Thanks to a bowl-shaped piece of foil, and a special rejigging of my TV’s cable line, we now have up to six channels, instead of the previous 1 or 2. One of the new channels we get is TVO, channel 18.
Last night we were flipping through channels and caught an episode of “The Agenda” with Steve Paikin. The show comprised of a mutli-faith panel discussing the role of religion in Canada, it’s advances and declines, and the ways it can and should connect with people. Since Ana and I are both students of religion, we were both quite interested in this topic and in the multi-faith panel that had been assembled. We noted a few comments:
Ana suggested it was unfair that the panel included three Christians speakers (Catholic, Anglican, United) and only one of each of the other faiths represented (Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism). I responded saying that the ration was fair given the actual numbers of adherents of Christianity compared to the other faiths in Ontario, but that the three Christian speakers chosen, were all high church, liturgical folk. Most of the growth of Christianity in Ontario (and there is a clear showing of growth according to StatsCan) is within the evangelical churches, none of which were represented in the panel. Any number of factors may have contributed to this, but it was a shame there was no evangelical representation on this panel.
This may be a semantics issue, or my own personal beef, but I wasn’t a fan of when peolpe would begin their point with “In Buddhism …” or “Islam teaches”. My point is that we know what faith they are representing, and that we don’t need to be reminded with every sentence. Also, it comes off sounding like a sales pitch, and while I appreciate our right to proselytize our faith, a televised inter-faith dialogue is not the appropriate avenue to do that. The rabbi was particularly guilty of that.
The final question was, “Can your faith co-exist with secular society?” Having some experience as a guest on a television talk show, I acknowledge that the questions you’re given ahead of time, and thus have prepared an answer for, don’t always match up with the questions you’re asked on the air. Still, as an audience member, I expect the question asked to be answered. Some gave examples of how their faith had grown in all parts of the world, which to me isn’t coexisting, it’s taking over. Others talked about how meaningful their religion was to people. One of the Christian guests talked about how society had always been secular. There were a few good answers, but I was disappointed with how the show ended.
So this week I had no story excerpt to write, but I am working on a sermon for this Sunday. Those of you who still visited Silent Talkie may have noticed an interesting article. It may be a bit irreverent for some, hilarious for others and incomprehensible to everyone else, but have a look at this. If you don’t know what RTFM stands for, I’ll give you a clue, the R stands for read and the M stands for manual. It’s terminology used by IT guys and others who give computer advice. Maybe this could be the new T-shirt of the emerging church.
So my brief furlough into short story writing has completed. Part Four of my short story is up over at SilentTalkie. Not the erotic thriller some people hoped it would be, but I think it resolved itself quite well. Let me know your thoughts, even if you’re critical.
I like to think that have a fairly well organized computer. It seems to me that if I carried a computer around with me, I could lay out the notes I typed up, the spreadsheets I compiled, and the slideshows and other files I downloaded into an orderly, systematic format.
As laptop computers slowly became portable and functional enough that it made sense to bring along to a class lecture or workshop, I would often become envious of those who had the finances and foresight to bring a laptop computer to class. However, as the practice became more common in my academic and professional settings, I got to observe how these computers were actually being used. It turns out that even though they are surrounded by sometimes hundreds of other students or workshop participants, laptop carriers still use that time to do other things on their computers. I’ve seen people beside and in front of me play games, read email, use instant messaging programs and browse semi-questionable material online, and neighbours at seminars and workshops are no more responsible.
Of course I am in no position to throw the first stone; if I had a laptop in front of me, few lecturers I know would be able to capture my full attention away from the digital distractions I install for myself on my computers. This is precisely the problem. I get distracted by their computer screens so that I lose focus on what’s being discussed, however, I can’t impact what programs they use and I have to put up with their annoying quirks (like using google to search for everything rather than typing in the obvious URLs). It’s a lose-lose situation.
So, if you ever get to sit in a lecture or workshop with me, and you’re in between me and the main speaker, don’t use a laptop. (And no, I will not sit at the front to prevent this problem)
Things are getting more interesting for the people of my alter call story. The third part of it was released today with the rest of SilentTalkie. Loyal readers of the e-zine are clamouring for a steamier storyline. I think it’s getting quite interesting without smutting it up. You be the judge. Feel free to leave a comment here or there with your thoughts on it so far.