Category: World

Random talk about the weather, geopolitics and implications of global quantitative easing on the spot price of malt barley, FOB Themiddleofnowhere, Alberta.

St. Patrick knew all about human trafficking

This is an article I wrote for National Post  a while ago on the issue of human trafficking as it relates to the life of St. Patrick.

With the rise of the slave trade by ISIS, the porn industry, and ‘coyotes’ smuggling people by land and sea, human trafficking grows in today’s barbarity. Praying for the gospel of Jesus to come into the lives of both slavers and slaves.

St. Patrick knew all about human trafficking

Special to National Post | March 17, 2011 3:07 PM ET

By Clint Humfrey
Green beer sales mark the globalized celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and for many who are only Irish once a year little more is thought of.   But it may be time for St. Patrick’s Day to become an occasion of global awareness for something more than the taste of Guinness, namely the problem of human trafficking.

Patrick was only 16 when he was seized by human traffickers.  Removed from his family and home in Roman Britain, he was transported across the Irish Sea to the foreign surroundings of Dalriada  in what is now Northern Ireland.  The traffickers sold Patrick to a local warlord who exploited the young Briton for six years of forced labor.

Patrick escaped and fled Ireland, yet his conversion to Christianity while a slave gave him a mission to return to minister to his former captors.  From that point Patrick’s ministry in Ireland became so significant that his identity and the country’s are difficult to separate.   Yet it is easily forgotten that Patrick’s early experience of his adopted country was as a victim of human trafficking. 

Today when people think of slavery they rarely think of a modern problem, but rather something belonging to earlier centuries. But in the transnational world that is ‘flattened’ modern slavery can take many different forms than those associated with plantations or estates in the Caribbean or American South.

In one scenario, traffickers will promise jobs in foreign countries only to put the victim in a permanent indebtedness so that they must work  without rights and without hope of freedom.  With no advocates in a foreign land of foreign language the victims are forced to rely on the traffickers for their survival.  Long hours of demanding work in unsafe conditions become the desperate reality for these victims that had been promised a job in a land of opportunity.

Another scenario has traffickers offering the allure of marriage or glamorous jobs in modeling or acting in order to force young women into prostitution.  Such exploitation occurs at local levels in every city of  the world but for victims of sex trafficking, the removal from one country to another isolates them further.  Without the language skills to communicate in the foreign country, the sex trade victim cannot seek help even if support services are available locally.

Another horrific product of the globalized sex trafficking economy is the enticement offered to parents to sell their children into prostitution.  The demand to stock child prostitutes for sex tourism destinations such as Thailand is great. In sex trade economics, an unthinkable act by a parent becomes all too commonplace.

Human trafficking is a global and local problem. In order to fight it we need to admit its existence.   Maybe on this St. Patrick’s Day we could take up the challenge by caring less about all things green, and a bit more about the life of Patrick himself.   If we could imagine what life was like for St. Patrick we may have greater empathy for the plight of victims of human trafficking in our communities.

Anti-Christian Jabs Are Perfectly PC

Everyone might be walking on eggshells, but treading on Christians is still okay.

 

You can’t discuss the relationship of Islam to jihadists without being condemned as an Islamophobe. You can’t protest the dismantling of gender into meaninglessness without being called a homophobe.

 

But you can take shots at Christians pretty freely without any backlash.

 

Just like Denis Coderre did a while ago when he lumped Wild Rose leader Brian Jean in with “the same people who think the Flintstones is a documentary”.  That is an example of an anti-Christian jab taken for easy rhetorical gain.

 

Why is it anti-Christian you ask? Coderre didn’t mention Christianity at all.

 

What Coderre was referring to is the historic Christian church’s view that God created the universe making human beings oversee the earth with its plants and animals, even dinosaurs.

 

Now there is disagreement among Christians about how the book of Genesis relates to the various scientific theories about the origins of the universe. But historically, there has been large swaths of the church that interpreted the origins of the universe as a powerfully cosmic and supernatural event that produced the natural order of our world in the span of six days. Incidentally, the sixth day of Creation, according to the Bible, was when human beings were created in the image of God— male gender and female gender to be exact.

 

So Coderre’s ‘Flintstones’ comment is not about Albertans watching too much Cartoon Network. It’s about them being Christians, and therefore nutjobs. But when the Genesis order of things is being tossed as the NDP experiments with washrooms and the IOC with genderless sports, maybe Christians aren’t the only crazy ones.

 

Coderre is not alone. His anti-Christian comment has a pretty good pedigree in Canadian politics. Another mayor, Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi used it to shame former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice on legislation for Gay-Straight Alliances. Nenshi said that if a student would potentially have to go to a judge to get approval for his club, as the Conservative motion claimed, then it would be “the Scopes Monkey Trial of Alberta.”  

 

Now many people wouldn’t catch the reference. Who is Scopes and why was his monkey on trial?

 

What Nenshi was referring to was the watershed trial about the teaching of evolutionary theory in public schools. Nenshi’s fear of Albertans being viewed as ‘hillbillies’ could have come straight from H.L. Mencken who covered the Scopes trial with eloquent mockery of the Christian townsfolk in Dayton, Tennessee.

 

Albertans will remember the power of that pushback from Mayor Nenshi, as Premier Prentice backed away from the proposal from the Conservatives. More eggshell-walking for some and not others.

 

But remembering further back, an even more powerful jab was landed by the inimitable Warren Kinsella who famously produced a purple Barney dinosaur on Canada AM in order to mock Canadian Alliance leader, Stockwell Day’s Christian beliefs about Creation.

 

Now as a Christian, I understand all this and expect it. Mocking Christians has been a cherished pastime going back to the Romans and the famous Alexamenos Graffito — a Charlie Hebdo-like cartoon showing Jesus with a donkey head, captioned, “Alexamenos worships his God”. Yet like Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you…on my account”

 

So Mayor Coderre’s comments simply illustrate that crazy Christians can be the easiest punching bags.

 

But in a world of out of control hypersensitivity maybe Jesus and his crazy followers will start to make sense.

 

Soft Persecution will clear out the Lone Ranger Christians.

Spiritual But Not Religious?

If you’ve been around Evangelicals at all you know that they speak often about persecution in the West, and maybe not enough about persecution of Christians around the world. Sometimes church folks can be almost embarrassing in the way they complain about difficulties in the workplace or at school as if they are on par with the persecution faced by Middle Eastern Christian believers for example, who have lost homes, limbs and even loved ones.

 

But there is a growing sense of ‘soft’ persecution, of the type that is not physically hostile, but it is ideologically so. It is the institutional removal of Evangelicals from participation in the public square. It is a sort of a Western, secular-branded policy similar to the one in Muslim countries called, dhimmitude. Minorities such as Christians must pay extra tax, and be excluded from various aspects of civil society. Now it seems that Christians may be treated that way in the liberal West.

 

Having fundamentals of human identity as male and female cast off by the whims of state legislators is one institutional way of marginalizing Christians. It’s a soft persecution.

 

Now take the state of the Evangelical church right now in Canada. Many have described the practice of the ‘circulation of the sheep’. That is the idea of people who claim to follow Jesus yet are disconnected from a local church, circulating from one church to the next. Their spirituality is a private thing, and they see little need for committing to other Christians in any lasting and meaningful way.

 

So there is this phenomenon of the “Lone Ranger Christians”. It’s a Christianese term for professing Jesus followers who don’t get along with the church. Any church. Now I don’t like the term Lone Ranger Christian because it’s bad press for the Lone Ranger who was a great guy. But the problem with the Lone Ranger Christian is that they have already given the game away before a hint of soft persecution has touched them. Their faith is only a notion, not a confession. They follow Jesus only in convenience, not conscience. And the summons of Jesus to ‘take up the cross and follow me’ is viewed as a conditional suggestion not a command.

 

For years now, well-attended Evangelical churches have catered to the Lone Ranger Christian by softening the commands of Jesus, and amplifying the creature comforts of attendees. When asked, a person will say that one of the mega-churches is ‘their church’, but they are on the margins of its fluid communal life, slipping in and out like one more latte stop.

 

Thankfully, there has been a renewal happening in Canadian churches that sees historic Christianity as offering something more. The Christian gospel has stability in a world of flux as well as a sense of the supernatural in a society of cold-pressed materialism. What is noteworthy about this renewal is that many young people are proving to be the surprising examples of maturity for some in the older crowd. It is a strange juxtaposition to see a Millennial modelling ‘churchmanship’ for a Boomer.

 

Although it is unwelcome, there is no need to fear persecution. Even the soft stuff, though difficult, will have a purpose. As Christians are institutionally shamed and economically or politically marginalized, one thing is certain, nobody will be a Lone Ranger Christian anymore. There will only be the solid, identifiable church confessors, and the former Evangelicals who capitulate faster than you can say, “Hi Yo Silver, Away!”

Oil isn’t all that’s falling: Alberta and the Moral Revolution

Millenia-old definitions of human identity are tumbling like the price of so much unwanted crude.

 

Now, thanks to new legislation announced from NDP minister David Eggen, schools in Alberta must permit young boys and girls to self-identify in any way they prefer, and to go to any washroom or change room their heart desires.

 

Confusion reigns as boys will have access to the privacy of girls and vice versa. This goes for washrooms or locker rooms. This is government mandated voyeurism in Alberta schools.  

 

The irony of the situation is that if a child is uncomfortable with the new intermixed activities of boys and girls (and those self-identifying in a personally preferred way), they don’t have a right to have the activity changed to ‘boys’ or ‘girls’. They are shunned away with the lonely option of ‘independent study’.

 

So the sexual confusion of a child now binds all other children (and educators) to accommodate. But the concern of another young child for their own privacy and safety, is marginalized to the segregated ‘non-gendered’ washrooms and separate study halls. Though many say it is all about human rights, it is clear that for the NDP government, some emotional damage is more equal than others.

 

So Alberta takes a further step in joining what theologian Albert Mohler has called “the vast high-velocity moral revolution.” Make no mistake, Alberta is far from being a Bible-belt.

 

Looking at this issue from a Christian perspective, the Alberta government is attempting to calibrate policies in denial of biblical and biological realities. God created human beings as male and female according to Christian Scripture. The inherent and physiological differences of the sexes have been recognized for ages, being the subject of sonnets and sitcoms.  All of that is overthrown easily by legislators today.

 

Yet,in a fallen world, affected by sin (another bit from the bible), it is to be expected that gender identity would become confused at times. The early Christian apostle Paul knew this, yet offered the prospect of clarity through restored gender identity. This hope is the message of deliverance which Jesus was all about.

 

Students in a confused world will experience all of the angst and difficulties of growing up. Some will wrestle with how to interpret their feelings. But it does not assist students struggling with gender questions to dismantle the obvious binary nature of the sexes.

 

In the NDP government’s pursuit of protection for self-identifying transgender students, it instituted a policy of perpetual instability in schools, even potential voyeurism. If it is all about preferences, then why don’t the kids simply pick the Pink Floyd Option, ‘We don’t need no education/ we don’t need no thought control’?

 

As Albertans watch the price of oil crash, they are also seeing nothing less than the collapse of what it means to be human.

A Worldview Against the West

The author of the Hank, the Cowdog children’s stories wrote an article for American Cowboy on ‘political correctness’ and how that worldview sees the West. In our cultural moment, John Erickson’s article highlights the differences in worldview that are becoming inescapable.

Erickson writes:

It took me a while to figure out the obvious, that there are people in the entertainment business whose decisions are driven by ideology, not by experience or artistic judgment. And some of those people just don’t like the West I was describing—which I knew to the bone; which they might have seen through an airplane window at 30,000 feet.  

They don’t like the history of the frontier. They don’t like cattle or beef. They don’t like people who pray before a meal. They don’t approve of anyone who might spur a horse or rope a calf, and they sure don’t approve of women who stay home to raise their children. Maybe they don’t approve of marriage either.

I think that Erickson is pretty accurate as a recent Calgary Herald column gives evidence of the ‘dislike.’

But as we consider what our greatest need is, it is not for the culture of the West, as much as I personally love it. It is rather the culture of the new city and new world order established by the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.  If your world isn’t governed by this King, then who are you choosing?

“at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.  (The Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Church at Philippi, chapter 2, verses 10-11).

 

See the rest of John Erickson’s article at: American Cowboy

Saint Patrick Miscellanies

irish

Saint Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish, but I have happy memories of frequenting some of the great Irish pubs in downtown Toronto during my teaching days. Ian Clary (of Irish descent) and I would frequent McVeigh’s which at the time had the look of a front for the IRA. Looks like some fresh paint today, though the murals remain. We would also go to the flashier PJ O’Brien‘s regularly. Although it is said to have “the best pub food in the country” according to the National Post, it is the place where my wife had the worst food poisoning in her life. I still loved O’Brien’s and the bad food experience was a one time anomaly. I was usually irritated by the Sunday Saint Patrick’s Parade because it meant that getting across downtown after church was a task of nearly unending futility.

Such are some of my memories on Saint Patrick’s Day.

If you are looking for a Patrick biography, read Michael Haykin‘s. Great stuff on Patrick as a missionary and a model of Christian piety.

On the history of the celebration of St Patrick’s Day, read Meagan Fitzpatrick’s piece for CBC here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/st-patrick-s-day-tradition-made-in-u-s-not-ireland-1.2997187

Finally, this is my article at the National Post from a few years ago:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/17/st-patrick-knew-all-about-human-trafficking/

Human Market Valuations

A friend who ministers in Central Asia told about the Gypsies in his community. They are despised by all people groups, but are feared due to their perceived ability to put curses upon people who refuse to give money, food or other help to them.

The Gypsies, like many people are viewed as non-people. They are viewed as being of so little consequence that that they are not to be cared for, conversed with or even noticed. The value of these lives is viewed as minuscule, or even a negative draw upon the value and vigour of the lives surrounding the Gypsy. Their lives have a human market valuation of zero, or even worse.

But this human ‘market valuation’ is not restricted to the Gypsies. It is evident today in Syria and Iraq under the tyranny of the so-called ‘Islamic State’, where women — Christian or Muslim— are treated as mere disposables. This ‘State’ values women as un-human and useful only for sexual exploitation, commercial trade, or as objects of torture and terror to broadcast to the world.

Consider situations where people are unnoticed or despised. Consider situations where people are no longer people.

This video illustrated to me a tragic situation where a young man was no longer treated as a person, but as some unruly animal–as wild game.

We must be vigilant or else we will cheapen our lives and the lives around us. There can be no cheapening when every person has a soul. Every person is created in the image of God.

Knowing the Times: October 1, Year of Our Lord 2014

Cowtown Jihadis

Calgary has sent approximately 30+ into the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq in order to wage jihad. A recent Muslim conference in Calgary discussed the radicalization of Muslim youth, with a list of media reports.

In answer to the question posed by the Toronto Star, ‘What do we do about Canadians joining ISIS? I say this: Canada needs a thoughtful re-assessment and re-engagement with Jesus of Nazareth, whom even Muslims esteem as a prophet. But what is required is the message that the apostles described as the gospel of Jesus Christ. This message is one of repentant faith in Jesus as God, the Son who atoned for sin at the historic cross of Calvary, and who evidentially rose from the dead on the third day after. This gospel has a regenerative power to transform hearts and instil counter-intuitive love for God and love for neighbour.