Friday, March 14, 2008

Out on a Limb

Today the Edmonton Journal reported that two 12-year old girls had been charged in a series of robberies in the city. According to the article, a group of young girls surrounded an 18 year old young woman and robbed her. This swarming technique was used on 3 different occasions in West Edmonton Mall about a month ago. This story is simply shocking.

What on earth is going on? 12 year old girls? Has the world gone completely mad?

If that wasn't enough of a shocker, there was a small piece in the paper reporting that in Amsterdam, law-makers have passed a law which allows for gay sex in a public park.

Here's a quote:
Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park.

"Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?", he said.

Amsterdam's beautiful Vondelpark in the centre of city draws hordes of summer visitors, families, skaters and joggers.

Here's a thought: What about CHILDREN? How can it be appropriate to allow sex (gay or straight) in a public park, where children are more than likely to see it?

This is pure insanity!

If this is the kind of world that we are living in, it's little wonder that we've got 12 year old girls swarming around people and robbing them! Let me be clear: I'm not saying that viewing public sex is going to cause children to become criminals, but I am arguing that the debasing of morality in our society will have a wide range of negative implications on upcoming generations.

Let me say it again: I am NOT making any direct connection between these two stories. But when we hear about 12 year olds swarming and robbing people, and we ask 'How on earth can this happen?', I think we need to pause and think about the context in which many children are being raised. What level of family support are they receiving? What kind of moral compass are they being given? What messages are they being exposed to?

Maybe I'm going out on a limb by writing all this, and I certainly run the risk of offending some people, but as Richard Simmons used to say, "STOP THE INSANITY!"

Things need to change in our society or else 12-year old girls robbing people at knife-point will seem tame compared to what we'll be dealing with in the future!

Maybe Eliot Spitzer wishes he'd been a governor somewhere in Europe, because he'd certainly still have his job!

Monday, March 10, 2008

"High Ethics"

Today the news broke that New York State Governor, Eliot Spitzer has been linked to a prostitution ring. There is a lot of discussion about this story in the press, especially in light of the fact that Spitzer has been the attorney general of New York who prosecuted other prostitution rings.

Some are calling this a 'political earthquake' and the press is jumping on the fact that he 'preached high ethics', but now has basically admitted meeting with a prostitute in a Washington hotel.

People who knew him apparently are shocked that he would be involved, given his reputation. He was "a crusader who was looked up to by the public".

I'm reminded of the danger that every person faces who is a public figure who ways into ethical issues. Those who call for a 'high' standard of ethical living are always going to be looked at closely, but for the press to say that the public 'looks up to' such a person seems a bit much. Is that why Spitzer won over 60% of the vote in his election as Governor? I'm not convinced that it is.

It certainly does cast more of a shadow on the already tattered reputation of politicians.

All I can say is that for once, there is no connection to the Church.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Too Funny

A friend of mine, Mikaela Hanley passed this on to me.

I loved it:

IKEA has announced its intention to start selling cars.



Monday, March 03, 2008

Politics and Hockey

On the eve of our provincial election here in Alberta, I thought I'd offer some thoughts I've had:

Tonight my friend Scott Reynolds was kind enough to offer me a last minute ticket to the Oilers game again the Columbus Bluejackets (the name 'bluejackets' warrants an entire blog entry of its own....but I digress!)

Scott is far more of a 'student' of the game of hockey and specifically the Oilers and the NHL, than your average 'joe' fan. I guess I fall into the later category myself: I basically read the Edmonton Journal sports page and watch the TSN highlights of the Oilers games and that's pretty much it. Scott is far more aware of the statistics of individual players, the various lines that the Oilers have, as well as those of the opposition team. Trying to talk with Scott about hockey leaves me, well, thinking I need to go to an Oilers version of the Eskimos 'intro to football' course!

At any rate, allow me to develop my thoughts further: Sam Gagner is one of the new Oiler favorites this year. People in town think he's simply an amazing rookie hockey player. He's scored a lot of points this year, especially for a rookie. In spite of this, Scott maintains that the Oilers should have kept him in the minors this year to give him more time to develop, rather than making the jump to the NHL. Scott's main reason is that while Sam has scored many points, he's been on the ice for far more goals against the Oilers than he's scored for the Oilers.

The difference between Scott and the majority of Oiler fans illustrates nicely the reality of the current Albertan political landscape.

Tomorrow thousands of Albertans will go to the polls and vote more on the basis of who they 'kind of like' or 'feel good about' rather than on the basis of thought out, fact based decisions. Which party leaders sounds best in speeches and sound bites. Most of us will base our decision on several 15 second TV clips we've seen in the news of the leaders.

Sadly this results in our democratic process being reduced largely to a popularity contest set in the guise of a debate on political ideas.

Lest anybody mistake what I'm saying as a argument for not voting as the answer to political ignorance, nothing could be further from the truth. People who don't vote infuriate me! As I was discussing with my good friend John Hanley tonight, the Australian system where it is illegal to not vote has great attraction to me! (although, I grant that such a system would do very little to deal with the problem of ignorant voters.)

When you go to an Oilers game, you have 16,000 different opinions about what's right or wrong with the team and what should be done to fix it. It's like sitting in a room full of arm-chair quarterbacks.

While watching tomorrow night's election results likely won't be as entertaining as watching an Oilers game, it almost certainly will end up making me think about the people I watched the Oilers game with!

Saturday, March 01, 2008

What is It?

I've been thinking recently about intimacy. Most of the time we think of intimacy in terms of sex. Years ago I heard a great quote: "Sex doesn't create intimacy; it is a celebration of intimacy". So what exactly is intimacy anyway? How do you create it?

As I thought about this, I recognized that I often use the term intimacy in relationship to God (so obviously there is no sexual connection to this use of the term). I also recognized that I'm not sure I can sufficiently explain what I mean by the phrase 'intimacy with God'. This is a problem.

Jason Upton sings about the Key of David being intimacy. It's like it's become part of the Christian 'lingo' but do we understand what it actually means?

It's widely understood that our relationship with our earthly father will dynamically impact our view of God as Father. So here's a question: if our framework for the father-heart of God is impacted that way, then what about our framework for understanding and entering into intimacy with God? How important is the existence (or lack thereof) of intimacy in our human relationships in allowing us to experience intimacy with God?

One would assume that it is, but that creates some difficult problems in my mind: King David is not who I would lift up as a model of human intimacy. You could look at his friendship with Jonathan, but he certainly didn't hit the mark with his marriage or with his kids!

So I'm left with a difficult paradox: how could David have experienced so much intimacy with God and yet have such lousy family relationships?

This brings us back full circle to the original question of what exactly is intimacy, either with other human beings or with God?