One word summarizes The Golden Compass, a movie based upon the first book of anti-Christian and pro-atheist children’s author Philip Pullman. This word is boring. I initially intended to avoid the movie. However, I had just co-authored Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children’s Fantasy (AtheismForChildren.com), a new book by Ignatius Press that forewarns parents and pastors about the spiritual dangers [...]
Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament by Randall Balmer (Basic Books, $19.50, 242 pp.) In 1925, Dayton’s town fathers saw an opportunity to bring national attention to their little burg in east Tennessee. They met with John Scopes, a supply teacher, to obtain his co-operation in challenging the state law introduced by [...]
Although he now lives in Canada, J.I. Packer, 81, has been named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the U.S. by Time magazine and is generally considered one of the most important theologians of the modern era. He was previously regarded as an informal arbiter among diverse evangelical churches after the publication of his 1973 book Knowing God, which outlined [...]
The Sisters of Life are a religious order founded in 1991 by the late Cardinal O’Connor of New York, who was convinced that there was a need for a religious order of women who would serve completely in pro-life ministry. In August, the Archdiocese of Toronto was blessed by the entrance of the Sisters of Life, who have established their first convent [...]
Billions of babies have been born during the past 2,000 years. A few of them, who happened to be of royal blood, had the privilege of having their birthdays celebrated with some pomp and ceremony in their own countries. With their deaths and the passage of time, not only have their birthdays, but the people themselves, been forgotten. There is but one [...]
As pro-life Christians welcoming the birth of our Saviour this Christmas, we can prayerfully contemplate the Gospel for a deeper understanding of how to build the culture of life in our contemporary society. In particular, Luke’s infancy narrative reveals certain clear needs of women, especially abortion-minded women such as those we counsel at Aid to Women. We need to rely on someone [...]
To the modern reader, the visit of the Wise Men can only be one more improbable detail in an already impossible story. And yet, every Christmas, no matter how secularized the season has become, the tableau of a caravan, crossing a desert and following a star, survives. What is it about these Wise Men, these kings, that still appeals to an un-Christian [...]
Canadian families as a whole are surviving – although not doing as well as before The headlines in papers and announcements from broadcasters on Stastics Canada’s report Family Portrait: Families, Marital Status, Households and Living Arrangementsdeclared the traditional family nearly dead. Reporters pointed to census data that shows for the first time in Canadian history, “more than one-half of the adult population [...]
He is Britain’s second-most popular children’s author. His books are bestsellers, have won numerous awards for literature and have received glowing reviews from all the fashionable newspapers. Critics hail him as a new Tolkien. His books pop up on many reading lists for young people and Hollywood is finishing the first film-adaptation of his most popular book – just in time for [...]
To a large extent, the recent election in Ontario was an utter waste of time. Democracy was shattered as one single issue was abused, exploited, caricatured and then used to frighten people into voting Liberal and re-electing a government that broke more promises than most in living memory. A shame and a sham. The issue, of course, was faith-based funding for schools [...]
Kitchener school board situation serves as a sterling example The elevation of an “open mind” to the status of an unchallengeable moral principle is, as a matter of plain fact, a perfect example of being closed-minded. Professor Allan Bloom made this point in his best-selling critique of higher education, The Closing of the American Mind, a book that offended a legion of [...]
“I’m not sure why your readers would want to read about me,” said the young priest. “I’m pro-life and pro-family, but I don’t lead any big movement. I’ve never written a best-selling book on the topic. I’m just a farm boy from the Ukraine who became a pastor of a small church.” Father Jaroslaw “Jerry” Lazoryk is well-known to Catholic pro-lifers in [...]
James Kennedy Evangelist D. James Kennedy has passed away at the age of 76. Kennedy founded one of the first mega-churches, the 10,000 member Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fl., and was a founder of the Moral Majority. He was an opponent of abortion and pornography and a supporter of prayer in school. Mark Tooley, of the Institute [...]
Women Alive will host tandem conferences in October. While Ontario’s Imagine Women’s Conference and Expo takes place at Toronto’s Crowne Plaza Hotel from Oct. 19-21, Alberta will host its conference Oct. 19-20 in Edmonton’s Mayfield Inn and Suites. “Imagine is designed to be a dynamic weekend experience for the spiritually hungry and those desiring to grow, be encouraged and inspired in their [...]
Who would have imagined we would see atheists outing fellow atheists for the supposed good of the country? Well, that is the thinking behind the new Richard Dawkins “OUT Campaign.” Dawkins, one of the foremost atheists of our day and author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, recently published a provocative piece on his website. InThe Out Campaign, he challenges atheists everywhere [...]