Of the End of the World

I want to begin in a somewhat dangerous way, by being blunt and rather terse. In fact, there’s a good chance that much of this short post will be of a confrontational nature so consider yourself warned. Firstly, I want to say that everyone who fell in with Harold Camping in predicting the Rapture/Apocalypse to occur last Saturday is an idiot. Regardless of your beliefs and motivations, you contributed only to the coffers of a proven con-artist and to the growing negative stereotypes of Christianity.

Just as idiotic, and just as damning, if not more so, was the embattled Catholic Church’s internal investigation, which resulted in the Church laying the blame for its growing list of sexual abuse cases at the feet of….society (the so-called “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960s in particular). This desperate, pathetic attempt to avoid accountability for the pain caused by leading members of the Church is made even worse by the fact that the report also fails to address the systematic cover-up of abuse and the protection of the priests responsible. Church, I know that you are all sinners living under the grace of God but this is just completely ridiculous. Let us pray for all Christians to become actual followers of Christ’s example.

Finally, it's been some time since I used this blog to talk politics, and even more so to talk Canadian politics. But I would be remiss not to mention Canada's recent historic election in which (1) the Conservative Party gained a parliamentary majority, (2) the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois took a beating, (3) the New Democratic Party became the Official Opposition, and (4) the first member of the Green Party was elected. Looking at all of that, regardless of which party took power, I think this election was a strong demonstration of active, healthy democracy (not including the patronage Senate appointments of course).

So remember, even with all the natural disasters happening around the world, all the political conflicts and economic turmoil, perhaps there can be no more certain sign that the end is near than this.

With Hope,
Joseph