A Canadian PM with guts... imagine that!
It's about time our nation stands up and tells Israel "We've got your back".
Do I support starting another war? Not a chance. Do I support limited air strikes to prevent Iran from getting "the Bomb"?
You bet I do. And if this guy was your next door neighbour, and was messing around with enriching nuclear material, I think you would too.
Do I support starting another war? Not a chance. Do I support limited air strikes to prevent Iran from getting "the Bomb"?
You bet I do. And if this guy was your next door neighbour, and was messing around with enriching nuclear material, I think you would too.
Prime Minister's statement following remarks by President of Iran(no link on the PMO's website at present, will post when it's up)
April 15, 2006
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement following remarks made by the President of Iran:
"Canada vigorously condemns the recent call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the annihilation of Israel, and his continued denial of the holocaust. The Canadian people reject the hatred that underlies such appalling and irresponsible statements.
"It is particularly disturbing that these remarks are being made at a time when Iran is in serious violation of its international obligations with respect to nuclear non-proliferation.
"Canada continues to believe that these outrageous comments by the President of Iran do not reflect the traditions and values of the Iranian people."
posted by Christian Conservative @ 6:40 p.m.
8 Comments:
At Sun Apr 16, 11:39:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
"As our speaker said today, Christians don't check their brains out at the door of the church."
Certainly not: they leave them at home, locked in the safe, so as to prevent serious damage while they're at church.
At Mon Apr 17, 07:34:00 a.m. EDT,
Anonymous said…
Go Blake. :D
At Tue Apr 18, 09:14:00 a.m. EDT,
Christian Conservative said…
So Blake, I take it that you're directing that comment at Yours Truely as well? ;-)
At Tue Apr 18, 11:33:00 a.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
Not directing the comment at Christians, but churches. So, if Mine Truly is the kind of person who locks his brain in a safe before going to church, I'd applaud him or her for being a wise individual, saving his or her brain from immeasurable harm.
(Dude, come on now, be honest: it's not like most churches are bastions of reasoned discussion, intellectual fairness, and intellectual honesty. I'm not saying Christians are all riding a short bus, wearing bike helmets and licking the windows, but let's not kid ourselves here. And, on that point, let's not forget that Mine Truly has also attended a church where speakers have condemned entire denominations to an eternity of hell, while not seeing it worth their time to fairly represent that denomination's beliefs.)
At Tue Apr 18, 10:53:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
"Generalities like 'most churches'can be a very offensive statement."
Okay, where do I begin with this...probably with the blatant double-standard. Do most evangelicals/evangelical institutions care about "offensiveness" when the target is gays, secularists, Muslims, South Park or Comedy Central? No, they do not. It only becomes an issue when they themselves get panned, and then "offensiveness" becomes an issue. (I notice nobody thought my line about Justin Trudeau - that Ron Jeremy had more big entries in his life than this guy -was offensive enough to merit correction.)
"For me personally, I am thankful for the congregation that I meet with on most Sundays and some other days of the week."
That's great! I used to have that myself.
"Since i have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I have come to realize there is no 'perfect' place to meet for prayer and worship."
I, as well, have a personal relationship with Christ. Maybe not as deep as it was, but I am trusting in Him for salvation. And I'm not expecting perfection, just intellectual honesty.
For the record, I do not consider Christian equivocation of sins, errors, and flaws in Churches to be intellectual honesty.
"I find negative comments about any congrgation offensive especially by believers."
I guess a couple of books of the Bible skipped your attention, notably, Galatians and the Corinthian epistles. Or, you know, anything Luther wrote. Or Bonhoeffer, for instance. The list goes on. (Yes, Germans are unsavoury people, but the list goes on.) For the record, Christian people individually are normally fine people: get them in groups and a different dynamic emerges.
"You will never find a perfect congregation, you don't have to, but we do need each other."
See, nobody here is talking about perfection. But the thing is, if you're willfully blind to the sins and errors of churches, the battle's lost.
I just spent most of the past week exchanging emails with an old classmate of mine from kindergarten to high school. She emailed me out of the blue (apparently, I appeared to her in a dream), and she told me about her experiences in leaving Christianity. I was so devestated by what I heard, I spent an hour crying, alone, in my car. And I'm just about where she's at right now. And the typical "Christian" response is to point the finger at someone like this individual and say she was deceived or somehow imperfect, when it never would have happened without the abject stupidity of the Church. And does the Church step up and own their problems? Nope, they're swept under the carpet, we get ton upon ton of equivocation and finger-pointing and, "at least we're not as bad as..." and nothing changes.
Sorry, my patience is through. It's about time the church starts to reap some of the hurt and pain it's heaped upon others. If it begins with what I say here, it begins here. I'm more than happy to be used a foil.
At Wed Apr 19, 06:01:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
Vicki, with all due respect, that's a non-response. All I asked is that the Church should be accountable and responsible for its actions, and should admit its flaws. That's not much of a measuring-stick, and it's one that the Church should be comfortable with, as opposed to attempting to sweep its sins under a carpet and pretend they don't exist.
When that happens, you end up with people like my long-lost acquaintance here who wouldn't ever darken the door of a church again. And I'm almost right there with her. And instead of accountability, we get equivocation.
You just spent months cheerleading a political party that made accoutnability a big plank, and no doubt spent much time harping on the Liberal's total lack thereof, as you would be right to. But now, when it comes time to take your measuring stick and hold it to the Church, oh, no, can't do that: she's privileged, she gets a free pass, no matter how many people she's stepped on or wounded. That's a double-standard.
At Wed Apr 19, 09:39:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
So, for instance, the Roman Catholic church should not have addressed those priests who were molesting children, because they're "accountable to God"? Who isn't accountable to God? Isn't Paul Martin? Isn't Stephen Harper? Isn't Blake? Isn't Vicki? I think so. So why do we throw a blanket of immunity over ourselves only in certain settings? Obviously, it makes no sense. It makes a mockery of prophetic and corrective biblical literature and just plain common sense.
"The Only Perfect One died on the cross for me, The imperfect believers did not."
Is that at issue? Did I say that Christians are vicarious saviours for me? No, in fact, I didn't. Does our loyalty to Jesus somehow demand we explain away sins committed in His name? I don't think so, yet that seems to be what you're saying. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding.
Your entire presentation, if I'm understand you correctly (and I think I am) is still a logical fallcy, called, "special pleading": you're arguing that the rules for the rest of the world are not in play for the Church. As long as that is the case, the Church will never open its eyes to its problems and say, "We're the Church, we're untouchable." Problem is, God doesn't think that's the case, and I'm fearful for the "touch" it's gonna get soon.
At Wed Apr 19, 11:49:00 p.m. EDT,
Blake Kennedy said…
You, too.
Ga 3:1
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