They're Not Tories!
In a recent word study, my friends and I pondered the root of the word "Tory". Too often, there are parts of our vernacular, our vocabulary, that we use, without knowing what they mean. I'm a bit of a Cliff Claven*, in that I like to be able to answer the question, "What does that mean?" It turns out that word "Tory," as used in reference to a member or adherent of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada has ties to the word "pergatory". The connection was that historically, the party was tied to catholics, and since pergatory represents a key difference between Catholic and Protestant ideology, the word "tory" became a label.

So now, we have a new party, with an old nickname, which is doubly incorrect. First, the PC party no longer exists. If the new party is made up of "Tories" and Alliance MP's, then it's incorrect to call all of them "Tories" now. Also, much of the hype surrounding the Conservative Party of Canada, is that they are dangerously full of fundamentalist Christians (implying Protestant).

This wouldn't be an issue, except that last night listening to some of the results, more than one reporter referred to the "Tories". Sorry folks, but that term is now obsolete.

   [ posted by William @ 2:37 PM ]

Nebuchadnezzar's Chaldean Scholarship
This is an excerpt from a sermon I gave on May 23:

This Babylonian education that Daniel was getting was as much about making good servants for the king as it was about them actually learning anything. Our schools are not just places of learning either, they are cultural institutions. Our government makes sure that when you graduate high school, somewhere along the way, you have learned modern mathematical and scientific practice, like the length of the third side of a triangle, Canadian history, like knowing the first prime minister of Canada was Sir John A. MacDonald, Canadian language, like knowing enough French to be able to read the cereal box in the morning, and Canadian literature, so you’ll probably have read something by Margaret Atwood or Mordecai Richler. Our universities work the same way. Engineers graduating from the University of Calgary and from the University of Waterloo should both be able to design structures and machines that adhere to Canadian safety standards.

The same is also true about our Mennonite schools. My EMC church back home was hoping that when I graduated high school, that I go to Steinbach Bible College in Manitoba. MCEC churches hope that their young people will go off to Conrad Grebel in Waterloo, CMU in Winnipeg, Goshen in Indiana or Concord College in BC. At these schools, we hope: 1) that they would fill their minds with Biblical studies, Anabaptist Theology, Mennonite history and social justice issues, 2) that they would come back and through preaching or whatever, share this information with the rest of the community, and 3) that they would marry someone who believes the same things. Why do we do this? We do this, because we like our institution, and we want it to last. Of course it is important to remember that the church is supposed to be the embodiment of the kingdom of God, and not solely a human institution. We keep this in mind, but at the same time, we want our other institutions to survive. We want our farms and businesses to succeed, and we hope that people run them with integrity after we can’t anymore. We want our families and communities to stay together and thrive well into the future. I hope that I can have kids some day, and I hope that small towns like Tavistock survive the urbanize of our society, where people are moving more and more into the cities.

This is what King Nebuchadnezzar is doing. He has an institution, his kingdom, and he wants to maintain it, by creating a group of people who are all well versed in the culture. Now, we would understand if Daniel and his Jewish friends resisted, and said, 'Look, we are not contributing to this Babylonian machine.' But they did not resist, in fact, not only did they take the education, but, with God’s help, they came out it knowing this Chaldean language and literature better than any of the other students, as we see in 1:18-20. 'At the end of the time that the king had set for them to be brought in, the palace master brought them into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them. And among all, no one was found to compare with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they were stationed in the king’s court. In every matter of wisdom and understanding concerning which the king inquired of them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.'

The point of this story, is not absolute resistance to government decrees, but to discern as to which decrees we can and should follow, and which ones go against the decrees given to us by God."

   [ posted by William @ 2:58 PM ]

The New Testament Church, We Already Have It
This past Sunday, I gave the sermon at my church in Tavistock, here is an excerpt.

"Within Christian circles, there is often a lot of attention paid to rebuilding the New Testament church. There are books you can read, and conferences you can attend on this idea. Most notably, our own spiritual ancestors, the early Anabaptists in the 16th Century Reformation, sought to return to that way of gathering as a church. They turned to the Bible and found a group of believers in Acts who shared their possessions with the poor, who took care of the sick and elderly among them, who persevered and grew despite Roman persecution, and who gathered as equals, no matter who they were. Over time, people have tried with varied success to emulate that model of church. Those are of course noble goals, in fact, equality, persisting through hardships, and helping those in need are the very embodiment of Christ’s teachings. However, when people talk to me about the New Testament church, I have to ask them, “Which one?”

The New Testament is full of lots of different churches, and most of them are far from the utopian ideal that we find in the first couple chapters of Acts. The churches in Rome, Corinth, Phillipi, etc., these are not perfect churches. Clearly, we should still strive to embody the type of Christian that we find in the beginning of Acts, but these other churches, like ours, weren’t perfect, and we can learn a lot from their mistakes."

   [ posted by William @ 12:06 PM ]

Super-Criti-cize Me
Many of you will have heard about Supersize Me, a recent documentary film, essentially denouncing McDonald's' line of food. In it, Morgan Spurlock vows to eat only McDonald's food for 30 days, and has his health closely monitored along the way. The result was of course, massive weight gain, vital damage to the liver and other organs, and decreased energy, morale, etc.

People told me I wouldn't eat fast food for a long after seeing that movie. If only it were so. I've eaten three meals since then, one was a breakfast at A&W, and another was a lunch at Wendy's. I'm young (so I generally have a feeling of indestructability), I'm skinny (so I probably afford to gain a few pounds), and generally too lazy to make my own food, so I think it'll take a lot more than some guy with a bad moustache gaining a few pounds to scare me off of the stuff.

Also, his doctors were concerned, and his health specialist urgently suggested he give up the diet. Of course they will! Specialists, including in the world of health, are most often just extremist. If you buy a bike from bike specialists, they'll almost force all sorts of extra doo-dads on you that you don't need. If you get your hair done by a specialist, you won't even be able to understand the meaning of all of the stuff she's doing to benefit you. Specialists, especially the one's in this movie, are out of touch with the status quo. I don't live a hard-core active life, and I certainly don't have a hard core muscular body, nor do I want any of those, so why would I need a hard core nutritional plan.

Sorry Morgan, as much as I liked your movie, I will still eat at McDonald's, until my metabolism drops, that is, at which point I'll actually have to care. To those of you with lower metabolism, who have to actually work for a chiseled physique like mine, this may sound arrogant and ignorant. My diet allows my body to perform the various physical tasks I require of it, and until it doesn't there is no impetus to change.

   [ posted by William @ 10:07 PM ]

Un-Pleasantville
A little while ago, I saw that CityTV was showing the movie Pleasantville. I had seen this movie before, and didn't like it, and I knew what to expect. I still watched it, partly because I'm lazy, and prone to sitting at the TV for longer than I need to, and also partly because there are things about the movie that appeal to me. Listening to Oldies like I have, I have grown an appreciation for the culture of that era, 50s, 60s and 70s. The movie is mostly in black and white, but progresses into colour as it goes, which I think is a neat artistic idea. And what was that other reason? Oh yeah, Reese Witherspoon.

Here is essentially the plot. Two modern era kids get sucked into their TV and are thrown into the life of Pleasantville, a stereotypical 50s TV show. There is no mention of what happens to the two characters that they replace, maybe that's the sequel, what happened to two 50s era teens in today's world. So the guy, meek and mild David Wagner (played by Toby Mcguire), whose name gets changed to Bud Parker upon being sucked into the show, is a big fan of the show and knows exactly what is supposed to happen. His hope is that if they just act out the predetermined episodes, eventually they'll get back to real life. His sister, rebellious Jennifer Wagner (played by the aforementioned Reese Witherspoon) whose name gets changed to Mary Sue Parker, quickly tires of the boring lifestyle and rebels. She is supposed to go on a date with the captain of the basketball team, and instead of having a milkshake and a cheeseburger, she takes him to lover's lane where they ... well, you know. This sets off a whole domino effect of people's lives getting turned around. Couples are having sex all over the place, which causes the guys to start playing basketball poorly, and people start getting confused about why things are changing. Then a whole bunch of traditional things start changing, like the restaurant guy learns how to think for himself and starts to embrace art. The rest of the movie is a process of people learning to think for themselves, and when they do that, they get colour despite their black and white surroundings. As the movie draws to an end, there is a growing clash between those who have colour, and those who think colour is a sign of evil.

As big a fan as I am of independent thought, there is too much of an emphasis on sex being the deliverer of freedom from stale tradition. Two people get their colour for an extra-marital affair, not to mention the glorification of pre-marital sex. I remember a conversation with a friend where they were defending the theme of this movie, and watching it this second time, I was looking for some redeeming moral quality, and I couldn't find any. We can't hold blindly to our stale traditions, but we can't just frivolously throw them all off whenever we want. Reese Witherspoon's face can only take a movie so far.

Am I missing something? Is there somebody out there that liked this movie for it's underlying moral message? Is there an underlying moral message that I didn't get? Help me out here.

   [ posted by William @ 9:59 AM ]

What have you done at school lately?
That's a question I ask kids from time to time. My youth don't like talking about school, but pre-pubescent kids seem more willing. One girl this week told me that she had handed out speeding tickets. This seemed odd to me, but I thought maybe she was a hall monitor or something. No, it turns out that our local OPP detachment has an agreement with the schools do to do this program, which instills respect for the law among students and their communities.

The way this program works, is the police make a presentation to the various classes on the dangers of speeding. Then, grade 2 students, in their art class, get to create speeding tickets. Those tickets are then given to the grade 5 class, who accompany the police over the course of the day. Together with the police, they hand out these tickets as warnings, in the area around the school.

That's as much detail as I got, but I hope that I am never a victim of that kind of program. Not only to maintain a position of respect and a good reputation, but I cannot imagine the guilt of looking in the eyes of a ten year old, as she gives me a speeding warning made by a seven year old. Getting a scowl from a police officer seems to be part of the accepted routine of getting a ticket for a traffic violation (I'm only speculating here, my driving record is still clean). I can stand looking at a police officer as he hands me a ticket whilst conveying the message of "You broke the rules, now you're going to pay." I would have more trouble dealing with the image of getting a warning from a ten year old conveying the message of, "Your driving endangers my life."

That of course would be the idea, guilting people into lawful behaviour. Speeding happens so naturally, that I'm not sure we can immediately guilt ourselves out of it. I've been speeding less lately because it's easier on my transmission if I don't. Not a bad idea though.

   [ posted by William @ 1:15 PM ]

Will Loewen, Driving Instructor
A while ago I promised my sister that I would let her use my car to practice driving. Those of you who know me best know to expect promises slowly fulfilled. With her drive test looming, I finally dropped in, almost daily for the last week, so that she could get some practice in.

I now sympathize a bit with my dad for getting stressed out like he did when he was teaching me to drive. I was also relieved that I resembled my dad, who would get angry/scared and let me know immediately, rather than my mom, who would just sit in the other seat petrified (I was a good driver, but still their stress was natural). I never yelled, but my "instructions" were sometimes more emotional than normal. I wasn't just getting worked up about our physical safety, or about the structural integrity of my car, but also about her getting the point, when I've said the same thing a whole bunch of times. It's also hard to give calm and collected advice in a situation where you sense an impending accident.

Most of the practice sessions went pretty well, and I was pretty optimistic about today's test. Then in the final session, in a smaller car that we had borrowed for the occasion, there were some stressful times around a set of failed parallel parking attempts. We went for lunch, and had a nice chat at KFC, which I hoped would calm her nerves, to no avail.

She was visibly pretty nervous, and with a quick prayer (an appeal for both grace and peace of mind), I went in to wait, while she waited for the tester to meet her in the car.

I was interrupted from reading a copy of the Cambridge Times (one of those part-newspaper, part-excuse to send out flyers), by Martha saying, "So I didn't make it, eh." It seemed odd to me that she would say it without a hint of negative emotion like she did. I responded by saying, "Oh, you didn't?", and I readied myself to console her further, when she laughed and said, "I was just kidding!" I think I was more excited than she was. So, while it was successful, I'm not sure I'll try to venture into that world for another little while.

Anyway, way to go Martha!

   [ posted by William @ 9:19 PM ]

Local Cultural Report #3
And you thought I had isolated myself in Tavistock. This past Saturday was the first showing this year of a local community production called Barn Talk, starring local actors, including myself.

I star as the awkward and emotionally distant, greenhorn pastor. I know what you're thinking, 'his first acting role, and he's already been typecasted.' I admit, it is an easy character for me to pull off. I wasn't nervous at all on Saturday, that is until I was backstage and about to go on, and I didn't think I'd know my lines. It turns out that I did forget a few of my lines, but I recovered. The audience really bought my character, and I could tell that really early, so it was easy to keep doing it right. The character was so well played that almost nobody noticed a glitch in the lines.

Well enough bragging, now for the sales pitch. There are three showings this week as well, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each show starts at 8, beginning with a musical introduction (Thursday: KW area bluegrass gospel group, Five on the Floor. Friday: Tavistock Harmonica Band. Saturday: No Discernible Key.), and the show begins at 8:30, with an intermission, and the play is over around 11.

The play was really well received by the audience on Saturday, and it got a favourable review in the KW Record. Essentially, the idea is that an elderly man has lost his wife, and decides to hold himself up in the barn until his political demands are met. It has both agricultural and political humour, and appeals especially to those aware of rural Ontario and Swiss Mennonite culture, but works for everyone else too.

I have tickets available for each night, and they can also be purchased through the Network for Conflict Resolution, for which it is a fundraiser. They are $20 for adults and $15 for students. You can also e-mail me for tickets.

   [ posted by William @ 2:04 PM ]

Local Cultural Report #2
Everywhere you go, you'll find that there is something in that town that people take seriously. For a while, when I lived in Aylmer, we took our flea market seriously, after all, it was Canada's largest temporarily. In Ottawa, they take bilingualism seriously. In Kitchener-Waterloo, they take Oktoberfest seriously. My new home community in Tavistock is no different. Here, the people take Crokinole seriously. Still recovering from gorging ourselves on baked and fried goods at last weekend's MCC relief sale, the town of Tavistock is gearing up for another big weekend.

How seriously can a town take Crokinole? If it were only that the majority of residents played the game, you could say it was an interest. If they only held a local tournament, you could say it was a passion. But no, Tavistock goes one better. On June 5, Tavistock is hosting the World Crokinole Championships. The game was locally invented, and players really do come from all over the world. Many of my friends here in town have played in tournaments in years past. I like Crokinole too, but I didn't know it was possible to like it as much as these people do. I won't be playing in the championships this year, but perhaps with some practice I'll be ready to go next year.

What can you expect to see at the World Crokinole Championships? There is a whole division for people playing with cues, they generally allow for greater accuracy. People use board wax, not for surf boards, but for crokinole boards. A Dookie is what you call it when your piece goes into the middle hole.

I thought it was only a fringe of the community that really paid attention to this tournament, but after a ball game the other night, a few of my teammates over beers were discussing how these WCC rules made for "wussy crokinole". I'm not sure that phrase has every been muttered outside of Tavistock.

   [ posted by William @ 1:24 PM ]