CIM is an LGBTQ affirming, welcoming and inclusive church. Here are two links to stories and videos which I think capture part of our journey and part of our ethos. Both of them are well worth the time. Feedback on the issues raised is very welcome.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/gay-manitoba-hutterite-kelly-hofer-1.3518653
Several years ago I taught a course entitled “What a Trend We Have in Jesus” with this as one of the textbooks. I will be revisiting some of the thoughts from that course here at CIM in the next month or two and decided to re-read the textbooks from the course. In this year of a carnival election process (minus the fun implied by the word ‘carnival’) it seems appropriate to revisit Prothero’s work. In the introduction he says that “to hold Jesus up to the mirror of American culture is to conduct a Rorshach test of ever changing national sensibilities. What Americans have seen in him has usually been an expression of their own hopes and fears”.
Subtitled “Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate”, this book is a compilation of Klein’s articles and speeches on issues raised in her previous work No Logo – everything from NAFTA to Monsanto to the corrosive effects of economic fundamentalism. This is not comfortable reading but it is essential we hear these arguments.
http://time.com/4048176/pope-francis-us-visit-congress-transcript
“Any person or organization can explain what they do; some can explain how they are different or better; but very few can articulate why they do what they do”
My third Naomi Klein book. I am reading this both as a follow-up to a message we had in church a few months back, and in preparation for discussions in church next month. The Amazon review says: “Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn’t just some relic from the bad old days. It’s alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.”
A book that promises “an integral theory of everything” is something I want to check out. The claim being made here is that mystics, sages, and physicists have long manintained that there is an inter-connecting cosmic field at the roots of all reality that conserves and conveys all information. We shall see.
Inspired by the 20 books in my library written by, or written about, the era of Pierre Trudeau, my daughter wanted me to have the first autobiography of the second PM Trudeau in my collection. This was my Christmas gift from her and I’m enjoying it very much. Review to follow