Anabaptism is about having a relationship with Jesus: a relationship that has a beginning but no end. We cannot simply grow into this relationship, not knowing just how or when it began. We may have had warm, fuzzy feelings about Jesus when we were little children, but we lacked the maturity then to make a … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a warm fuzzy experience
Author: Bob Goodnough
Universities and free speech
Students at Carleton University in Ottawa set up a “Free Speech Wall” on Monday in an attempt to prove that free speech was possible on the university campus. The “wall” was a 1.2 x 1.8 metre (4 foot x 6 foot) wooden board covered with paper. Felt markers were provided. One of the students involved … Continue reading Universities and free speech
Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
The bishop got up to preach one Sunday morning and proclaimed to us that when a person wore plain clothes, that was proof that he or she was born again. An unconverted person could not get himself to wear such clothes. By “plain clothes” he meant the form of clothes that was mandated in his … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
Quotes on schooling
“My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.” - George Bernard Shaw “My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me … Continue reading Quotes on schooling
What has happened to tolerance?
George Orwell’s dystopian vision, expounded in his novel Nineteen Eighty-four, appears to be slowly and inexorably taking shape around us. The thought leaders of our society have constituted themselves into an unofficial Ministry of Truth, changing the meaning of words and inventing new words. The result — and make no mistake about it, this is … Continue reading What has happened to tolerance?
It is no secret
I confess that I avoid books that promise to reveal a “secret” about Christian life. I’m afraid of them — afraid of being deceived — because I don’t read anything in the Bible that speaks of a “secret” to Christian life that is only revealed to an inner circle with special enlightenment. In New Testament … Continue reading It is no secret
No-fault schooling
A friend told me how he had applied for a job as a technician at a chemical plant, claiming diplomas that he did not have. When he got the job, he spent the weekend cramming with chemical textbooks, started work on Monday and quickly became an expert technician. After a number of months, he told … Continue reading No-fault schooling
The saint of the neighbourhood
[This is an excerpt from When I Was Thirteen, copyright the estate of Christina Young Plumb. It is the diary of a thirteen year old girl in south-western Ontario at the end of the nineteenth century.] April 12, 1897 - This is Good Friday, so we had no school today, and Monday will be a … Continue reading The saint of the neighbourhood
The decline and fall of public education
Chris was 17 when we got married and had just finished Grade 11. She enrolled in Grade 12 that fall and rode the school bus to the nearest large town with a high school. It didn’t last long — she was in a new community where she didn’t know any of her fellow students, she … Continue reading The decline and fall of public education
Kids are different today
"Kids are different today," I hear ev'ry mother say Mother needs something today to calm her down And though she's not really ill There's a little yellow pill She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day. For readers not … Continue reading Kids are different today
