I am grateful for this opportunity to pay tribute to Peter G. Dueck, who passed away February 10 in Vancouver. Peter was a business person par excellence, family person and deeply committed Christian. As one who played a role in the founding of BC Christian News, which served a large segment of the Christian community for 28 years, until January 2011, I had the opportunity of working with Peter. He was a member and sometime board chair of Christian Info Society, publishers of BCCN. I was … [Read more...]

“When I carve on this pole, I let go of my anger and my hurt,” Isadore Charters says. “The new me comes out because I know that people are trying to help and not just trying to forget.” Charters is talking about a unique project that grew out of a local church Sunday school class and may have important implications for cross-cultural relations in Canada. In studying various contemporary issues, the Journeys class at Sardis Community Church in Chilliwack, B.C., became aware of the … [Read more...]

“Let us pray”… for the Montreal Canadiens. On Thursday morning, the local Catholic Church placed full-page advertisements in Montreal newspapers imploring residents to pray for the Canadiens to make the playoffs. The ads show the current NHL Eastern Conference standings, except in the 8th and final playoff spot, where the Canadiens hope to be, it says “prions,” which translated means let us request or let us pray. To make the playoffs, the struggling Montreal Canadiens are going … [Read more...]

It is OK to appreciate the New England Patriots, even if you don’t like them. I had a conversation with a friend the other week about how much an athlete’s likability influenced our ability to appreciate their skill. The conversation revolved around Kobe Bryant – one of the most polarizing and greatest NBA players of his generation – but you could easily insert a dozen different athletes (Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc.) into the same conversation. What is … [Read more...]

Vancouver, BC — (January 17, 2012) Regent College is pleased to announce that Bruce Hindmarsh, the James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College, has been appointed as the incoming President of the American Society of Church History. The appointment began on January 1, 2012, and finishes on December 31, 2014, and includes one year as President-Elect and another year as Past-President. Dr. Hindmarsh’s responsibilities include planning the program for the 2013 annual … [Read more...]

During Crown Attorney Gerard Laarhuis's cross-examination of alleged quadruple murderer Tooba Yahya, the prosecutor claimed that her husband Mohammad Shafia, and their son Hamed were responsible for carrying out the "honour killings" of sisters Zanaib, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti, 13, along with their stepmother Rona Amir Mohammad. Tooba was questioned about her daughters clashes with their father over western values and about the relationship she had with "co-wife" Rona. At one point, Tooba told the … [Read more...]

Jefferson Bethke has created quite a lot of controversy since uploading the spoken word poem "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" onto youtube. Although the video has only been up for two days, it has gotten over 2 million views. In the video Bethke asks questions such as, "What if I told you Jesus come to abolish religion?" and "If Jesus came to your church, would they even let him in?" He also critiques religion and ponders why Christians "build huge churches" but "fail to feed the … [Read more...]

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced last fall that the Conservative Government will open an Office of Religious Freedom. That decision has led some critics to suggest that the Conservatives are blurring the lines between church and state, that they are more concerned about Christianity than other religions and that they did not consult a wide enough range of religious communities. Don Hutchinson, director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada … [Read more...]

On Sunday night, Tim Tebow the starting Quarterback for the Denver Broncos led his team to a 29-23 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The win also created a firestorm of social media output — Tebow's actions set a new record for tweets generated by a sports moment at 9,420 tweets per second. This new record managed to beat out other major moments in pop culture history including the Royal Wedding (3,966), the Bin Laden Raid (5,106), Steve Jobs Death (6,049), and pop star … [Read more...]