I have to confess that for most of my life, I’ve never really seriously considered the issue of abortion. Of course I knew the “Christian position” on it, and so I just generally accepted that. I was wrong to do so. I just recently watched a video by a pro-life group called Abort73(.com). I was horrified to find out what abortion really is like. I’m going to repost it here, but warn that it is really graphic…

I don’t think anyone who watches this video should ever consider abortion a religious issue, but a serious contemporary moral issue. Abortion is just wrong. I seriously can’t believe that anyone could ever think other wise.

I have this very unorthodox way of making political predictions. I don’t exactly look at what the rest of the pundits – professionals, and bloggers alike – do. Sometimes outcomes are quite obvious. This past Canadian Federal election was one of them (the only question was whether it was going to be a Conservative Minority or Majority, to which I went along with the popular prediction of a minority). Other times, it had been obvious until some unimaginable turning point in which an underdog came up the victor. The Liberal leadership race of 2006 was an example of this, when Stephane Dion beat out two heavy favorites, Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae. And yet other times, it’s just a toss up either or (though it’s never really a toss up and eventually one side emerges as the favourite). The Democratic primaries are an example of this.

Anyway. As I said before I sometimes base my decisions on factors that are unusual. And sometimes
this has lead me to make a prediction against the popular prediction. A major example of this is the Liberal leadership race when basically up until the night before everyone was making their choices for either Ignatieff or Rae (even my favourite political pundits like Chantel Hebert and Andrew Coyne predicted one of these two). I on the other hand could not foresee either of them winning. Ignatieff parachuted out of nowhere, while Bob Rae decimated the Ontario Liberals in the 1990’s as leader of the NDP. So I went against the popular predictions and said that it was a toss up between Gerard Kennedy and Stephane Dion, with Stephane Dion being my final prediction. Why? Because of this obscure tradition that Liberal leaders alternate between French Canadian, and English Canadians. And it was the French Canadian’s turn. Guess what. I turned out to be right: http://excelstillmore.ca/2006/12/03/i-was-right/

Anyway. I made another one of these bold predictions during the Democratic primaries. In February, I predicted that Obama would win (I’m sure at this time it was still a toss up.. it wasn’t until like March or April when Obama started becoming the clear favourite)… http://excelstillmore.ca/2008/02/24/clinton-vs-obama/ My reasoning was based on the “historic-ness” of the race. Either a Woman, or a Black Man was going to be a major party’s presidential candidate. I picked Obama because historically, Blacks received political rights before women. Most specifically blacks were emancipated (one major aspect of which is the right to vote) around the 1860s while women did not get this right until a hundred years later in the 1960’s. Weird huh? But I was right. Obama won the presidency.

Anyway. given my record for bold predictions. I figure I really should quit while I’m ahead. After all I’m not a political science major anymore. But alas I cannot resist. And as you can see from the title of this post, I predict a McCain victory.

Why?

One thing people focus on is historicness… This is historic no matter what – either a black man becomes president, or a woman becomes vice president. And based on my other prediction, then I should predict Obama right? Wrong. Frankly I don’t understand why Sarah Palin has received so much attention, except for the fact that she’s a woman, and that she’s kind of hot. Other than that, the Vice Presidency is basically a useless office. John Adams, the very first Vice President of the United States wrote: “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” And yes of course the vice president is only 1 office removed from the presidency. But when was the last time that happened? Gerald Ford was the last Vice President to succeed to the Presidency, and that was more than 30 years ago.

Anyway. Based on this, let me just make it clear that I believe this race to be very much between Obama and McCain. And the only history that will be made is if Obama wins.

Having said that. In my opinion, McCain will win because of 2 things. 1. Race is still not a settled issue in the United States. Sad I know. But fact. The thing with that is that because racism is illegal and politically incorrect, it brews just under the surface, and really nagates much of the polls that happen now. One of the popular opinions about the polls is that most white people who say they’re going to vote for Obama will actually vote for McCain. And that most of the undecided voters will vote for McCain.

Second reason is experience vs. rhetoric. I think that during uncertain times (not so much economics, but every thing … the entire future of the US is uncertain because so many major issues are coming up), the people are more likely to vote for experience rather than rhetoric. While Obama makes you feel good, McCain makes you feel safe. This was true too during the Democratic primaries when support flip flopped between Clinton who has extensive experience, and Obama.

Finally, people who think that McCain is going to loose because of his connection with Bush are wrong. I think that (1) as much as the world hates Bush, they don’t realize that he maintains huge support in the US. But most importantly, (2) those people who don’t support Bush can tell the difference between him and McCain despite them coming from the same party.

Phew. Anyway. There are just 2 factors that will affect this. The Black vote, and the Youth vote. If these two groups of people actually vote, my prediction will be wrong. I think most Blacks will vote. Unfortunately, Obama needs both sets to win, and I’m am incredibly skeptical that youth will actually go out and vote. The numbers for the advance polls are indication of this – turnout was already low.

Alright so my prediction is made. Tonight we shall find out if I am right like before or if I should have quit while I’m ahead. For what it’s worth, I’m not a hundred percent sure on this prediction. I have this gut feeling that I’m wrong. But my reasoning, wholly un-political scientific as it is, has served me well before. John McCain will be elected as the next President of the United States.

The following is a “Take Home Mid-Term” for my class, Christianity and Music (SMC206). The assignment was to write a “magazine article” in response to a fictional scenario in which the musical direction of my church is being question. I was of course to make use of the scholarly sources from the course. So it does still read a little like an academic paper. Nonetheless, I thought it was really cool so I’m putting it up here…

Take Home Assignment

Christianity and Music (SMC206)

Professor Michael O’Connor

October 8, 2008

It is no secret that music has become very important to the congregation at Morningstar Christian Fellowship. The Worship Ministries Division of our church has the largest budget of all our ministries, employing a staff of three and an army of volunteers. Those involved spend many hours rehearsing every week because as much as twenty to thirty minutes, up to one third, of our services are usually devoted to singing, or have some sort of music playing in the background. Some may be lead to question if this is a proper use of our time and resources. Some may wonder if we are in the right direction musically, while some may not have even thought about music in this way. What I aim to do with this article is to provoke some thought into the matter by explaining some of the reasons why I believe music is important in worship, and the priorities we must consider as a result of these reasons. First I will look at how music affects us in our worship, and then at the benefits of music in learning scripture. Finally I will look at music in the context of our incredibly diverse congregation, and find out why music is important in the church “where the nations meet”.[1]

Music is important because it edifies, or builds up, devotion. When objections in the medieval church arose about the vocal praise of God, one point used was that praise is meant to build up the person being praised, but since God is already perfect and cannot be built up further, He does not need our praise.[2] The theologian Thomas Aquinas flatly rejected this, agreeing that God indeed does not need to be built up any further, but denying that this is the purpose of our praise. He argues that we praise God “not for his sake, but for our own, since by praising him our devotion is aroused”.[3] St. Augustine also raised this point about music in Confessions. He eloquently wrote: “The voices flowed into my ears; and the truth was poured forth into my heart, where the tide of my devotion overflowed”.[4]

A great number of people have stories similar to St. Augustine in which their devotion to God was built up as a result of songs of praise; however, there is also a possibility that the music can detract from worship if it becomes distracting. One way that this could happen, that music becomes disrespectful to worship, is if the music is performed in a manner that draws attention to the performers rather than to God.[5] Niceta of Remesiana writes: “It should not be melodramatic, but a revelation of the true Christianity within”.[6] We should take care then that this does not happen at Morningstar, and that we are only continuously drawing attention only to the One who truly deserves the glory.

Someone who does not read the Bible very often would be surprised at how much of the Bible they actually know. When I was too young to read the Bible, I still knew a lot of the stories found in it. This was in part because I learned these stories through songs. Just some of these songs that I remember from my childhood are “Arky, Arky”, a song about Noah and the ark, and “Father Abraham”, which was about the twelve tribes of Israel. The theologian Martin Luther loved music, and also placed a special important in learning scriptures.[7] Because of this, Jeremy Begbie explains in Resounding Truth, “He saw congregational hymn-singing… as an especially valuable tool for fixing God’s Word in people’s hearts.”[8]

This could not be truer in the songs that we use in worship today. When I did start to read the Bible as a teenager, I was surprised to find out that a lot of the songs we sing in church would draw from scriptures, sometimes using verses word for word. I guess it should not really have been all that surprising, though, for where else could we get our lyrics from? We should then always ensure that the worship music that is performed at Morningstar conveys the truth found in the written word, which reveals Living Word, Jesus.

If you go to almost any major league sports match, chances are the crowd will at some point burst into a song, doing so in order to get into the spirit of the game and to show their support for their team. As for music in the church, St. Ambrose writes: “A psalm joins those with differences… It is after all a great bond of unity for the full number of people to join in one chorus”.[9] Music unifies. And not just within each congregations, but also the entirety of the Christian church! Niceta of Remesiana puts it beautifully: “Let us believe that we have been given a great, a very great, grace by God who has granted to us to sing the marvels of the eternal God in the company of so many and such great saints, prophets and even martyrs”.[10] Of course, this unity is especially true and important in the context of a congregation made up of more than eighty nationalities like of Morningstar.

And so music edifies devotion, assists in learning scriptures, but most importantly, unifies the body of Christ. These are the reasons why I believe music is so important especially in the context of worship in our community of faith. Given these reasons though, we should make sure that we approach this ministry with proper humility and respect, pointing only to God who deserves all the glory. We should also ensure that we are preaching only truth found in the scriptures in our song. In so doing, we will find that music will create a bond of unity, making our church truly “where the nations meet”.