Community Chaplain

When you hear the word "faith", what do you think of? Many of us would automatically assume it is a religious expression and nothing more.  It is defined as, "Complete trust or confidence in something or someone". As a Christian I have faith in a living God and His name is Jesus Christ. I also have faith, as defined above, in many things throughout each day. In fact I would suggest that not a single person that has ever lived, is living today or has yet to be born, will not experience this thing called faith. So why is it that so many people today boldly mock believers like myself because of our faith in a God that none of us has ever seen? They mock in large part because they have been taught not to believe. During the era of Communism in the USSR, people were taught that there was no God. For 50 years Christians were persecuted, as in China today, because of their faith in God. In the western world today, almost every religion is protected against bigotry except...

A few months back I had a heated discussion with a woman that attended the church I would eventually lead. The conversation was on Facebook messenger and started when she proudly stated her love for Fidel Castro and hatred of cops. This got me to thinking about the rhetoric I see and hear in social media that is attributed to Christians. I refer here to Bible-believing believers, including the woman I just referred to. How do we get to the place where one gushes over a politician while the friend attacks the same person being gushed over? I think I have an answer to that question although I am sure there is more to it than I can come up with. As a young boy I remember watching Walter Cronkite on the CBS evening news. Sitting with me was my dad who would quite often interject his opinions on anything remotely political. He didn't always agree with Walter's commentary and yet this was his channel of choice. My dad hated anything that even remotely smelled like communism. He c...

I hesitated writing this post but when I see friends posting inaccurately about police shootings I have to respond. I respond because of a few things that I have experienced in my own life. I respond because I get very angry when I see people who should know better, blindly accepting what the media reports. When I had the privilege of volunteering as a police chaplain I got to spend time with many cops. I played hockey with a bunch of them. I officiated at weddings and funerals. I sat in police cars racing to calls that were often very dangerous: not necessarily for me but certainly for the cops I was with. I heard their frustration about certain media outlets that had absolutely no interest reporting facts because they seemed set on undermining policing every chance they got. That is why I am quite honestly disgusted when I see people posting about the Baton Rouge shooting as if they had all the facts. The fiction shared by family and friends and quoted by media, portrays him as a ...

Now for something completely different...talk about the Leafs. I have a few thoughts on the latest trade made by our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. About 4 years ago I started posting comments on line at two of our newspapers. Specifically, I was asking if anyone in Leaf management understood what hockey talent looked like and even more importantly if they knew how to build a team. Despite some extremely nasty comments by those who live and breathe the "Blue and White", I expressed my total dislike for the management team of Brian Burke and Dave Nonis. BB spent all sorts of time promoting himself and the team as "soon-to-be Cup contenders". He and his sidekick Nonis assured every Leaf fan that they were building a winner with the likes of Kessel, Phaneuf and then Clarkson and that the cupboard was full of young talent. The core of the franchise were in fact two men that nobody else wanted for reasons the media kept hidden from the Toronto public. Seemed that Phaneuf...

I noticed that there was recently an event in the Toronto Estonian community that featured a guest speaker who grew up playing hockey in Canada but also played in Estonia. He was a younger version of me and probably twice the player but we did have something in common: we are in a rare group that has had the privilege of playing hockey in a country where our parents, and in this fellow's case, his grandparents were born. After reading about this I started remembering the excitement of playing in Estonia at the age of 50. I was a goalie and as anyone who has played the game knows, goalies are usually in short supply. When we moved our family, including 3 children to Estonia in October of 2003, I thought it would be neat to bring my goalie equipment with me in the overseas container that included our car and most of our belongings. In my mind I figured if nothing else, I could go to the island province of Saaremaa a few times and play out on the frozen Baltic Sea with my friend Vel...

In the world we live in, it would appear that it is OK to stand up for pretty well any cause except one's faith. I of course exclude things like terrorism but generally speaking liable suits and claims of discrimination can be directed at anyone who might speak against your particular cause or belief. Christianity however, is fair game pretty well anywhere. The examples are too numerous to mention but here are just a few from comments in online newspapers: Christians "force" their "dangerous" beliefs on others. Our children need to be "protected" from religious "zealots" that belong to these "sects". These born-again Christians are just as "violent" as Islamic terrorists. These are comments that I took issue with on social media over the past few years. I approached the city editor of a large newspaper a few times about the language used by atheists and others and was told there was nothing wrong with the language. In ...