always been real short - either "Nothing spectacular" or "What is an avrage day?" It gets a little crazy since our lives are full of surprises and interruptions. I'll do my best to describe it to you.

We hang out with kids and help them with homework in our living room, and jump in open fire hydrants on hot summer days. We share food with folks who need it, and eat the beans and rice our neighbor Ms. Sunshine makes for us. Folks drop in all day to say hi, have a safe place to cry, or get some water or a blanket. Sometimes we turn people away, or play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who answers the door on tired days. We run a communiy store out of our house. We call it the Gathering, and neighbors can come in and fill a grocery bag with clothes for a dollar or find a couch, a bed, or a refrigerator. Sometimes people donate beautiful things for us to share with our neighbors; other times they donate their used toothbrushes.

We reclaim abandoned lots and make gardens amid the concrete wreckage around us. We plant flowers inside old TV screens and computer monitors on our roof. We see our friends waste away from drug addiction, and on a good day, someone is set free. We see police scare people, and on a good day, we find an officer who will play wiffleball with his billy club. We rehab abandoned houses. And we mourn the two people who died in this property (where I am now writhing). We try to make ugly things beautiful and to make murals. Instead of violence, we learn imagination and sharing. We share life with our neighbors and try to take care of each other. We hang out on the streets. We get fined for distriuting food. We go to jail for sleeping under the stars. We win in court. We have friends in prison and on death row. We stand in the way of state-sanctioned execution and of the prison industrial complex.

We have always called ourselves a tex-exempt 501c3 antiprofit organization. We wrestle to free ourselves from macrocharity and distant acts of charity that serve to legitimize apathetic lifestyles of good intentions but rob us of the gift of cummunity. We visit rich people and have them visit us. We preach, prophesy, and dream together about how to awaken the church from her violent slumber. Sometimes we speak to change the world; other times we speak to keep the world from changing us. We are about ending poverty, not simply managing it. We give people fish. We teach them to fish. We tear down the walls that have been built up around the fish pond. And we figure out who polluted it.

We fight terrorism - the terrorism within each of us, the terrorism of corporate greed, of American consumerism, of war. We are not pacifist hippies but passionate lovers who abhor passivity and violence. We spend our lives actively resisting everythting that destroys life, wether that be terrorism or the war on terrorism. We try to make the world safe, knowing that the world will never be safe as long as millions live in poverty so the few can live as they wish. We believe in another way of life - the kingdom of God - which stands in opposition to the principalities, powers, and rulers of this dark world (Eph. 6:12).

So that's an average day.

pp. 121 to 124.

http://www.thesimpleway.org/

God don't make junk

2010-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

My roommate made me discover this amazing "feel-good-short-film". The way the main character makes people smile reminds me that there is good in every one, because in each of us shines the light of God. I find amazing the way he passionately loves everyone he meets. Yes, it's just fiction... But how great would the world be if we would all love each other like he loves his neighbours!

Enjoy!

Thou shall not judge

2010-02-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

I was just having a conversation with myself (again!)... I was telling myself about what bathers me in the Catholic institution. I don't mind the different version of the Lord's prayer, the kneeling in church or the devotion to saints or the Virgin Mary... I discovered that what bathers me most, is the authority of the Pope to say "This is the correct way to worship God, and that is not the correct way to worship God."

I think God speaks to each of us in a different way. When you think of it, it makes sans. The apostle Paul said the Church (meaning the people in it, not the building) is the body of the resurrected Christ. Let's imagine for a minute every Christian of the world being a part of that body and God being the brain. Imagine the Pope is the heart. The heart has been told by the brain that he should pump blood and that it is the only way for him to live. But the brain also told de lungs that they should pump air. What happens to the body if the heart, convinced to be the most important organ of the body, decides to boast about his amazing connection with the brain and convinces the other organs that only HE knows the truth about the brain's will: He wants us to pump blood! What if the lungs believed the heart (which has good intentions, but is missing the big picture) and start pumping blood instead of air? What will happen to the body of Christ?

I think that might be why Jesus told us not to judge each other. It is for God alone, who sees the big picture, to judge us all.

Olympic Hypocrisies

2010-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

“Why don’t you like the Olympic games? Have you seen the opening ceremonies? It’s so beautiful! It’s nice; it’s amateur sports. It promotes sports and health. It sends a message of peace. Plus, this year, it’s in Vancouver! Doesn’t make you proud to be Canadian?”

Here is why I don’t like the Olympic games:

“Have you seen the opening ceremonies?”

No. I have not. I have no television and no interest in big shows and pop music. But I do listen to the news on the radio… I heard that “All 4 native nations were represented!” I heard that and said “Whaaaat??? There are 11 native nations only in Quebec, what the heck are they talking about??” It’s makes me feel like the native nations would be kids and Canada would be evil parents who take them out of the dirty basement where they usually keep them, just to look good in front of their guests! Regardless of the crimes the French and British colonists have committed against them, lets not forget that some are still starving in reserves without running water, in third world country conditions, right now in 2010. Lets not forget our government is not making much effort to help them rediscover and teach their own cultures and languages. Let’s not forget they are ignored most of the time! In university, whenever there was something about the Natives in the syllabus of one of my classes, it was put at the end… So the teacher could cut it out saying we did not have enough time to talk about it after all, since we spent so much time on a “more important” topic, or because of Easter or a student strike… Or any other excuse he or she could find.

“It’s so beautiful!”

How do they make cities look so good for the Olympics? They kick the homeless out of it! If a voice rises against it, it is ether violently repressed by the state or ignored by the press.

“It’s nice; it’s amateur sports. It promotes sports and health.”

That’s one of the stupidest arguments for the Olympics! “Amateur” sports? Really? Come on! It’s elite athletes we are talking about here! They devote all their lives to their sport! And with such an intensive practice, is it really good for their health? They are under tremendous pressure to perform at more then their maximum… It does not seem to promote a very balanced or healthy behaviour to me.

“It sends a message of peace”

How can anyone still say that after the Olympics took place in a country so well known to violate human writes (China) and a country known to invade other countries for the good of their commercial interests (USA)? Maybe it sent a message of peace in the Greek civilisation when the people had to cease all conflicts to be part of the Games… But now days, the countries at war can still participate in the Olympic games.

“Doesn’t make you proud to be Canadian?”

Oh yeah! It does! I am so proud to be Canadian when I see the women’s hockey team beet the crap out of every other team in the world! It makes me so proud, that I forget that our prime Minister is putting our country to shame all around the world whenever environmental issues are addressed. I forget that my country lets one of its citizens be tortured in Guantanamo Bay, even if he was only 15 years old when he was arrested. I forget that our government has silenced a public inquiry about torture performed by Canadian soldiers. I forget that there is still no rule about GMO identification for the food sold in my country. Oh yeah! I am so proud to be Canadian!

Seriously, it’s all the modern Olympic games are about… Increase patriotism! Marxists would say patriotism is the antidote to international class solidarity. I personally find the class frame of analysis too simple and not adapted to the 21^st century’s social context, but I am still against patriotism. It is a notion that makes no sans in the light of the Gospel. We are all brothers and sisters, no matter what country we live in and our solidarity should be with all of the poor and the oppressed.

British Colombia has spent millions to prepare the Olympics. On the day of the opening ceremonies, the province has announced it would cut 9 million dollars in programs to help poor children. The Canadian government has spent millions in a program that had only one goal: be the first in the medal count of the Vancouver Olympic games! I wander how much they spend to make sports accessible to people of all ages in Canada. I think being first is a useless goal. Having a healthier population would be a cleverer goal. How many kids hate sports because they are not good enough not to be ridiculed in gym class? Is physical activity accessible to all adults, rich and poor, young and old? Instead of gathering around a TV to watch others perform, why not gather to take a walk or go to the pool?

Ruth and Esther

2010-02-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

When I am bored (witch is totally the case tonight), I often go somewhere else in my head... In another time, in another place... I meet new people there (imaginary, of course) and have conversations with them. We hang out together for the time of a daydream... Then, they go back to oblivion and I go back to reality.

I was just having this strange conversation with this imaginary guy... He asked me (or I asked myself, if you prefer) who my female role models from the Bible could be. As a feminist, I said (or thought), I should name a strong independent woman like Rebecca or a very spiritual one, like the prophetess Anna... But my heart goes to Ruth and Esther... I don't know why. I just like them. I somehow connect with these women.

As I tried to rationalise my emotional choice, I discovered that they are very similar! I realised I admire their courage through there obedience and disobedience.

Ruth

Naomie was an Israelite woman. She was a widow. She was living with her two sons and her to daughters in law (one of them was Ruth). They were all living in Moab (outside of Israel). Her two sons died and she decided to go back to Israel. Her daughters in law wanted to fallow her. She told them they had nothing to do with her in Israel and told them to go back to Moab. Ruth disobeyed. She stuck to Naomie and fallowed her to Israel. Being a widow could make a woman very vulnerable in biblical times... But being a Moabite widow in Israel in those times was way more dangerous! But Ruth loved Naomie and she loved God and wanted to live with the People of God. In Israel, Naomie gave instructions to Ruth so she could find a husband that could provide for them. It put Ruth in very dangerous situations, but she trusted Naomie. She obeyed and was able to succeed in the tasks Naomie gave her.

Esther

There was a king played by a cucumber in Veggie Tales... I don't remember his name... Any ways, he was not Jewish. He was having a huge party in his castle while the Queen was also having a big party somewhere else. When I say big and huge, I mean it! They were getting drunk (or should I say totally wasted!) for days! At one point, the King (who was probably totally wasted) asked that the Queen may come to his party so he could show her off to his friends. The Queen refused (and it is understandable. Who wants their "beauty" to be shown in a party where a bunch of guys have been getting drunk for days!). The King and the other important guys thought this act of disobedience was outrageous and could send a bad message to all the women in the kingdom, so the King kicked the Queen out and started looking for a new one.

The chosen one wan a Jewish orphan young woman who had been raised by her cousin Mordecai. Her name was Esther. She did not ask for it. The king thought she was the most pretty of all young women, that's it, that's all, end of discussion. Mordecai advised her not to talk about her Jewish origins, for her own safety. Esther obeyed the King and Mordecai. She trusted that God put her in that situation for a reason. I'll skip the story with Mordecai and Haman (the most influencial men around the King)... I'll just say Haman managed to make the King sign an order for the extermination of all Jews in the Kingdom. Mordecai asked Esther to go talk to the King on behalf of the Jewish People. It was illegal to appear before the King without an invitation, even for the Queen. She could get killed for it. But she had the courage to disobey the law and appear before the king uninvited and she saved her People.

Both Ruth and Esther had the wisdom to know when they should shut up and obey and when they should have the courage to disobey. They both acted for the common good. Ruth did the best to ensure subsistence for her AND her ex-mother in law. Esther both obeyed and disobeyed all for the good of her People. I admire their sense of sacrifice. I admire their faithfulness to the people they love and trust (Naomie and Mordecai).

Too bad Esther and Ruth are such ugly names (at least in French), because it would have been a good choice for my daughters (if I ever have any).

Dance Your Faith!

2010-01-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

"David, wearing only a linen cloth round his waist, danced with all his might to honour the Lord." (2 Sam. 6.14)

"We are making a slow, huge circle, sort of a Holy Roller derby. If you look up, you can see the occasional Hasid bouncing up in the air like a pogo stick. When there is a patch of free space on the floor - which isn't often - a reveler will do a somersault. Two men are swapping their black hats repeatedly as if they were reenacting a Laurel and Hardy scene.

"I tell you, I've never seen such pure joy. It's thick, atmospheric, like somone had released a huge canister of nitrous oxide into the room. Here we are, hundreds of dancing King Davids."

(JACOBS, A. J., The Year of Living Biblically, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, 2008, p. 86)

"You'll see, snowboarding is fun! It's almost as fun as going to Mass!" (The assistant manager of the sports shop where I work)

"All you that are righteous, shout for joy for what the Lord has done; praise him, all you that obey him. Give thanks to the Lord with harps, sing to him with stringed instruments. Sing a new song to him, play the harp with skill, and shout for joy!" (Pslam 33.1-3)

"Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the dance, said he, and I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, and I'll lead you all in the dance, said he." ("I Danced in the Morning, Hymn 352, in Voices United)

Some say God cannot exist because if He had existed, he would not have permitted that horrible earth quake in Haiti. I say, if there was no God, there would be no feeling of solidarity pushing governments and citizens to send ressources and help in Haiti.

Too often, we are too busy mowning about what is going wrong, we don't see what is going well. Just form Canada, the Red Cross as received 17 million dollars to help Haiti (according to what I herd last night on La Première Chaîne de Radio Canada, 95,1). Beyond the horror and suffering, I see solidarity, I see hope, I see God.

Around me, in Quebec, I see churches closing, I see aging congregations, I see worried pators... I also see prayer in sadness, quiet churches, serious choirs... But sometimes, some of that joyful dancing faith peirce threw these layers of grey and get strait to my heart. Few join me in dancing my faith, but I dance anyway and hope the joy will be contagious. I join forces with the joyful ones in my congregation and hope we can transfome sad worship into joyful celebration of God's presence (sometimes we succede). I pray that I may be able to share the joy of faith with the teens in my Youth Group and soon with the kids in our reborn Sunday School!

May the joy of faith and the presence of God be in your heart this day and forever more.

Amen.

"True Christians"

2010-01-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

I just watched an episode of the Simpson's where Bart and Homer become Roman Catholics. Like most francophone in Quebec, I have been baptized RC and raised in the Catholic culture. Most of my friends and relatives are Catholics or have a Roman Catholic identity, even if they never go to Church. I was very surprise to hear from Marge's mouth the very same prejudices we (most of my friends and I) usually have against Evangelical Christians, but this time about Roman Catholics!

"Homer, you've been out all night! And it looks like you've accepted someone as your personal something... Were you at that Catholic Church?

- Look, Marge, I know I was supposed to yell at that priest, but he's so cool!! He plays drums in a band with a bunch of other priests!

- I knew they would try to convert you! That's what they do! Well, I'm not having another 12 kids!

- Marge, no one is saying 12! 9, 10 tops! (Handing a pamphlet that reads: "Plop 'til you drop") See?"

It reminds me of high school. In the ethics class, the teacher asked who wanted to wait until marriage before having sex. Only one girl raised her hand. A couple of girls said: "Oh, that's because she's a Protestant!" I remember thinking the same. A week later, I watched an American teenage talk show on TV. There was a debate about the exact same subject and a girl said: "I want to wait until marriage. All my Friends think it's because I'm Catholic, but is has nothing to do with that!"

I heard and read things (from people who try to convert Christians to their denomination) that start with: "True Christians don't..." Who are we to judge who is a true Christian and who is not? Jehovah's witness came to my door and gave me a booklet about their vision of the Bible. I gladly took it and read it. When I told friends I did that and added I agreed for them to come back so we can talk about my readings, some of them reacted with fear. "Be careful!" they said. I have a friend who got a similar reaction at work when she said she was going to church. "Be careful not be carried away in their thing!" When she told me that, she was laughing and saying: "They don't understand. I am ALREADY in "their thing"!" But still, that very same friend of mine had the very same fearful reaction when I said I read the Jehovah's Witness's booklet! "Be careful, they might get you!"

Why are we all so afraid of other denominations? Aren't we all brothers and sisters?

Ok, I really don't know how to gently plug this quote in my post, so I'll just plug it crudely out of no where! It's from Rev. Lovejoy in the Simpsons:

"Time to bring him back to the ONE TRUE FAITH!... The western branch of American reformed presbo-lutheranism!"

I just find it so hilarious, I had to put it in!! Yeah! Like we are "true Christians" because we don't... Have sex before marriage... Allow gay marriage... Eat meat on Friday... Pray to the Virgin Mary... Give Yahweh titles instead of calling him Jehovah...

No matter the church or the denomination, I saw fauneys everywhere! Just like I saw sincere Christ followers everywhere! I don't think we are true because we don't... I think we are truly trying fallow Christ when we do.

"Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.' The righteous will then answer him, 'Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!" (Matt. 25.34-40)

Man! Sometimes I wish I would just have to stop doing things to go to heaven! Easy! I'll never sleep with a woman ever again, never get drunk, never eat meat on a Friday... Piece of cake! But Father, why do you have to make me DO stuff?! I sound like a teenager, don't I? ;)

Reduce To Grow

2010-01-08T14:23:00.001-08:00

Is the end of a year a day like any other? Is it meaningless? It could be. The actual date has no real importance. My ex and I found it so absurd to give more importance to the first day of a year, that we wanted to celebrate the exact middle of the year, just for fun. July 2 at noon was the result of our calculations. But when the time came, we had forgotten about it!

What could be meaningful in the end of a year (no matter what date we pick to celebrate it) is the time we take to look at what we have done, where we are at and were we want to go in the year to come.

Last year, my end of year reflection was about simplicity. (You can find it in the archives of my French blog). What have I done? I have given away 6 boxes of things I did not need and 2 bags of clothing. I have tried not to buy too much stuff, and I think I was not so bad in that area. Where am I at? I still have 4 bookcases full of books and things, a room I am not using because it is full of scattered bike parts and my kitchen cabinets are over flowing! I used to feed a family (my room mates), so it's no surprise if I have a lot of cooking tools! But do I need as much today? I think I am keeping all that stuff, because I want to have a family again... I keep stuff "just in case"... But stuff is an obstacle to freedom!

A friend of mine gave away all that he had execept a full backpack. He went to California, Thailand, Kampuchea and is now in Laos. I envy his freedom. I would not do the same with mine. In December, I hated my job because of the ski and snowboard tune-ups (which I am not good at) and all the Christmas shopping ambiance (I am working in retail). I thought I would like to go back to school and study theology. I thought I could not afford to go back to school and pay for my apartment, even if I had student loans... I thought of the ads I sometime receive from a Bible study group I am part of ("Looking for a Christian room-mate, 200$ a month all included). I looked at my apartment, concluded all this stuff would never fit in a single room and went back to work!

My friend, who is now in Laos, once asked me: "What are you planning to do within the next few years?" At the time, I was just starting a new carrier I had not planed at all and was about to divorce the person I had chosen to spend the rest of my life and raise children with. So I answered I did not plan anything, because plans were bullshit! He laughed at my face (and changed his life plans about 30 000 times since). I still don't know what I will be doing in the next few years, but I want to have the freedom to choose! So in the next tow years, I want to get rid of my debts and of most of the stuff I don't really need. All these things I keep "just in case".

It is not easy. I have emotional attachment to most of that stuff! Thank God I have a little niece to give my toys to! I had decided to sell my grandfather's bike and it was really breaking my heart, but my mom wants it, so I am releived! All the stuff I gave away last year was like the fat we gain during Christmas time! Quickly gained and quickly lost! But the things I have to get rid of this year are like the over weight one carries for over 20 years! You really have to change your life habits deeply to loose it!

When I first read that God's commends where not burdensome, I found it very peculiar and I did not believe it. But the more I try to live a good life and to do what makes me deeply happy and keeps me healthy, the more I find concordance between a healthy behaviour and Jesus' teaching.

"Do not store up riches for your-selves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are." (Matt. 6.19-21)

My father used to criticize my grandmother who was always trying to save money in silly ways (like not turning on the light when she went to the bathroom during the night). He used to say she had enough money for the rest of her life and that money would be of no use to her when she would be in the grave. I think that habit my grandmother had was typical of her generation, because she had lived the 1929 economical crises as a little girl. I do not think she thought of her money like riches... Her riches were her family. She was always talking about her family and how important her children and grandchildren where to her. She died last week. All of her family gathered around her to say a last good bye... No one was missing. Every one was crying, but every one was also hugging and kissing one another. We thanked her for building a closely knited family and accompanied her to her grave where she was buried with her parents and her husband. Her heart was (and still is) in us.

Scripture Freak

2009-12-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

I just came back from a Christmas party where I had a very interesting conversation with a friend about the Bible and I realizied that I had not exposed my view about the Holly Scriptures on my English blog yet.

"I just read The Apocalypse, because I herd that it was the most f*cked up of all the books of the Bible" he told me. I told him I had been in the process of reading all the books of the Bible one by one and trying to understand each book globaly before moving onto the next one. I've been working on that, on and off, for about three years now. "Why do you do that? he asked. Is it just something you like to analyse for the fun of the challenge or is it something important in your faith?"

It was the first time I had herd that question asked in such a respectful fearless way. It's usualy something more like:

- Is that a... ?

- Yes, a Bible.

- You read it for school or for your own pleasure?

- For my own pleasure.

- Oh! (And he steps away looking uncomfortable.)

Or "Do you beleive everything written in it?"

These last two were asked by people who were afraid of the Bible and I don't blame them. It is a really scary book, aspecialy if you don't understand it. And it is a powerful book that can be dangerous when it's misunderstood. After all, it has been used (and in some cases still is used) to justifie really bad things like slavery, women oppression, homophobia, wars, etc.

So, am I reading the Bible for the fun of the challenge or is it important for my faith? Both! After all, some people today can read all kinds of ancient texts (greek philosophers, oriental wisdom texts, ancient buddhist scriptures) and find there an inspiring and life giving phylosophie that helps them live a better life. I don't see why I could not do the same with the Bible.

Why, if I have been reading it for three years, am I only in the book of Psalms? Because it's hard to read the Bible! You don't read that like some read The Secret or The DaVincci Code. It is a dense text, written in many different styles (even in the same chapter of the same book) and, most of all, it is from forein culture of an ancient time! So when I read a book from the Bible, I also read other books or articles on the side to help me understand globaly where that text came from and what is said about it. Some times, I like to take a tiny bit of text and read a few books about that tiny bit! You can easaly find some 300 pages books on only one chapter or a part of a chapter of a specific book of the Bible! I like to read historico-critical studies of the Bible, because it usualy explains the layers of the text and how scholars cut the text and figure out that this little part has been added at that periode, for those reasons and that other part, we really don't know where it came from, etc. It also gives cultural references to understand the text.

An example that is fun to give (because it is nautty) is the one about Ruth uncovering a man's "feet". You read that and you say: "So his feet are cold now, so what?" But at the time it was written, it was an oefemism to say "feet" to talk about ones genitals, so she did not crawl in his bed to anoye him by making his feet cold, but to tempt him to have sex with her!

My favorit example is from the New Testament. (You're not there yet! You're in the Psalms, you said earlier!) Yeah, I hear you. It's not because I read stystematicaly every book that I don't peek in the ones to come! And what I have learned reading the first books gives me tools to understand the fallowing ones. Back to my example from Matthiew 5, verse 8: "Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!" One might read it with todays eyes... What does pure meen? It meens without imperfection, clean, flawless. What's a heart? That's where the emotions come from. So what is a pure heart? Perfect emotions. But sometimes I am angry, jalous or hateful. My heart is not pure! I'll never see God?

Now lets read it from an ancient Hebrew perspective. What's a heart? That's where the thoughts come from! Yes, the thoughts, not the emotions. Emotions are in the kidneys, so if your spouse is a scripture freak like me, you can say "I love you, sweetkindey!" ;) What does pure meen? What is pure is what is dedicated to God. When Hebrews were pure to go to the Temple, it ment they were ready to worship. They had prepare themselfs to praise God and offer sacrifices. It did not meen they where perfect, but it ment they were sanctified. Back to our verse: "Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!" From what I have learned, I would say: "Happy are those who's thoughts are dedicated to God; they will see God!" When I gave my friend that example, he said: "Well, it makes sens! It's all a matter of perception. If you beleive in something and you think about it all the time, then you'll see it." So instead of thinking I'll never see God, because I am not good enough, I think that when my mind is set on God, I can see devine manifestations around me. I see God in action! And yes, it makes me happy!

"Do you beleive everything that's in there?" some one once asked me. It depends on your definition of "beleiving". I have been visited by Jehovah's witnesses a few weeks ago. They left me a book called "WHAT DOES THE BIBLE Really TEACH?" I like to have discussions and try to understand my brothers and sisters from other denominations, religions or beliefs, so I read the book. (I am still waiting for them to come back like they said they would so we can talk about it.) It says: "Despite the varied backgrounds of its writers, the Bible is harmonious from beginnig to end." (p. 20) I don't think so. There are stories in there that are told a few times in various ways. The giant Goliath has been killed twice in the Bible: once by David before he was king of Israel and another time by some obscure israelite hero nobody cares about! Scholars think the legend of David against Goliath is a mixture of three heroic stories that were attributed to King David to magnifie his glory. Not to mention the two different presentations of David in that part of the Bible. In one version, King Saul knows David, because he has been his personal musicien (he played the harp for him to calm him down when he went a bit crazy). But a few lines later in the story, King Saul asks his general the name of that guy who has just beatten Goliath, just like he had never seen the b0y before! Don't tell me it's "harmonious from beginning to end"!

The same Jehovah's witness book also says: "The Bible is also historically accurate and reliable. Its accounts are specific. They include not only the names but also the ancestry of individuals." (p. 21) Just in the New Testament, you can find two different genealogies for Jesus Christ. How do they explain that? I am eager to see them again to ask them that question. I am genuinly intrigued!

I once had a date with an atheist who had a degree in anthropology. He knew quite a lot of things about the Bible and we had a very interesting conversation on that topic. For him, because of theese contradictions I am talking about, the Bible is not "true". He can't beleive in it, because what it says is prooved not to be a 100% historicaly accurate. To that, depending on whom I'm talking to, I'll either answer "Who cares!" or quote my Pastor: "All stories are true... And some of them actualy happened." Plato talks about the men in the cave who saw only shadows of things, and then one of them got out of the cave and saw the light. At first he did not understand the what he saw and looked only at the shadows, because he knew the shadows and felt more comfortable looking at them. Then he looked at the things, then at the light and understood what he was missing in the cave. He went back to the cave and tried to explane what he had learned to the other men, but they thought he was crazy. They could not undersand what they had never seen. Everyone knows there was never any men stuck in a cave from birth to death, aspecialy if they could get out and come back in as easialy! But no one cares about that and Plato is still thaught in every philosophy class in Québec! What is important is not the accuracy of the events that are told, but what you learn from them.

Do I beleive in what is in the Bible? Yes. I beleive it says something true. But I don't beleive the Word of God is given to us and we just have to read it. I beleive God has spoken to humans and humans have written about it. I beleive it is good to question the text, to try to find what that text is saying to us. Some say the Bible is the Word of God; it's there, it's complete. Nothing is missing, nothing has been added. You can't question it. Just accept it. I say No! Early Christian communities did not have all the same books in there "Bible". They had different Gospels, different letters from Paul... At one point, they just took the ones that where used the most and made it the official New Testament... But we know some Gospels where left out and some letters where lost... We also know some letters attributed to Paul were really not from him. Even the Jews from Jesus' time did not have the exact same books from one community to another. The greek speaking Jews had a few more books then the Hebrews... After the Reform, some Christian churches decided not to recognise the greek books and that is why Protestant Bibles and Catholic Bibles are not exactly the same.

The United Church of Christ in the USA said: "Don't put a period where God has put a coma." Are they saying they don't want us to change the poncutation in the Bible? Of course not! The ponctuation came late in the Bible's history and is different from one translation to another. What they are saying (and I totally agree with them) is the Word of God does not stop where the Bible ends. God has spoken and God is still speaking today.

I would dare add: God changes his mind some times. When he decided to punish Nineva, he sent Jonah to tell the people of Nineva he would destroy their city. (Jonah did not want to go, got eaten by a big fish, etc.... Not the point of what I am saying.) When Jonah finaly deliverd the message, the people of Nineva repented and ask for forgivness. God did not destroy them (and Jonah was very disapointed). This is just one exemple of how God can change his mind, but the Bible is full of other examples. God created us at his image. We change our minds; why wouldn't He? I once said I'd lived all my life in St-Constant. My father said I would change my mind as a young adult and want to live in the city because there is a lot more action there. Now I am saying there is no way a would ever go back to the boring suburbs! Maybe I'll change my mind if I have kids some day... We never know!

Go on up, you Baldhead

2009-12-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's weird how a story so horribly violent can sound so funny when it's put in a song!

Sabbath

2009-11-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

A day a week. I thought it was a day a week that we had to dedicate to God to honour Him... But it's not even what the Bible says about it... "By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation and stopped working." (Gn. 2.2-3) The translation I have in French says that he got some rest instead of saying he stopped working. The Bible also says "So God created human beings, making them to be like himself." (Gn. 1.27)

What does it tell us? It says that after 6 days of work, God needed some rest for a whole day. It says that human beings have been created to resemble God. So if God needs rest and humans are like God, humans need a day of rest every 7 days! Jesus said: "The Sabbath was made for the good of man; man was not made for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Mk 2.27) I had always seen that passage as permission not to respect the Sabbath if we had something really important to do. But it says something much more important: "The Sabbath was made for the good of man". Why? What for?

Last week, I had bronchitis. I could not sleep more than 8 hours a night, because I had to take anti-biotics every 8h... But I felt I needed a bigger night of sleep to get better. Last Tuesday, I wasn't needed at work before noon and I had nothing planed Monday night. So I took my anti-biotic a little sooner and I went to bed for 10-11 hours strait!

I had two interesting dreams. In the first one, we were a group of people in which I did not know many people. We got together in a changing background (one time it's a house, another time it's a forest, then a university) and we prayed together. We were in a circle (sitting or standing) and we were praying and touching our neighbours' hands, and a bright light was busting out of our joint hands. If any one needed healing, he or she just placed him or her self into the light and received Jesus' healing touch. I went in the light at one point in my dream and all the fatigue and the sadness of the last weeks got lifted form me and all I could feel was joy and peace.

My second dream started after I woke up. I looked at the time, thought about what day it was, realised I could sleep some more and fell a sleep again. What I saw while I was falling asleep were Jews on a Sabbath day. They were in a dark house with wooden floors and massive old wooden furniture. They were wearing traditional Jewish clothing. The father and the kids were sitting on the floor in silence while the mother was counting her steps to go get something in the kitchen. I wander why she was counting her steps and woke up. Waking up, I answered my own question: "She is counting her steps so she would not be tempted to do to much on a Sabbath day and she would be forced to completely rest.

Have you ever herd this sentence? "What did you do on your day off?" or "So, what are you going to do on your day off?" or "I'll take my day off to (insert here an activity like doing the dishes, cleaning the house, gardening or catching up on some work)." We try to take advantage of our day off and make it most profitable. That's the message we receive from our capitalist society: time is money, don't waste any! Even on my day off, I fill up my schedule! The social pressure is there. How many times have I herd my boss make envious jokes about my Sunday off? "Can it be the Lord's day for us to? I don't feel like working tomorrow." I said: "Of course! If you want to, it's up to you!" And she said: "Oh, it would be fun! Let's close the shop tomorrow! No I can't. We make to much money on Sundays."

Some would like to have a day dedicated to entertainment. "Ah! If we had Sundays off for every one like in old times, we could see our friends on that day, because we would know every one would be on their day off." I take advantage of my Sundays and fill them up with hockey games, visits to my sister, nights with friends... And on Monday, I am as tired as I was on Saturday.

Would it be the seventh day, the first or the third, it doesn't matter! For Jews, it's on Saturday, for Christians, it's on Sunday... But the important thing is to have one day. One day a week to do NOTHING at all! For now, I don't have any. I took some responsibilties for every day of the week... But once some of my comitments come to an end, I promise myself to pick a day that would be my Sabbath. I would almost need to count my steps! I know I will be tempted to fill up that day again! I don't know if I'll be able to resist. I have my doubts... But I'll try!

Thank You For Your Support

2009-11-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have received a lot of e-mails and spoken comments about this new blog. I am glad my English speaking friends appreciate my second blog as much as my French speaking friends liked the first one!

Before I started blogging in English, maybe one person from my church was reading my blog. Now I receive a lot of encouraging comments from many dear friends with whom I worship the Lord on Sunday morning. It's new, so it feels weird, but it feels good! Thank you very much.

Writting a blog is a very important thing in my faith. As we get involved in a church, we are sometimes cought in what I would call "the furniture". We are much more busy practicing hymnes and organizing the next supper than we are, sharing our faith. Writting a blog is the most efficient way I found to share my faith with the world.

I don't know yet what my "public" is on this blog. On my French blog, it is surprisingly mostely agnostic readers who fallow closely my posts and send me comments. I think the Gospels are a very important written work for Humanity. I think it could bring intersting insights and reflection even to non-belivers.

Too often, biblical texts are presented as a "universal truth" and are "put in your face" out of context... At least, it has been my experience with biblical texts from elemantary school till I was about 25. Then I met someone who roots the texts in today's context and presents them more as questions than "universal truths". I want to share this experience with the world. The Bible questions me just as any great philospher's work would question me.

For my Christian readers: I wish we will grow in faith together discussing the role of Jesus Christ in our lives. For my non-Christian readers: I hope we can have life giving debates about life, death, existence and everything (we know from Hichhicker's Guide To The Galaxy that the ultimate answer to that is 42, but no one has found the question yet! ;)).

To all of you: Thank you very much for reading my thoughts! Don't be shy to post comments!

The Subersive Use Of Ministry

2009-11-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last month, I have been sent by my church to a conference about the call for ministry. Of course, the persbitery did not pay my trip just so I could enjoy three days of vacations in Atlanta while it was getting colder and colder in Quebec. They expect me to produce a little report about the conference.

I did not take any notes while I was there, because it is so well organized that I did not have to do so! The conference's web site containes the notes from all the roundtables and the MP3s of all the speaches from the guest speakers! I am writting my report right now and, to do so, I listened to some of the MP3s to refresh my memory.

I had forgotten how subversive were the speaches of the theologien Dr. Walter Bruggemann. He uses the example of the prophet Elisha's ministry to illustrate how ministry is made to be subersive and to stand for social justice. I cannot write anything that would rander justice to Dr. Bruggemann's amazing speech, but I want to share his message with as many people as possible.

In the list of link of the present blog (on the right hand side of the screan) you can find a link called "Calling Congregations". If you click on it, you will find Walter Bruggemann and Judy Fentress-Williams' speaches in streaming and in MP3. If you have time only for one speach, I strongly suggest the second one from Walter Bruggemann.

Enjoy!

Church

2009-11-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

Two sentences made me want to write this post: "Your spirituality is bigger than this church." and "People go there for the community, the suppers, the bazaars..."

It is to complicated and irrelevant to explain who said these to whom and in what context, but I need to comment them. First, let's talk about the community part. I have herd Christians say something like "People go there for the community" in a disappointed way, because they were expecting to find something more in church. I do not know what they are looking for in a church. I dare say I go to church for the community as well and it cost me my marriage to be part of that community. My ex once said something like: "You have the gay community, why would you need another one? I could never be part of a Christian community because I don't believe in God. I don't want you to be part of a community I could never be part of." It took me at least a year after that conversation to step into a church... And another year before we divorced.

Some of my atheist friends say they would like to be Christians just for that weekly meeting with a community. People are so isolated in our modern society! And in church, I meet people I could never have met any other way. People much older than me who work in fields that have nothing to do with what I do for a living. Some of these people became close friends to me and their experience of life (being very different form mine) brings me a treasure I could never have found anywhere else. The Pastor often says "God is in relationships." If in a church, all you find is a community, then you found relationships, than you found God! What more were you looking for in a church?

"Your spirituality is much bigger than this church." Well, I hope so! If someone's spirituality is just church, than I think it is not much... Wikipedia defines spirituality in these words: "While the terms spirituality and religion are sometimes used interchangeably, an important distinction exists between them. Traditionally, religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of their religious experience and have long arrogated spirituality for themselves; claiming true spirituality cannot be experienced by the secular (non-religious). Declining membership of organised religions in the western world, however, has given rise to a broader view of spirituality. Those who speak of spirituality, outside of religion, often define themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and generally believe in the existence of many different "spiritual paths" - the emphasis being on the importance of finding one's own individual path to spirituality."
I would define it as "experiencing the presence of God". Everyone's spirituality is different, because God speaks to us in various ways. But I find it quite improbable that God would speak only on Sunday mornings!

As Christians, we are called to fallow Christ and Jesus' spirituality was way bigger than his synagogue! His teaching was way bigger than the Scriptures! And faith is way bigger than religion! I have been expecting a question that never came. "How can you be a Christian AND an Anarchist?" I was soooo ready to answer that question! But instead, the question that came was: "What? You listen to Christian Punk music?!? How can music be Punk AND Christian? It does not make any sans! Punks are against institutions and Christianity IS an institution! The most oppressive one, if I dare say!" Well, it is just as good of a question and I am just as ready to answer it!

First of all, the guy who asked me that question was confusing Christianity with Catholicism (which is very common with French people) and was also confusing faith with religion (which is very common with people speaking any language!). Christianity is much more than the Pope's view about it! Christianity is full of diversity! You can find a lot of different denominations and in these, a lot of different churches and in these, a lot of different Christians! And out side of churches and denominations, you can find a lot of different Christ followers! You can have faith without being part of an organized religion and you can be part of an organized religion without having faith!

I won't even start about the diversity in the Punk movement! Let's just say that what is most commonly known about Punks is there accountancy with the anarchist movement, wich would make them "against institutions" as my friend said. (You can find words of faith in the lyrics of some of the most renown Punk music groups! But going in that direction would take me away from my main topic which is church.)

For me, being anarchist is more about obedience to institutions than it is about rejecting them all together. You cannot have a human society without institutions. If you take them down, others emerge. How much democratic are those institutions is another question. The way I see Christian Anarchism is simply putting obedience to God before the obedience to the institutions. God tells me to love and serve my neighbour. If the institution tells me to reject my neighbour because he is gay or Muslim or what ever does not fit in the institution's view of what is a good human being, than in doing so, I would disobey God. I serve by boss because she is my neighbour. I had another boss before her. A boss that was not very honest. He told me to charge a customer 15$ for adjusting his mud-guards! I disobeyed. I charged the customer 5$ and quit my job. By serving that crook, I would have not been loving and serving the customers, so I would have disobeyed God.

I go to church, I participate in the service, I am part of the Choir and I work as a youth leader, so I am part of the institution that is my church. But the church does not own me. I also participate in Christian activities outside my church. I pray and share with Christians from different denominations and different back grounds. Church is not the goal. Church is a tool. Loving and serving God is the goal. Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for the good of man; man was not made for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Mk. 2.27-28) I would say the same thing about church.

Accumulation Is Robbery

2009-11-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

Is there any tool in your work place that has a peculiar value because of it's rarity? At my shop there are pens. Until recently, they were as rare as the Pope's pooh (no offence to the Catholics)! When you found one, you had to hold on to it, because we always needed them and could never find any. Not so long ago, one of my colleagues went to work for another shop. What did I find when I opened his tool box? About a dozen pens! I made them available for every body and finding a pen is not such a big deal anymore. Why was my colleague hogging all the pens he could find? Because he was afraid not to have one when he needed one... And because he was afraid, he was making the pens harder to find and increasing there rarity, wich increased his fear of not finding a pen and so on.

My sister said it was the same with wine in cooking school. Students needed only 100 ml for the receipy, but were keeping 500 ml, or even the hole bottle for them selfs while other students were looking every where to find wine.

Where does the shortage come from? A lack of ressources? I think not! It comes from fear of shortage!

According to Matthiew, chapter 6, Jesus said: Look at the birds: they do not sow seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?" (Mat. 6.26-27)
Christ's words are supposed to be life giving to mankind and they would be if we would listen and obey.

What is at the root of Western societies? In university, I've been told it's democracy and capitalism. Where do these ideas come from? In first year, teachers talk about John Locke and Thomas Hobbes over and over again! It became an inside joke between students. At one point, we were thinking about making a comic book with Locke and Hobbes as the super heroes of capitalist's theories! What do these two clowns talk about? Hobbes is totally frighten and obsessed with self-preservation. He insists on the importance of a police State and an army. Locke talks about food. He says that in nature (yeah, starting by "the human nature" was trendy at that time) Men were hungry so they worked to make food grow. Since you work to make your apple tree grow so big, you want to keep it for yourself. But you have more apples than you could ever eat, so you exchange them for other goods... But apples are perishable which is kind of annoying, so a genius invents money to make transactions easier and BOOM! Capitalism is born!* Ok, I simplify a lot, but that's about it.

Thanks to philosophers like them, what kind of world are we living in now? In a world where everyone could have enough to eat, but the Northern countries (mainly) keep most of the food for themselves, just in case, while people in the South (and quite a few in the North as well) starve to death. In a world where we celebrate Remembrance Day each year in November, because 91 years ago, European countries where so afraid of each other and so obsessed with self-preservation that they kept seeing each other as a threat. They built huge super efficient armies and were so eager to use them that they jumped on the first political crises to go to war. The Second World War was just the horrible consequence of the first one. In a world led by a nation of cowards who shoot everywhere, including on their own citizens.

Locke and Hobbes worry. One about physical security, the other about food. Maybe if everyone would trust their neighbours, no one would be violent, because no one would have any reason to be afraid. Maybe if we would worry a little less about what we are going to eat tomorrow, more of us could eat every day. Maybe if we would not be afraid not to have enough blankets for ourselves, some homeless people would be warmer this winter. Maybe if we would not worry about having enough spare change to make a phone call or to by our afternoon coffee, some would be a little less hungry.

Worries and accumulation are the founding sins of capitalist societies.

Satan In a Flue

2009-11-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

I heard it is not as strong in the States, but in Canada people get paranoid about the AH1N1 influenza. In church, we used to greet one another by a handshake. Now, the pastor says something like "Greet your neighbours in a H1N1 appropriate way." Some wave to each other, some do peace signs and some use that ridiculous "elbowshake" (they touch each others' elbows).

I think that paranoia around the flue is Satan. Satan means opponent. That paranoia is opposed to human relationships and God's love is expressed by these human relationships so that paranoia is against God's love. I refuse that cold elbowshake! I say wash your hands and shake, or shake and wash your hands, or give a little pat on the back or on the shoulder, but touch each other! A warm touch is so important in the expression of love and affection!

Love and affection are life giving! I say fallow Christ and touch! He was not afraid to touch the sick and the out cast. Why should we be scared?

And between you and me, is in it a bit inconsistent to advice people to cough in their elbows and then suggest a elbowshake instead of a handshake?

Who Am I And What Is This Blog About?

2009-11-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

For those who just randomely found this blog and who do not know me on a personal level, I must tell you that I am francophone. I have been bloging in French about my faith and about anarcho-christianism for over a year now. I regularly attend a bilingual Church, so I have more and more English speaking friends and most of them do not read French.

It took me about a year between the idea of creating a blog about anarcho-chritianism and the puplication of the first post. When I finaly did it, it was because I felt compelled by God to do it. The fruits were ready, it was time for the harvest and the feast. It's the same thing with the English version. The time has come.

I might translate some of the texts from my French blog, but I think that most of the articles I will post on this blog will be written directly in English. Some times, ideas for a new article emerge in my head in English, because they were born form a conversation that I had in English, or from a Sermon I herd in English.

In French, I publish an average of two posts per month. I do not know if I will be able to keep the same pace in English, because it takes me much more time to write in any language other than French. My posts might be a little shorter too. In French, I am very careful in terms of language quality. I try to write in my best French and to check my spelling, grammar and sentence structure more than twice. I will be at least as careful in English, but I am not as skilful to write in my second language. That is why I am asking you, English speaking friends (or strangers) to help me. Please, tell me if my English is lousy and pitiful!

This blog is supposed to be a place to exchange ideas, reflections, opinions... Do not be afraid to disagree with me and to tell me why. My bare neck is offered to the axes of your critiques.

I am using the pseudonym Ursus Arctos Horriblis (witch means grizzly bear in Latin), but it is not because I want to hide. I once read a novel written by some one from the high hierarchies of the Roman Catholic Church under pseudonym. The novel was about the Catholic Church the author was dreaming about (more open, more modern, more honest, etc.). I really do not care if he was really from the Church's high hierarchies or not. Something he wrote about his use of a pseudonym struck me. It was as if someone had found an unexpressed idea in my head and had put it in words before it was even a thought in my mind. He wrote that he used a pseudonym because what he wrote was bigger than him and who he was (or was not) was irrelevant. I use a pseudonym for the same kind of reason. Of course, most of my readers are family and friends, so they know who I am, but it is a matter of principle. If a stranger reads my blog, I do not want this person to base his or her first impressions on the information my name gives (boy or girl, ethnic origin, etc.). I do not want this person to base his or her opinion about my ideas on what they see in my profile (Oh! He or she is from that Christian denomination so what he or she says is good or is bull shit). That is why I keep my profile to a minimum and the use of the pseudonym avoids the possibility of finding other profiles I could have on the net by googling my real name. Of course, you will learn to know me better as you read my posts, but at least, your first impression might be based on my ideas and the way I exposed them more than on what you know about me personnaly.