After centuries of persecution, the defenceless Christians of Europe were scattered and demoralized and the persecutors began to feel they were rid of these people whose existence was so troubling to them. They were troubling because they taught, and lived, a faith that testified of the truth and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. … Continue reading Mennonite vs Menno
History
February 6, 1952
It was Tuesday, I was nine years old, in Grade Five and we were living on the outskirts of Craik, Saskatchewan. I got up to get ready for school, turned on the radio and heard only stately orchestral music. I tried another station, then another; it was the same on all stations. The Eight o'clock … Continue reading February 6, 1952
History tainted by propaganda
Halfway through high school, it dawned on me that history is not a science like the others. Mathematics textbooks in Canada, England, France, Germany and the USA all agree that two plus two equals four. Textbooks from all those countries agree on the laws of geometry and that a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal … Continue reading History tainted by propaganda
Misunderstanding the Gospel
In 1655 the plague spread through London, killing a quarter of the population. The city was rife with reports of strange visions, prophecies and rumors. Daniel Defoe wrote about the happenings during the plague, writing in the first person although he was only four years old at the time. Nevertheless, the book is not fiction … Continue reading Misunderstanding the Gospel
An anti-vaxxer from 180 years ago
Efforts were being made in Ontario 180 years ago to immunize people against smallpox. Today's issue of MooseJawToday.com carried the following snippet from the October 13, 1841 issue of the Christian Guardian, a publication of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada: "A lady belonging to the Church of England lately refused to have her child … Continue reading An anti-vaxxer from 180 years ago
The fear of some people who called themselves Mennonites
Beginning in the 16th century many Mennonites fled persecution in Friesland and Flanders and settled in the Vistula delta region of Poland. Here they gradually lost their evangelistic fervour and their faith dwindled to a mere outward conformity to some principles that they felt to be the essence of the faith. It seems they ceased … Continue reading The fear of some people who called themselves Mennonites
A Christian admonition from 600 years ago
[Barbe means beard. It came to be applied to the person wearing the beard, becoming a term of affection for an uncle and then became the term which Anabaptists in France and Italy used for their ministers. Pragela, a valley in the Alps west of Turin and near the French border was home to a … Continue reading A Christian admonition from 600 years ago
Quebec: from Ultramontanism to nationalism
Ultramontanism was a word invented to describe the Roman Catholic church in France which taught that people owed a greater loyalty to the man on the other side of the mountains than to their own government. The man on the other side of the mountains was the Pope who resided across the Alps in Rome. … Continue reading Quebec: from Ultramontanism to nationalism
Seeing French as a Bridge
Some languages are walls, some are artefacts, a few are bridges. A language used only by one tribe or ethnic group is useful for communication within that group, but it is also a wall that prevents communication with, and assimilation by, another group. Some languages are no longer in daily use but are studied as … Continue reading Seeing French as a Bridge
The Bible is enough
Image by Pexels from Pixabay A reader of my French blog recently mentioned the book Le roi des derniers jours, l’exemplaire et très cruelle histoire des rebaptisés de Münster (1534-1535), written by Barret and Gurgand, first published by Hachette in 1981. I obtained a copy of the book and found it a meticulous, almost day by day account … Continue reading The Bible is enough
Flatlander Faith 