Watch your mouth!

One of the very first things that caught my eye when I first came to visit Pembroke a couple of years back was the sign that proudly boasts, “The prettiest little city in Canada.” Small towns and cities take great pride in beautification projects but beauty isn’t just all about the flowers and buildings and such.

A Fox News article on the web caught my eye a couple of weeks back. A lady from a small town like ours was involved in a “Communities in bloom” type competition when some folks came by, just a cussing. This poor elderly lady tried to deal with the issue directly and was met with additional profanity. The police chief managed to rally the town to vote 183-50 on a law to impose a $20 fine on any profane language.

The problems are obvious as enforcing this law in any pretty little city in Canada would be like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun. We are the generation of parents that have encouraged our kids to exalt entertainment to the highest priority without any mind to the profaneness of what they are watching. Basically, Hollywood has taught our kids to cuss, and they are both very good at it.

I certainly understand the problem. I was a foul mouthed kid!

I will never forget the night that one of my friend’s parents took me on. I was playing competitive Little League baseball for Brockville and we had just won the Provincial Senior Little League Championships and were on our way to Calgary for the National finals. Apparently I was cussing up a storm at our victory celebration and Mrs. Garvey, our host, went to the laundry room, got herself a handful of Tide soap, grabbed me around the neck and jammed that handful of soap into my mouth. I have told that story literally around the world. She made an impression!

When I became a devoted follower of Jesus as a young adult, one of the immediate changes in my life, was I could no longer swear. I went to bed one night and got up in the morning and I could never and have never ever taken the Lord’s name in vein again. This was a great change from my teenage and university years as I was trilingual: English, French and profanity. That is one of the things that happens to us “Born again types.” (At least it is supposed to)

I find it strange these days that people find it so easy to curse and curse publicly with all the political correctness around. I was at a football game in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago and a “Football Mom” type, an attractive one at that, was commenting on the current state of things on the field and blurted out an F-bomb as a descriptor for the coaches negative performance. After that she looked like a “Pig in a party dress” to me.

I am not suggesting we should impose a law against cussing, but I am suggesting that everyone who holds the name of Jesus in high esteem and who does not want to hear the F-bombs at public events hold people to a higher standard. This is especially true in your work places.

I know what I am talking about here. As a Federal Government (Canada Post) head office employee, I took on a Senior Executive over his language one day in a public meeting. He had used Jesus name in vein for the last time, when I was around at least. I called him on it to which he replied, “I will say whatever I want in this place,” to which I answered, “Oh no you won’t!”

Of course Human Resources sent out the “Girl in the white coat” to see if I had lost my mind. Middle managers just don’t take on executives in an environment like that. I explained to them that our organization had “language protected” every single identifiable minority on the planet so why not the Christians?

The Human Resources lady finally said, “What do you want?” I asked her to have the V.P. Human resources send out a letter to clean things up, that an article is put in our employee magazine creating awareness of the problem and that training materials be revisited and this cursing God thing be dealt with. All three things were done!

A short time later, I was riding the elevator with a group of executives that did not know me and one of them blurted out a curse word. He stopped himself, turned to his companions and said, “I better watch myself, you never know who might be listening in.” If he only knew!

That was in 1998 and I am not sure if there was any lingering benefit to my corporate language challenge, but I did my part.

I was in a friend’s classroom a few months back and he had posted a sign, “Gay is not an adjective.” He is right, but Jesus name is not a good expression of anger either. Try cussing Mohammed and the Muslims will fix you quick!

Terry Burns is the pastor of Pembroke Pentecostal Tabernacle. The members and Board of the Tabernacle would share this opinion!

Terry welcomes your comments at thevalleypulpit@gmail.com

A Canary in a Coal Mine

Have you ever heard of the expression, “A canary in a coal mine?”

The phrase comes from an early mining industry practice. A canary, as many of you may well know, is small yellow bird that has a very high metabolism and breathes very quickly. When placed in a mine, a canary would succumb to a toxic environment quickly alerting miners to get to safety when the air becomes poisonous.

When we look at the current human rights situation in Canada, we could learn from Michael Horowitz who, when looking at the historical treatment of European Jews described them as "canaries in the coal mine."

What he and other freedom watchers concluded is that nations persecuting Jews held less democratic commitment and were more likely to deny other freedoms as well. He later argued that vulnerable “Christians are now the canaries!”

On February 17, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against a Quebec family who appealed to the Court over the issue of parental rights to determine who should have the final say over the religious instruction of their children.

The case was a reaction to the implementation of a mandatory religion and culture course for all students in grades one through eleven in the Province of Quebec. The plaintiffs, practicing Catholics, appealed to have their children removed from this mandatory teaching. Both the School Board of Chenes and the Quebec Superior Court denied their request.

This is a quote from the program preamble: "The Ethics and Religious Culture program constitutes the culmination of a long process during which the Quebec school system has shifted away from essentially confessional structures and orientations-both Catholic and Protestant-to entirely non-religious structures."

This all might sound good to a liberal secularist, but not so fast everyone!

What results from the reasoning of the Quebec government is that if a moral view proceeds from a religious faith, it is not to be heard in the public realm!  

At the root of the argument is something called "non-inclusive secularism" or the freedom of religion for every religious individual and group by recognizing an "equality" of all religions and denying the unique and exclusive claims of any religious belief system?

What is extremely dangerous here is that once again, the State will indoctrinate children on matters of religion and potentially undermine the true intellectual foundation of the religion in the pursuit of good citizenship and at the expense of “reality” let alone of truth?

We are in the process of repatriating Omar Khadr back to Canada from Guantanamo Bay prison. Khadr is the Canadian Citizen that killed an American medic attempting to treat wounded terrorists on a battlefield in Afghanistan. This radicalized fifteen year old was on a battlefield in Afghanistan at fifteen rather than in a classroom in Ontario.

Who the heck is going to point out how this kid got radicalized and why?

The point I am trying to make here is that even if the State suggests that Islam is the same as and equal to Catholicism or Protestantism, it just is not true! Our very legal system and philosophy is Judeo-Christian and not jihadist in nature.

The writers of our legal systems were in essence “Christian fundamentalists,” not radicalized jihadists. Our legal system has served us well, sharia law will not and sharia law and the Islamization of all societies is a stated aim of fundamentalist Islamists. Is Quebec going to pretend that it isn’t?

If our school systems are going to touch the subject of religion at all, it needs to be done with academic integrity and rigorously and not with some sham social engineering scheme in the name of good citizenry.

If my prediction is right, Omar will probably be attending University in Canada as a free citizen in a couple of short years. (He probably didn’t get educated at Gitmo) You can debate all day long whether he was a child soldier or terrorist. I would certainly like to hear him recant his radicalism and ask for forgiveness of the Canadian people for his, and his family’s betrayal of everything we stand for.

I watch the troop buses go down highway 17 in front of my house and each and every time, I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes understanding that these kids might not come home because of religious radicalization of people like Khadr. Islam is not the same as Christianity nor are its ultimate aims.

Sure, there are many Christian nut jobs out there too, but you have all had the freedom to call them what they are and you should have this freedom. Can you say the same thing about other world religions? If the Quebec situation spreads to the rest of Canada, you sure won’t.

The Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiff on a technicality and not on parental rights. The case will be coming up again. I am going to be speaking out; I have no intention of becoming a canary!

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