On our way home from holidays a few years ago, my wife picked up the latest Horizon Air magazine. There was an article on page 3, written by Bill Ayer, Chairman of Alaska Air Group, entitled Farewell, Bruce. After reading it, she passed it on to me.

Jeff Pinneo, President and CEO of Alaska Airlines stated that on June 28th, Bruce R. Kennedy, a former CEO, who had spent 40 years of “extraordinary leadership and service” for Alaska Airlines, died when his Cessna 182 crashed near Cashmere, Washington.

Jeff expressed that Bruce was a man of deep character, and that the wise counsel and powerful example that flowed from that character into the organization would be missed. Bill stated that Bruce’s “caring, integrity, resourcefulness, spirit and professionalism were part of [his] essence long before [Alaska Airlines] adopted them as their formal values.”

While reading the article, I was impressed that this man’s character – who this man was on the inside – had influenced and impacted an entire airline culture that will continue affecting others long after his passing.

A Seattle Times reporter, interviewing Bruce after retiring in 1991, quoted Bruce as saying, it is time to trade “success for significance.” From that point on, Bruce devoted himself to Christian missionary work overseas and humanitarian efforts.

He and his wife traveled to China to teach English with the Christian group Educational Services International, and they volunteered with World Relief and sheltered dozens of refugee families in their home.

Quite a choice, eh – success or significance? Undoubtedly, our North American culture is success driven. Usually, success is seen through material eyes – ie. what car I drive, the house I live in, who I associate with, how much money I have in the bank, being on the Who’s Who list, etc. The Bible calls the man who builds bigger barns to house his wealth a “fool,” for what happens to his wealth when his soul is required of him? Jesus said, “What profit is there if a man gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” There are too few people in this world who understand true riches, or who are in touch with the state of their soul.

 

Bruce Kennedy caught sight of something that most people are blind to. He understood the difference between success and significance. One man said that there will be no success without a successor. Unless one is living their life in such a way as to leave a legacy to another generation, there will be no significance in life. Success is often uni-generational. Unless the “values, vision and mission” are multi-generational in nature, no significance will be left behind.

Values give you character, vision gives you direction, and mission gives you purpose. Einstein wrote, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather, try to become a man of value.”

Where do you connect with values that will leave a legacy of significance? It appears to me, from everything I have read, that Bruce’s values were clearly rooted into a personal experience with God. Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, who he was because of his relationship to God, became the most important thing he desired to leave behind.

Bill Ayer stated that the “little airline that could has flown into significance.” However, that significance was not because of better planes, or because of better trained pilots, but because of better people who carry the legacy of values and character into the next generation.

 

Castanet Article
Thursday August 23rd, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

I am grateful to be Canadian, to live in a country that values the individual, no matter the race or religion, and protects freedom of expression. I have visited nations from every continent and realize that Canada is a special place. I am not unaware of the fact that in many countries I would not have the opportunity to write articles as I do, addressing issues every week.

For Canada to remain “strong and free” Canadians must take their duty to “stand on guard” seriously. There are two ways a nation can fail and fall: one is through an external power – conquered from without; and, the other is through an internal weakness – collapse from within.

I see Canada embroiled in a war of ideas. Canada is still in a search to define itself. As such, it is open to entertaining new ideas, adopting them and integrating them into our society. Those ideas need to be challenged, for that openness can be a wonderful strength or a profound weakness. The effect of an idea gone wrong can be devastating.

I see Canada as in the early stages of its national development, and my observation is that Canada is imitating the habits of teenagers. Those of us who are parents can identify with that challenging time as teens attempt to transition into adulthood. It is not an easy thing to watch or be a part of. The maturing process can be painfully slow, and often brings out the best or the beast in them.

Canada, in its national adolescence, seems to be attracted to the idea of difference for difference sake. It seems to know more of what it is against than it knows what it is for, and has built its identity around a reaction to what it does not want to be. There have been numerous books written on the identity crisis Canada suffers living next to Big Brother USA. We often take positions against the American mind set just to express our right to create the Canadian difference.

I have seen my nation’s struggle to be viewed as a global leader propel them to be early adopters of new ideas and take on positions that defy common sense. Is our corporate identity enhanced in some way by demonstrating our right to march to the beat of our own drum? Are we somehow strengthened in our national image by disagreeing with the ancient wisdom? Has being an early adopter helped or hurt our international image? Or, are we having an adolescent spasm?

To use a statement from Natalia Mordy’s column on Eco-Friendly Living, my aim is not to be mainstream minded either. As she said, “last time I checked, the stream wasn’t too healthy.” I concur. Canada should not define itself by comparison or competition with other nations in the world. There is an historical wisdom we can tap into for decision-making. There is an internal grid called conscience. There is a law written upon the hearts of the generations of the nations that we all must read.

Canada is vulnerable as it strains to emerge into adulthood and maturity as a nation. Its identity is still in the making. What will Canada eventually look like? What will its core beliefs and values be? What will it eventually grow up to become? How will it be seen by its global neighbours?

The key to the formation of this new identity will be the ideas Canada adopts as its own. Those ideas will form its future. Those ideas will attract visitors. Those ideas will create a DNA for generations as they will be read in our legislatures, taught in our schools and universities, applied in the marketplace, and integrated into our homes and family values.

The future identity of Canada will be forged in the ideas of today. They need to be challenged from passionate Canadians. A confluence of compassion and reason need to come together to ensure that the destiny of our great land and its people is protected. May God keep this land glorious and free!

Castanet Article
Thursday August 16th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

 

We are Canadians. This is our nation. We have been called to “stand on guard” for our country. To stand on guard requires that we be personally aware of the very real, clear and present danger facing our country. I submit to you that Canada is under siege, not from without, from some foreign power, but from within.

What I am referring to is an invasion of ideas. Napoleon said that ideas were more powerful than armies. Armies come and go, but ideas can lie embedded in a society for centuries, influencing a nation’s culture, affecting the thinking and activity of generations, and touching their very soul and conscience. Good ideas strengthen a people: erroneous ideas, unchallenged and tolerated, weaken a citizenry.

I had the privilege of seeing the movie, Amazing Grace when it first hit the theatre, the true story of one of the 18th Century’s greatest heroes, William Wilberforce.

The movie’s title comes from a hymn sung in many of our churches, penned by John Newton. He was the son of a sea captain, pressed into naval service at an early age. He deserted, was recaptured, and then flogged for his efforts. At his own request, John was placed into service in a slave trip, which took him to Sierra Leone, on the Windward Coast of Africa.

On a homeward voyage, in the midst of a violent storm, he cried out to God for mercy, and “grace led him home.” Though truly converted, he continued in the slave trade, until he was overwhelmed by a conviction about the evilness of the idea of trading in people’s souls. It was detailed in his pamphlet, Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade.

In it he wrote about the need to suppress the trafficking in human souls with the hope that the “stain on the national character would be wiped out” (pg1). He affirmed that he would have quit sooner, had [he] considered it, “unlawful and wrong” (pg 4). He went on to say that “the Righteous Lord loves righteousness, and He has engaged us to plead the cause, and vindicate the wrongs, of the oppressed. It is righteousness that exalts a nation; and wickedness is the present reproach, and will, sooner or later, unless repentance intervenes, prove the ruin of any people (pg 6).”

He started to speak out about what the acceptance of a faulty idea had cost the Empire. The Slave Trade had created a moral critical mass. Everyone was marked by its evil, and few were standing against its abuses. He pointed to the loss of the soul of England’s sons who were hardened by the inhumanity to humanity, the curse of fever which took both black and white’s lives, the affect on the minds of those involved in the trade, the unmerciful whippings, torture, crying babies being thrown overboard, men stacked like books on a shelf.

In the movie he speaks of the 20,000 ghosts that haunted his soul. They were men, women and children who died trying to make the nine month journey. Statistics estimate that close to 100,000 blacks, both slave and free, were bought and sold annually, that more than 20% died enroute, and those who survived passage seldom lived beyond nine years in captivity.

John joined the Abolitionists, and was influential in convincing a young man, William Wilberforce to remain in politics and “serve God where he was.” Wilberforce spent decades in Parliament fighting a “bad idea” that had gripped the soul and economy of a nation.

It wasn’t extracted easily from the consciousness of England. Men defended it for years: “if we do not do it, the French will glean the profits from it;” “shutting it down will affect the port economy and be a hardship to its people.” The justifications for a “bad idea” were numerous. For years the nation and its citizenry bought into it, drowning out this young man’s voice.

Finally, after impassioned speech after speech, using common sense, force of reason and political wit, truth won out. It was agreed that the trade was “contrary to the principles of justice, humanity and sound policy.” The Slave Trade Act, after twenty years of debate, received royal assent on 25 March 1807. A new idea won out, and has prevailed since that day.

What happens when good men say nothing about bad ideas? What occurs when good ideas are silenced by evil ones? What happens to the soul of a nation? What affect does it have on the corporate conscience of a generation? What legacy is left to its most innocent of citizens, its children? The question begs asking, “Would you have been an Abolitionist in Newton and Wilberforce’s England?”

Let’s make sure that 20,000 ghosts do not haunt our lives, as they did John Newton. Let’s get ready to stand on guard for Canada as we start to expose some bad ideas that desire to invade our corporate consciousness, and ultimately become part of our nation’s DNA.

 

Castanet Article
Thursday 19th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

Just a few short days ago Canada celebrated its national birthday. Some of us who have been around a long time can remember when it was celebrated as Dominion Day: now it is Canada Day. We have a lot to celebrate. Our presence on the world stage is being requested, and our opinions seem to be valued by the international community. The nations are noticing Canada.

We have the will, desire and intelligence to tackle the most difficult of problems. It appears that we are not afraid to get up to bat, to face the awesome task of addressing human frailty and social dysfunction. I love that about Canadians. Most Canadians believe the best about their Prime Minister’s heart motivations. They are an incredibly patient breed and magnanimous. Even their criticisms are shared with a desire to be a part of the solution

I don’t ever want to see the essential good nature of Canadians change. However, just as individuals function their best when operating according to an inner sense of call and mission, an essential life purpose, so nations must never lose their sense of intention, or appointment with destiny.

The Bible makes the statement that it is God who guides the destinies of the generations of the nations. Just as individuals have a “manifest destiny,” so does the nation of Canada.

The political party – or the individual – that best captures the national mission that is at the core of the nation’s identity will have the opportunity to impact Canada’s future and call out its best.

One such man who did that in our Canadian history was Lester Bowles Pearson. He received the 1957 Noble Peace Prize for propagating the idea of the present UN Peace Keeping force. The former PM was born in Toronto, Ontario (1897-1972), son and grandson to Methodist preachers. It was during the Suez Crisis of 1956, when he was Secretary of State for External Affairs that he proposed the commissioning of a multinational UN peacekeeping force.

Listen to what he said: “Threats to global survival, though they are sometimes exaggerated in apocalyptic language which makes our flesh creep, are real. The prophets of doom and gloom may be proven wrong but it is a chilling fact that man can now destroy his world by nuclear explosion or ecological erosion….The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war. Therefore, the best defense of peace is not power, but the removal of the causes of war, and international agreements which will put peace on a stronger foundation than the terror of destruction.”

Did his faith influence his passion and pursuit of world peace as a purpose in life? No question. He could have been speaking to the nations of our generation where peace is in very short supply, and is being threatened by small pieces of luggage unattended in a parking lot or inside terminals.

Pearson connected with one of the national DNA strands that I believe God put there when the nation was born. Canadians have responded to more than 40 peace keeping missions, and many have paid the ultimate price. For Canada to remain Canada, there is an ever-increasing need for Canada to step it up regarding its passion and mission to peace make and peace keep.

The honorable Stockwell Day once stated at a Mayoral Leadership Breakfast in Kelowna that he had “faith in Canada because of faith in Canada.” I agree! As a Christian, in a faith relationship to Jesus, I have been given a commission to be a reconciler of men to God and to each other.

The Church in Canada has a pivotal role to play in making and keeping the peace within its borders and beyond. God uses the Church to persuade men and women to drop their differences, and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.

May God grant us peace on our soil because of the potency of our relationship to the Prince of Peace, and may He cause us to become peace makers and peace keepers beyond our borders. This is Canada’s heritage!

 

Castanet Article
Thursday 12th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

Congrats, grads! We are proud of you. We honor your hard work, and the commitment you made to complete this phase of your life. We also honor you moms and dads, who faithfully helped your sons and daughters complete and finish well.

Grad days are great days. I can remember the euphoria I felt when I completed high school, and then, went on to graduate from two colleges. What a wonderful sense of relief I experienced. No more classes, no more exams, no more required reading. I was done, in more ways than one!

However, as I ponder those days, I think that my euphoria lasted no longer than one day. It didn’t take me long to realize that graduation, by its very definition, was not an end but a beginning. It was simply the completion of one baby step forward on the road of life. There were many more steps that would be required in the years to come.

In my later years, I have had the privilege of speaking at numerous commencement ceremonies addressing the next generation. I have always felt awe as I looked over a sea of young Canadians. So much promise, so much potential, so many opportunities before them.

I could imagine the time moms and dads invested in their kids proofing papers, providing care, protecting hearts, and projecting what their child’s future could look like. Those were trying, but good, days.

Personally, as a father, I found that graduation was a parental realty check. I was struck with the thought that there was little more that I could do for them now. Where they went, what they did, and who they became was up to them now. I had to trust that what had been deposited in them would cause them to make wise decisions about their future.

Clearly, to many, graduation is spelled R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y. In our Canadian culture, graduation is a social acknowledgement of a young person’s movement into adulthood. They have passed a common test required of all Canadian youth.

However, life after grad is a constant introduction to new sets of challenges to grow up and change. Youth graduate from something to something. There is no vacuum: there is no time to waste. Another cycle of education is ready to begin. There is no getting away from the sense of increased social expectations. More tests lie directly ahead.

Arie Pencovici said, “Graduation is only a concept. In real life, every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life.” I believe that!

Life after grad isn’t just about rights – it’s about responsibilities. Opportunities will come, but I pray that this generation will not pass them up because they are wearing overalls, and require good Canadian sweat. It took good, clean, hard work to give us the Canada we now enjoy. It will take that from every young person entering the workforce to keep it.

Life after grad is about Canadian youth taking their place in society to create a better world. That takes more than being dedicated to make a living: it requires a daily diligence, and commitment to integrity and character, to make a life worth living.

The real test of their education is whether grads have the ability to turn what they know into a personal and social expression of wisdom. Knowledge should be used to serve the city, to put back into the system what has been invested in them.

At the same time, every young grad needs to be encouraged to dream their dream, be the dream, and then, live the dream. Mahatma Gandhi stated, “[They] must [become] the change [they] wish to see in [their] world” [italics mine].

I know that there are many city leaders that are committed to help these young grads succeed. They offer knowledge, experience, skills, values, and discipline. They consider it an investment in the future of Canada. I pray the youth take them up on it, and value it.

The future is now for these graduating classes. My prayer is that they remember this poem, for it will keep them focused on what is really important:

 

“The future lies before you, like a field of driven snow;
be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.”

 

Castanet Article
Thursday 5th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

I am concerned for this next generation in Canada! I am a Christian leader who has been leading for 35 years, and I am constantly aware of the impact leaders have upon those who look to them for direction and moral clarity.

I remember my first counseling session, coaching a married couple into reconciliation. As a young pastor, I recall the heavy burden I felt to give perfect advice, knowing that they would probably attempt to follow it and put it into practice. I felt the weight of responsibility that was involved in not only saying the right words but being the right person.

I have also seen the devastation that has occurred within the soul of a community when respected leaders have fallen. It doesn’t have to happen often to affect you for life. Once is enough. Bubbles burst. Questions fill the mind. Trust vanishes. Anger emerges from the heart. The struggle to believe sets in.

The reality is that many people are looking for someone to follow, someone to model their life after. Over the last few decades, I have seen every area of social life morally undermined by delinquent role models. Almost every day we are seeing the real life dramas of the rich and famous lived out in public view: politicians, business leaders, ministers, movie stars, etc.

Remember the global effect on the political world when we heard the truth about President Clinton’s marital affair with Monica? Impeachment proceedings were based upon his lying under oath, not his affair. Adultery was considered a moral offense, not a criminal one. How did we ever get there?

Didn’t engaging a woman, who was not his wife, in illicit sexual acts speak to the greater issue: the willingness to break a covenant, a vow, an oath? Society is now living with The Clinton Legacy: some acts are not sexual, improper or adulterous, if they stop short of intercourse. A generation has bought it, hook, line and sinker.

Christian leaders have failed this generation – Ted Haggard. Often their explanations and justifications have had a greater negative affect than their immoral actions. There is forgiveness, but what about repentance, public accountability, even long term consequence. Talk to King David about Bathsheba and adultery’s effects on generations!

Sports heroes have failed this generation – Kobe Bryant. Listen to Kobe: “This isn’t about morality (it’s all about morality) or crime. I’ll let others better qualified than I sort that out (he didn’t know the difference?). It’s about doing the right thing (there is a right thing) after you’ve been caught doing the wrong thing” (italics mine). I thought character is what prevents us from doing wrong stuff in the first place!

Movie stars have failed this generation. Remember actor Mel Gibson having to publicly apologize for his shameful conduct: ie. drunk driving, swearing and anti-Semitism? This, Mel engaged in, right after producing one of the finest movies on the Passion of the Christ. I know what it is like to live my life under constant public scrutiny. What I do and say, my attitude and behavior, affects people’s lives. A leader can lose their life modeling career in a day – come on, Mel! You know that too!

And, what about Paris Hilton? The heiress was sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving with a suspended licence from DUI, later reduced to 23 days. For unspecified medical reasons – eg. rash, psychological reasons – she was reassigned from her stay in a 12-by-eight foot cell into a 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills house arrest.

The Game Show Network (GSN) readjusted their focus and made her homestay a joke. They launched “The Prison Life of Paris” this week, featuring a cartoon version of Paris wearing a prison-issue orange jumpsuit, stilettos and oversized sunglasses. GSN certainly picked up on the spirit of the times. This stuff all sounds like a game than real life. She does her time at home, adding a new ankle bracelet to her wardrobe, and this generation does time watching her!

Does anyone get the picture yet? Is anyone watching the moral radar screen? This generation is looking in all the wrong places for life models. They are being raised without an understanding of a moral plumb line, rights and wrongs, “yes’s” and “no’s”, consequences for actions, internal and external accountability.

It’s got to change! Are there any role models out there willing to pay the price of decency? What ever happened to good manners or common sense? Is integrity, character, and virtue an outdated idea, or is it what this generation desperately needs?

I happen to think that the list of dysfunctional North American idols is getting ominous and onerous. It’s time for a new generation to emerge and show themselves.

 

Castanet Article
Thursday June 28th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

 

A few months ago Time magazine ran an article entitled The Spy Who Knew Too Much. It had to do with suspicions surrounding the death of the Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko. Doctors suspected that some kind of radioactive agent was causing his illness. Unexplainable things were happening: his body was disintegrating, his hair was falling out, and his bone marrow was failing. Under medical evaluation, gamma spectrometers picked up nothing unusual in his blood system.

However, atomic experts discovered alpha particles, which after entering the bloodstream will destroy everything that they touch. They isolated the alpha particles and found them to come from the rare isotope polonium 210. A nuclear reactor was required to make polonium, and some ingenuity was needed to turn it into a magic capsule that would induce slow death.

Alexander Litvinenko had been poisoned. Just one microgram (one-millionth of a gram) is enough to kill most people. A microgram weighs less than a grain of salt and is more difficult to spot than a period at the end of a paragraph. Once ingested, it leaves an unmistakable dye that can be traced. Put into a drink it produces vapors that can be inhaled by those around.

I have been hearing for years from the experts of our society that a little bit of pornography cannot hurt you: it might even help. A fling on the wild side of marriage may be a good thing and could create a healthy spark to a deteriorating sex life. A few swear words, mixed into television conversation, never hurt anybody: that’s life. A puff of marijuana never killed anybody: let’s legalize it.

Forgive me please if I gag! I am tired of this baloney. I am sick of seeing our children used as guinea pigs as society experiments with theories. I am fed up with the deteriorating health of Canadian people, marriages and families. Just as ingesting a small amount of polonium culminated in the death of Alexander Litvinenko, so accepting a little bit of immorality here and there is increasing the mortality rate of our nation.

I have been a pastor for many years. I have ministered to men who are addicted to Internet porn. I have visited them in prisons as they tried to kick the habit that caused them to molest a child. I have wept with couples who were now dealing with the pain of the discovery of hidden sexual sins. I have counseled children who can hardly speak English but have adopted trash talk as the core of their vocabulary. I have worked with the heroin addict whose journey into drugs started with one joint.

For years I have had to deal with the experts who say that there is little to no connection between heroin and marijuana, pornography and incest, adultery and divorce. Say what? Who is coming up with these stats? Ask your neighbour what he or she thinks? Common sense tells us otherwise.

Many Canadians I speak with are disturbed by the loss of civility in our nation. In Charlottetown, a high school principal took a stand against the “casual profanity” of his students and was hailed as a hero by parents and educators alike. Researchers have found that one in eight people will leave their jobs as a result of incivility: ie. desk rage, verbal abuse, rudeness, profanity.

Yet, we have defenders saying we should not stifle what is a natural cathartic outlet for frustration. It’s better to be sworn at than hit, they say. That sounds good. Let’s follow that logic a little further: is it better to be hit than knifed? Is it better to be knifed than shot? Is there anyone home out there? None of it should be acceptable: swearing, hitting, knifing, or shooting.

I know that we are supposed to be a tolerant people, but tolerance has its levels. Just a little more tolerance of a poison can kill you, as Litvinenko found out. There are some things eating at the healthy DNA of our nation. How long do we play as a people with poison? How long can we allow people to change the labels on the bottles of poison?

What will it take before we recognize that things have gone too far? Who is willing to take a stand against the degrading, deteriorating toxins infiltrating the DNA of our social system? Is it possible that the tide is beginning to turn?

It has been said that evil prospers when good men say nothing. Are there any good men out there? Is there anyone who sees the danger when we as individuals and as a culture imbibe just a little bit of immorality?

 

Castanet Article
Thursday June 7th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

 

 

Canada.com’s headline ran, “Firebrand, Rev. Jerry Falwell of Moral Majority, dies at 73.” For many Christians, both north and south of the 49th parallel, Falwell’s death was considered a tragedy. His passion for preserving and protecting the Christian and moral heritage of his nation was an example to many of us.

He was a man of great conviction. At times, his emotion caused him to say things he would later regret, but he loved people and cared about the future of America. He was renown for asking three key questions concerning every social, legislative or judicial issue: “Is it ethically correct? Is it Biblically correct? Is it morally correct?”

 

 

 

Falwell understood something about culture. He knew that once a law was invoked as law by the legislative and judicial branches of government, that law created a sense of moral rightness in the people of a nation. That belief in moral rightness sooner or later created a social sense of conscience, making a belief or behavior normal. In other words, what was seen as legal became moral, and what was accepted as moral became a social norm.

Anyone standing up against a law and pronouncing it unbiblical [ie. against the moral law of God as defined by the Bible] invites great criticism. As a matter of fact, to describe the turning of the tables on Christian activists, once the law was intact, opposition to it would be considered illegal, immoral and abnormal. Go figure!

Falwell was a man who was unafraid of the public challenge, and became a voice of reason in a sea of compromise and indifference. I applaud his efforts, and many Christians feel a deep sense of loss over his passing. He will be missed.

Ron Godwin, Liberty University’s executive vice-president stated that Falwell had a “history of heart challenges.” I say this respectfully when I state that these “heart challenges” were not just physical: they were emotional, moral and spiritual. Falwell felt deeply about the wayward direction his country was going and desperately desired America to return to its Christian roots.

Canada, as does America, has an unquestioned spiritual heritage and Christian root system. Few would call Canada a Christian nation today, but that does not undermine the historical reality of the Christian story line. Canada was birthed, from its earliest inception, in a belief in the Christian God and a commitment to the principles of Bible law. Though little is written about that fact, and few textbooks or teachers in our schools allude to that, it is indeed the truth.

Our history is filled with heroes of the Christian faith who forged our mighty rivers, climbed our highest mountains, found ways to travel our land from east to west, and persevered through many difficult circumstances. They believed. They prayed. They dedicated land. They sacrificed their lives to see God’s laws become the law of the land. They prophesied into this great nation’s future. Did you know that?

Faytene C. Kryskow, a young woman with a passion for our nation, wrote a book entitled Stand on Guard. It is a must read for anyone who loves and prays for our nation. In it she reveals the results of her investigation into Canada’s “righteous history” and uncovers its “Biblical foundations.” Much of her research emerged from books covered in the dust of apathy right in the bastion of our national library.

Did you know, for example, that the earliest European settlers who planted their roots in this land were commissioned by the King of France to establish a Christian colony that would bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the First Nations? Some, like missionaries Jean de Brebeuf, gave their lives in martyrdom to establish a Biblical belief system in early Canada.

 

Did you know that the Fathers of Confederation clearly gave Jesus Christ access to the affairs of government? They chose the “Dominion of Canada” as this nation’s name directly from time spent in prayer and in the Bible, referring to Psalm 72:8 where David writes, “He (meaning God) will have dominion also from sea to sea.” Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, writing to the Queen of England explained that “the name was a tribute to the principles they earnestly desired to uphold.”

There are people alive today in Canada who believe that our nation has to be called back to its original, divine intention, the purpose for which it came into being as a nation. The early fathers of confederation had a godly dream for this nation, one that should be honored and respected from generation to generation.

Disrespect this spiritual and moral legacy, and Canada will suffer horrendous consequences for doing so. Reject God’s dominion, and this country will run the risk of dealing with its corporate rebellion. The degree to which Canada is reconciled to Canada’s original godly intention, the quicker Canadian society will be healed and its righteous foundations restored.

Maybe, just maybe, we need more Canadian men and women, youth and children, who carry a passion to see our nation become a righteous nation like Jerry Falwell carried for his. Unfortunately, and contrary to post-modern Canadian history, bringing faith into government today has become a politically incorrect act.

I know we cannot go back but we must choose carefully how we go forward!

 

Castanet Article
Thursday May 24th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

I have had the privilege of visiting our nation’s capital on numerous occasions over the years. Ottawa is an incredible place. A stroll down Confederation Boulevard is an experience in itself. Within a very short distance you can be introduced to some of Canada’s most valuable assets: the National Gallery, eight National Museums, the Royal Canadian Mint, or the National Library and its archives.

As I have walked the halls of these huge complexes, one is aware of their importance to Canada’s past, present and future. Police stand guard. Security cameras abound. Access in and out is monitored. One is constantly aware of the value Canada’s government places upon what is contained within their walls.

However, as valuable as these assets are, they do not, and never will, compare to the worth, the welfare or the potential of Canada’s children. Who is standing guard over this national treasure? What security is in place that would make our children truly safe within our borders? Who is monitoring the potential threats to their welfare?

The Canadian government introduced Bill C-22, “Age of Protection” on June 22nd, 2006. The intent was clear: protect Canada’s children from sexual exploitation of adults. The Bill was debated in the fall of 2006, and then sent to the Justice Committee for consideration. That sounded all fine and dandy until I read that the Bill was created to raise the age of consent to engage in sexual activity to 16 years of age.

I thought, “If it has to be raised, where is the age of consent at now?” I was shocked to hear that it currently stood at 14 years of age, one of the lowest ages of consent on the planet, and well below the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child standard of 18 years of age. Did you hear that? 18!

As of this writing, Canadian law permits a child of 14 to consent to sexual activity with someone older than him or her, no matter the age of their partner. The new law raises the age to 16, with a close in age exception of five years regarding consensual intercourse with 14-15 year olds. This means that, under the new law, no one over the age of 19 or 20 will be allowed to have sex with young teenagers.

I am blessed with seven grandchildren, three of whom are beautiful young granddaughters. The law, even at the new levels, makes “children who are facing an emerging sexuality” called puberty vulnerable to child prostitution, child pornography and child abuse. “Consensual” sex between minors does not necessarily mean that they are responsible and well-informed, or even aware of the long-term ramifications of their actions.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, an organization representing 40 denominations, wrote in a submission to the Justice Committee, “Many rights and responsibilities accrue to Canadians at the age of 18. Lifestyle choices which entail some risk, such as purchasing cigarettes or alcohol, are regulated according to age and prohibited for those in their early to mid-teens. Other activities, which require mature forethought and responsibility, such as operating a motor vehicle, are similarly prohibited for those considered too young.”

Where was the logic behind 14? Who postulated this for our kids?

It is amazing – no, astounding – to me that three other groups (Egale, Canadian Federation for Sexual Health (Planned Parenthood), and the Canadian Aids Society) all lobbied against the bill to raise the age of consent. They also lobbied that the government lower the age of consent for anal sex from 18 to 16.

Had that amendment been added (which it wasn’t – it was thrown out), and if the bill had passed (it is still in process), then not only would this Bill have increased the age of sexual consent to 16 (good) but it would have decreased the age of consent for anal sex to 16. A Bill focusing on protecting our nation’s youth from exploitation could quickly have become a Bill advocating anal sex with minors. Go figure!

Who are these people? What is going on in their minds? Where is responsible thinking here? What health physical, sexual or medical stats do they have to support their argument? Everything – and I mean everything – that I have read tells me that premature sexual involvement in young teens leads to many unhealthy life and lifestyle consequences. These organizations are certainly not the ones I want to be guarding over my grandchildren’s mental, emotional and sexual futures.

Bill C-22 was debated in the House on May 3rd and was passed unanimously in the House on May 4th, 2007. That is great news. Someone up there is standing guard. It now goes to the Senate. Maybe they will do their duty and stand on guard for our children too. Here’s hoping!

Canadians need to step up to the plate, and be looked up to as a world leader in protecting its greatest national asset, its children, from sexual exploitation. Canada must not allow legal loopholes to exist that permit our nation to become a haven for pedophiles, child pornographers, and Internet sexual predators.

We will have our children to answer to!

 

Castanet Article
Thursday May 17th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column

For our nation of Canada to remain strong and free Canadians must take their duty to “stand on guard” seriously. That is the responsibility of young and old alike, professional and blue collar worker, single mom and family man, student and member of parliament, minister and immigrant. If all of us do our job, there will be enough ears to hear, eyes to see, and minds to protect and guard over our Canada.

What bothers me is this: it appears that we all think someone else is doing the job of standing guard. What was supposed to be everyone’s responsibility in general has slowly evolved into becoming no one’s responsibility in particular. As a result, the doors have been left open to the Canadian house, and for many Canadians, there is this sense of vulnerability.

Is it possible that some who have been guarding our nation’s life and future have sounded the alarm over the years, and we have apathetically turned over in our beds and hit the snooze button? If so, our slumber in the time of danger is going to cost us plenty. Drifting, when we should be swimming, can result in being taken where we may not want to go.

Have those who have been commissioned to “stand on guard” for our nation been sleeping on the job? Or, is it a possibility that the wrong guards have been appointed to their post? Something’s wrong – too many things are slipping by our sentries. Who is guarding the guards? Who holds them accountable?

A lawyer recently commented on CBC Radio that free speech in Canada was not an absolute right. That’s funny. Doesn’t Section 2 (b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms state that “Everyone has the following freedoms:…freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including the freedom of the press and other media of communication, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association.”

The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court has attempted to provide guidelines for the Canadian community as to what values are worthy of protection, and what defines the scope of the expression of those values. Much has been written about the judiciary’s role in Canadian society. Some are feeling that their “guarding” of our rights has been detrimental, that a judocracy – rule by the Supreme Court, is replacing a democracy – rule by the people – in our land.

When Parliament passed what the religious right called a ‘chill bill,’ effectively preventing churches from using the Bible to preach against homosexuality, the Catholic Civil Rights League wrote: “With the passage of Bill C-250, Canada has now embarked upon a course of criminalization of dissent.” Many are feeling that members of Parliament had left their posts and were not “standing on guard” either!

Do we have to be reminded that unless free speech is guarded, someone or some group of people, may come in and remove it from our nation? And, if they were successful in gaining entry in one situation to take precious rights, is it possible that they may return again for some other precious right?

In 2001, the Newspaper Guild in Canada had to fight a gag order imposed upon its journalists. Journalists gave a warning of what they saw as a real potentiality in our great country: “If we as journalists don’t fight every attempt at censorship and thought control, this country will gradually lose its democratic freedoms.”

I guess the real question is, ‘Do we really care?’ We tend not to care until not caring hurts us personally. We need to care ahead of time. It is very possible that we have entered the battlefield of what may become the costliest battle in Canadian history, and it will have to do with our personal right to freedom of speech.

We as Canadians need to wake up and get up. It is a time to watch, pray and be willing to fight for freedoms that were purchased in the blood of fathers and sons. Freedom of speech is the inherent human right to voice one’s opinion without fear of censorship or punishment. That right is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In Article 19, it is stated that “everyone has the right to opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” International law protects that same liberty through the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Our Charter has limited free speech under certain situations, subjecting it to “such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society” (Section 1). I guess a reasonable question would be this: who determines what is justified?

Who’s on guard for Canada? Are you willing to take your post? Do you know what to look for as regards illegal entry? What are you willing to do to protect this nation’s destiny? The doorways into our nation’s heart and conscience need to be guarded: will you be trained for this vital assignment?

 

Castanet Article
Thursday May 9th, 2007
Oh! Canada! Column