A response to Sal’s “Creationist support of eugenics and genocide in the past” - Denyse O'Leary

I posted this this morning at Uncommon Descent, and it features the work of another Canadian  Christian writer, Jane Harris Zsovan:

Thanks, Sal, for excellent sleuthing of creationist who supported eugenics.

It’s surprising, on the face of it, that any creationist would adopt eugenics; that amounts to saying that God regularly makes mistakes about the sort of people he creates.

That’s entirely different from saying that God regularly creates people we wish he hadn’t. His choice doesn’t make them a mistake because the world is not organized mainly to please us. J.R.R. Tolkien touches on this theme with the character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Everyone hates Gollum for good reason, even himself probably. But …

Frodo: It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.

Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

And so it proved.

The same would apply to dealing out sterilization. Not all creationists got the memo, it seems.

This area was actually documented here at UD a couple of years ago, in our interview series (links appended below) with Jane Harris, author of Eugenics and the Firewall, about the eugenics-based compulsory sterilization program in the Canadian province of Alberta, a program that was not actually abolished until the early 1970s:

Eugenics was widely accepted by the business, academic, medical and political establishment. Preachers – in evangelical and mainline churches – even preached it from the pulpit. One exception: Roman Catholics. And they were ridiculed for their ‘backwardness’ in not endorsing eugenic theory. Also, the Conservative Party in Alberta was the only party to consistently refuse to support eugenics legislation in Alberta after it was introduced.

Most of the lay folk who spearheaded such programs across North America were probably, in some conventional sense, creationists. It is fortunate that most creationists were far more concerned with improving sanitation and medical care, which did far more for the health of the population than eugenics ever could.

Eugenics and the Firewall: Interview with Jane Harris Zsovan I
Eugenics and the Firewall: Interview with Jane Harris Zsovan II
Eugenics and the Firewall: Interview with Jane Harris Zsovan III

A Matter of Concentration - M. Laycock

In his wonderful devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says - "Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ."

This makes me just a little bit uncomfortable. It makes me picture a doleful monk or severe nun, doing nothing but fasting and praying all day. I don't think that's what Oswald Chambers, or the Lord, intend. We are meant to live in this world, and live well. Living well means doing what Mr. Chambers says - have only one focus and that is to know and glorify Christ. Do that through all the other aspects and potential distractions of life, and you will live well indeed.

Easy to say. Not so easy to do. We don’t want to ‘narrow all our interests,’ we want to live life to its limit, experience it all. But often, when we’re out there ‘experiencing,’ we realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Often the things we’ve gotten ourselves wound up in don’t give us the satisfaction we thought they would. That's when it is all the more astounding to find that God has blessed anyway - blessed us, and others through us, even though we’ve been ignoring Him. His purposes are so far above ours, yet he invites us to be part of them in the midst of our foolishness.

This makes me think of the scene described in the Bible when John the Baptist points Jesus out to two men. They immediately scramble to follow him and when Jesus asks them what they want, they ask - "Rabbi, where are you staying?"

It’s hard to know exactly why they asked such a question, but I imagine they were surprised that Jesus spoke to them and were perhaps suddenly a bit tongue tied, as most of us would be if a celebrity we admire suddenly turned to us and asked us a question. I imagine Jesus smiled when he answered, "Come and see." (John 1:35-39)
It's a perfect example of God’s grace. Jesus doesn’t chide them for asking a silly question. He doesn’t ignore them or condescend. He extends an invitation. That’s exactly what happens to us, every day. We're scurrying around, concerned with all the unimportant things, madly trying to fill our lives up with unimportant pursuits, and Jesus turns to us, smiles, and invites us into His world, into His ministry, into His very home. He invites us to live well, with Him.

Then he opens all the doors for us, provides what we need, shows us the depth of His love and the joy we can have in His service. All we have to do is accept the invitation - go and see where Jesus lives. Once we have done that, “concentration on Jesus Christ,” focusing on worshiping and glorifying Him, becomes part of life, and life becomes a grand adventure.

****

Marcia Laycock writes from Alberta Canada. Visit her website to learn more about her writing/speaking/teaching ministry.

One Thousand Gifts - a review (Nesdoly)

Title: One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Author: Ann Voskamp
Publisher: Zondervan, February 2011, available in hardcover and Kindle editions
• ISBN-10: 0310321913
• ISBN-13: 978-0310321910
 

“They say memory jolts awake with trauma’s electricity. That would be the year I turned four. The year when blood pooled and my sister died and I, all of us, snapped shut to grace” (Kindle location 45).

In this early paragraph from One Thousand Gifts author Ann Voskamp relates her first memory – a tragic accident that overshadowed much of her life. Then she whisks us forward to her adult self, the wife of an Ontario farmer, a mother of six, and a fearful woman on a quest to understand and trust a God who would allow a baby to be snatched from her family.

Through vignettes from her life she takes us with her on the journey. It begins when she discovers the Greek word eucharisteo which embodies "giving thanks," "grace," and "joy." At about the same time a friend challenges her to list one thousand things for which she is thankful. She begins keeping a gratitude journal.

Along the way we rush to the ER with her and her son the day he mangles his hand, overhear her dealing with a hurting child, and feel her toe-clenching fear as hog prices plummet. Intertwined through these and other stories is what she learns about God and trust, fear, beauty, humility, service, and more.

Voskamp’s openness and vulnerability are moving. She buttresses her vivid storytelling and poetic prose with quotes from sources as varied as St. Augustine and John Piper. The rich text begs to be read slowly and savoured.

One Thousand Gifts is a powerful and convincing apologetic for thankfulness. It illustrates how the practice of gratitude can morph from a mere exercise of accumulating items on a list to a trusting, joyful lifestyle.

Ann Voskamp is a member of The Word Guild and blogs at A Holy Experience.

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

This review was first published in the March/April 2011 issue of Faith Today.

Website: www.violetnesdoly.com

• Personal blog promptings  
• Writerly blog Line upon line 
  
• Daily devotions for children Bible Drive-Thru
• Daily devotions for adults: Other Food: daily devos
• A poem portfolio

The Poetry of F.R. Scott — Martin

The following post, about Canadian poet F.R. Scott, is taken from my blog, Kingdom Poets, where you can become more familiar with dozens of the finest Christian poets and their work.

F.R. Scott (1899–1985) was a “first mover of Canadian poetry,” according to Louis Dudek. He was born in Quebec City, and went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. Scott studied law, and later became Dean of Law at McGill University. During the depression he became leftist in his political views, and became influential within the Canadian socialist movement. In 1970 he was offered a seat in the Canadian Senate, which he declined.

His credentials as a poet are equally impressive. F.R. Scott was the editor of such publications as McGill Fortnightly Review, The Canadian Mercury, and Preview — which helped him to initiate new poetry in Canada. He won the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 1981 for his Collected Poems. (In 1977 he’d already won the GG for nonfiction for his Essays on the Constitution.) Leonard Cohen recorded Scott’s poem “A Villanelle For Our Times” for his CD Dear Heather (2004) with musical accompaniment.

Unison

What is it makes a church so like a poem?
The inner silence – spaces between words?

The ancient pews set out in rhyming rows
Where old men sit and lovers are so still?

Or something just beyond that can’t be seen,
Yet seems to move if we should look away?

It is not in the choir and the priest.
It is the empty church has most to say.

It cannot be the structure of the stone.
Sometimes mute buildings rise above a church.

Nor is it just the reason it was built.
Often it does not speak to us at all.

Men have done murders here as in a street,
And blinded men have smashed a holy place.

Men will walk by a church and never know
What lies within, as men will scorn a book.

Then surely it is not the church itself
That makes a church so very like a poem,

But only that unfolding of the heart
That lifts us upward in a blaze of light

And turns a nave of stone or page of words
To Holy, Holy, Holy without end.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca

Book review: Duet for Wings and Earth by Barbara Colebrook Peace - Nesdoly

Title: Duet for Wings and Earth

Author: Barbara Colebrook Peace

Publisher: Sono Nis Press, September 2008, paperback, 64 pages

ISBN-10: 155039164X

ISBN-13: 978-1550391640

Duet for Wings and Earth is no ordinary collection of carol-derived rhymes or Christmas acrostics. In fact these modern Advent, Christmas and Epiphany poems by Barbara Colebrook Peace may permanently alter the lens through which you view the incarnation.

Begun in 2001 as a contribution to an annual concert, the collection of 21 poems explores Christmas from the viewpoints of God, the sheep, the moon, the Magi and more. Using poetic styles from free verse to pantoum and glosa, Peace gives us much to ponder.

In the first of three seven-poem sections, she sets incarnation’s stage. She imagines God’s song from before creation in mind-bending, cosmological thoughts of a time before time. Through Joseph’s and Mary’s songs we experience Jesus’ rich Jewish heritage.

Section two deals with events just prior to Jesus’ birth. “Song of Bethlehem” explains how Bethlehem is much more than “a circle / on a map.” “Song of the Inn,” a pantoum with repeating lines, echoes the innkeeper’s glib apologies.

Section three muses over the meaning of Christ’s birth. The poignant “Song of God: For Judas not yet born“ is followed by the final “Song of Mary: Light falls in parables” with lines that are a perfect sum-up of the book’s impact:

“… the song

I’ve been singing all my life

is a song about stretching

to enlarge my idea of you, and even

my idea of me…”

That’s what these mythical yet real, simple yet complex, accessible yet deep poems do. They retell the familiar story in a way that charms and woos us into a richer experience of the incarnation and its meaning.

Peace’s first book, Kyrie, was published in 2001. In June 2009, Duet for Wings and Earth won (tied with D. S. Martin’s Poiema) The Word Guild Canadian Christian Writing Award 2009 for Book - Special category.

Duet for Wings and Earth would make a fabulous gift for the lover of poetry on your Christmas list. Or purchase a copy as a resource for the person who plans the Christmas services at your church. Of course you'll also want one of your own.

Order through Amazon or Sono Nis press.

(This review was first published in the November/December issue of Faith Today.)

******************

Website: www.violetnesdoly.com
Personal blog promptings
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Listening with your mind and your heart - Lindquist

“Some people are uncoachable,” said the speaker, who was giving tips on mentoring others.

I nodded in agreement. I'd recently been thinking the same thing, and it was good to hear him affirm my thoughts.

Now, I've known for years that many people don’t want to be taught. But those aren't the ones he was referring to. He was talking about people who've actually come to you for advice and information.

The speaker said he tries very hard not to invest much time into a person who asks him a question and then doesn’t let him respond, or clearly ignores what he says, even if that person is offering to pay for his time. It's just not worth the frustration.

I totally agreed. Over the years, I’ve come across a number of people who, after coming to me for advice, clearly ignored my response. Oh, they may have let me get a few words out, but their body language and comments quickly led me to realize the question was simply an excuse for them to tell me what they thought was the right answer. I can only assume they wanted me to agree with them, and that was that. And when I didn't wholeheartedly agree, they wrote off everything I had to say. They weren't there to learn from me, but to get my affirmation for what they wanted to do, or maybe to impress me with their ideas.

It’s strange, really. I’ve never felt anyone has to ask for, accept, or act on my advice, but if they don’t even want to hear it, why waste my time by asking for it in the first place? Why not simply come and tell me what they think?

Let me give a fictitious example.

I find writers are some of the worst people for doing this. Especially new writers who have an idea (usually for a book).

So let's suppose I’ve just spoken to a crowd about some aspect of writing about your personal experiences. A person comes up and says to me, “I’m writing a book about my life. I was raised in a Christian home but I rebelled against God and my life was a mess. Then I became ill and prayed and God healed me. What do I need to do to get my book published?”

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that what most people asking this question want to hear is, “I know just the publisher for you! I’ll introduce you to the acquisitions editor, and I’m sure he'll be interested,” or “Just self-publish your book with X, and it will sell like wildfire.”

How likely is it that I’m going to say either of these things? 100% against. For starters, a good story is a dime a dozen. We all have at least one good story in us. But few of us know how to tell our story so well that others will take the time to read it, and fewer still know how to write with both creativity and excellence.

So my response is likely to contain titles of books they ought to read, joining The Word Guild, starting small with articles and stories and working up to a book, etc. Some people will listen and nod and ask great questions and go away with a few things to think about. Others will listen for a moment, but at the very first opportunity, they'll tell me they're going to go ahead and write the book their way and it will be a bestseller because God gave them the idea. Then they'll look at me as if daring me to disagree.

I used to waste my time and energy trying to help them understand the reality of the publishing industry. But eventually I learned it wasn't worth my time unless the other person was actually listening. Now, I just wish them good luck and move on to someone who actually wants my advice. It's so freeing to do that!

I used to feel that whenever I saw a need, it was up to me to try to meet that need. I always felt that I was the "responsible one." But I no longer feel that way. Maybe it has to do with getting older and realizing that my time is the most valuable thing I have, so I have to spend it very carefully.

And I also know that I have to stay coachable myself, because being uncoachable, or "having an unteachable spirit," as another person phrased it, is an all-too-common human characteristic, affecting everyone from the four-year-old who ignores her mother’s warning not to take the toy away from her baby brother, to the baseball player who won’t try his batting coach’s advice, to the doctor who won't listen to what the patient is trying to say. Any time we feel we feel we know everything we need to know about a topic, we’re in danger of becoming unteachable.

How do we avoid this?

By learning to set our own ideas aside for a time and listening with an open mind and a humble heart. We especially need to do this if we’ve asked someone for advice, if we’re talking to someone in authority over us or in a close relationship with us, or if we're with someone who might have first-hand insights into a topic we're learning.

If we assume we'll never know all there is to know about a subject, and go through life with teachable spirits, we’ll make new, amazing discoveries every day.


N. J. Lindquist is a popular inspirational speaker and the award-winning author of five coming-of-age novels for teens, two adult mysteries set in Toronto, and a regular column in Maranatha News, as well as the co-editor of Hot Apple Cider. She blogs at bluecollarwriter.com, offers advice for writers at writewithexcellence.com, and tweets at twitter.com/NJ_Lindquist