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Stories about the "Jesus freak" "sleeping bag killer":

Sleeping bag killer
At the time, Burgess was a 25-year-old draft dodger from New Jersey living on the beach. He had a reputation for being a "Jesus freak" and after the murder, left all his possessions behind at his nearby campsite, including a Bible with the name Job Weeks on an inside page. The only item missing was his rifle. Burgess had reportedly complained to people before the murder that he didn't approve of a young unwed Christian couple living on the beach together.
Vancouver Sun, July 21

Four-decade manhunt ends in bloodshed
That Mr. Burgess was a religious zealot figured in the aftermath of the 1972 slaying of a young couple on a Tofino beach. Though sharing a tent, Leif Carlsson, an exchange student from Sweden, and Ann Durrant, a student at the University of British Columbia, were not married -- a fact police believe offended Mr. Burgess's perverted religious sensibility. Police say he killed them with a .22-calibre rifle, shooting them both point blank in the head as they slept.
Globe and Mail, July 22

Stories about gay-pride parades and the Tory caucus:

Tories reject funding for Montreal gay festival
A gay and lesbian arts festival that was told it met all government criteria under a new tourism stimulus program learned Tuesday it was rejected for funding. The news arrived at Montreal's Divers-Cite a few weeks after tension swept the Conservative caucus over funding for Toronto's Pride week, and just days before the beginning of the event.
Canadian Press, July 21

Minister defends decision not to fund gay arts festival
Industry Minister Tony Clement says his government had to consider "regional fairness" when doling out stimulus money to big tourism events - and that's why a gay arts festival in Montreal didn't make the cut.
Canadian Press, July 22

Earlier: Ablonczy, Trost and Pride

Stories about Islam and the West:

Europe's Islamic culture
How the Muslim world can help the West
Philip Marchand, National Post, July 18

Syed Mumtaz Ali, 82: Lawyer led fight for religious arbitration
Muslim visionary 'believed in the promise of multiculturalism'
Toronto Star, July 21

Muslims and evangelicals agree on one thing: homosexuality
What ties these religious rivals together on this issue -- even while they separate dramatically on politics, with white evangelicals staunchly backing the Republicans and Muslims joining Jews in strongly supporting the Democrats in the 2008 election?
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 21

Canada's new Taliban-booster says good Muslims 'love death'
"Long live the Taliban" might seem an unlikely thing for a prominent anti-war figure to declare, but that's today's peace movement for you. Stranger still, the man who recently uttered those words, Azzam Tamimi, is a central figure in a new Toronto-based institute that is embarking upon what it describes as a national campaign to cultivate wholesome, faith-based civic virtues among Canada's young Muslims.
Terry Glavin, Full Comment, National Post, July 21

Jihad rules! Jews suck!
Three years ago I was looking at web postings by young Muslim women married to young Muslims allegedly flirting with terrorism. (Dubbed the "Toronto 18," charges were dropped against some, one pleaded guilty and others are yet to be tried.) What struck me wasn't the women's hatred for the West and its ways, but that it was expressed almost entirely in the idiom of the culture that was its target. The odious sisterhood chatted on the Internet almost exclusively in English -- pretty idiomatic English, actually. In their web postings, the young women revealed themselves, quite unconsciously, as typical products of the Canadian society that was the object of their venom.
George Jonas, National Post, July 22

Continue article >>

Sheltering hate while preaching tolerance among Canadian Muslims
It's all for the sake of our edification, and for the sake of some elucidation of fascinating revivals and reform movements down through Islamic history, says the Al-Fauz Institute for Islamic Thought, about which I reported here yesterday. So, for the sake of fairness, and for the sake of argument, let's begin by giving the Al-Fauz institute the benefit of the doubt.
Terry Glavin, Full Comment, National Post, July 22

University picks an extremist to teach 'Islamic values'
You want to help inform Canadian students about what Islam is really about and create the leaders of the future, so you bring in "the shrewdest Hamas propagandist in the English-speaking world". What could possibly go wrong?
Jonathon Narvey, Full Comment, National Post, July 22

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past week:

The gift of forgiveness
Gary and Lynda Stevenson say their faith is stronger now than before Gary was seriously injured by a bomb, left gift wrapped on the couple's back step, exploded in his hands last November.
Langley Times, July 16
Earlier: Campus for Christ worker victim of bomb

Why Anglican church (and Jews and Catholics) support homosexuals
Anglicans are far more gay-positive than the general North American population, suggests a poll. As Vancouver-area Anglicans await the judge's ruling on a court dispute over who controls four valuable church properties, a surprising poll shows that North American Anglicans are more gay-supportive than the population as a whole.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 17
Earlier: Anglicans in divorce court over property

Home in the Chaco
70 years later, Canadian Mennonites are thriving in Paraguay's outback
National Post, July 18

'No one should be forced to give up their child.'
United Church minister Matt Gallinger wants what every other new parent does -- to raise his baby girl at home. But this common desire may be out of reach for Gallinger and his wife, Ioulia. During delivery, Ioulia's uterus suddenly ruptured, a life-threatening occurrence for mother and daughter.
Toronto Star, July 20

The problem with encyclicals
Would you think me strange for admitting that I think often of dead popes? Well, I do. Reading Caritas in Veritate, the latest encyclical from the very much alive Pope Benedict XVI, got me to thinking about some of the dead popes of the last century or so.
Robert Ventresca, Holy Post, National Post, July 20
Earlier: Stories about the Roman Catholic Pope's latest encyclical

Mysterious Qumran finally reveals some secrets to 21st-century voyeurs
The crowds move slowly through the soft, muted light at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum exhibit of the Dead Sea scrolls. They are focused, mesmerized, reading every word on display. As intense, perhaps, as peeping toms.
Globe and Mail, July 21
Earlier: Stories about the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum

When Kelly Hildebrandt met Kelly Hildebrandt
Kelly Hildebrandt is marrying Kelly Hildebrandt this fall. That's what happens when you search your own name on Facebook and your soulmate pops up. . . . The calls became daily marathons as they got to know each other. They were both Christians, raised with similar beliefs, which was important, he says.
Toronto Star, July 21

'Saint' harnesses power of hugs
Bliss is a hug from spiritual leader Amma -- one of more than 25 million she's given throughout her adult life -- and, according to her followers, it has the power to change your life. Or not. But one way or another, Amma's reach is unquestionable. Known as South India's "hugging saint," she has raised millions, having pledged $1 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and another $46 million to victims of the 2004 tsunami.
Toronto Star, July 21

July 24/2009