A Pauline conversion

That's what happened to Dennis Quaid a number of years ago, when he quit cocaine.  Interesting interview with Piers Morgan on YouTube, during which he said finding Jesus was what got him off his then-God, cocaine.

He was not strident about it, but it was moving.  It got me thinking about the many people I have known who have embraced Christianity; some brought perfunctorily up in one religion or another and others I met when I ran a discernment ministry at 'Our Lady of Fatima' Catholic church in Ottawa.  In both cases, people went from sitting in "comfortable pews", as Pierre Burton described them, to fervent followers.

Strong belief changes lives.

It occurred to me that I don't recall a lot of people converting to Judaism.  Judaism is a closed society and if you marry into it, you have to convert if your spouse is a practicing Jew.  Oh, there are cases where people convert to Judaism for cultural reasons, but other than that, Christianity, and in particular Catholicism,  seems to be the only religion encouraging and accepting converts of all stripes for any reason at all.  

I know, I know.  You probably find it hard to believe that I was involved in such a ministry.  You'd also be shocked to learn that I took communion around the Civic Hospital to many Catholic patients every Sunday morning for years.  And you'd also be surprised to know I was head of the Fatima parish council for many years.

Shit happens, as Keith Richards says.  

In my case, I was sort of roped into this work by a wily Father Martineau, who took advantage of my absence at meetings to elect me head of this and chair of that.  "You weren't here, but you were voted in as chair," he'd say.  "Frankly, I couldn't face anyone else chairing those interminable meetings."  Oh, thanks a bunch!

But you couldn't say no to the guy.  Mysteriously, I had a number of inexplicable pastoral experiences at the Civic, which only served to make me a believer.  Here in Calgary, I don't even go to Mass, but those experiences still haunt me and inform my outlook.

I also watched Douglas Murray, author of 'The Strange Death of Europe', on YouTube (yes, I have no life) and he was talking about the cultural ghettos in Britain and especially London.  He was bemoaning the degradation and loss of British culture.  I agree.  We have it in Canada too -- especially in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an immigrant scholar from Somalia who preaches assimilation and is a vocal critic of Islam, says if immigrants and minorities don't assimilate, Britain will go the way of the countries she and others fled.  

"Apparently, our politicians keep telling us diversity is our strength," said Murray.  "Well, no, it's our folly.  Those cultures invading Britain do not integrate.  In fact, in some areas immigrants can live their entire lives without speaking a word of English, or joining or doing anything English whatsoever.

"When was the last time anyone said, 'We need more Wales in Eritrea'?  The audience understandably guffawed.  "Just doesn't work the other way," he concluded.  And who decides to convert to the Jehovah Witness cult?  How about that other cult, Mormonism?  No one.  But when I was running that ministry, we always had about five converts at any one time.  Even intellectual giants like Malcolm Muggeridge were converts: 

The great Malcolm Muggeridge

"The essential feature and necessity of life is to know reality, which means knowing God," Muggeridge said upon conversion.  He believed the Catholic Church was the only true church, having descended from St. Paul.

Here, there seems to be no "Canada" anymore either, as evidenced by the ludicrous and illegal occupations of university campuses across the country.  And surprise, surprise, they are all antisemitic and pro-Palestine!  And what are university presidents doing?  Nothing with any teeth.  It's unconscionable.

This is at the University of Calgary.

Jewish parents are pulling their kids out of schools because they fear violence from Palestinian extremists.  This is Canada, for Gawd's sake!  Stop it!

Tasha Kheiriddin weighed in with a column the other day.  "Canada has become a society of silos.  Instead of diversity being our strength, it has become our Achilles heel and a weakness for malignant foreign states to exploit.  

"Today we have become ashamed of Canada.  We topple our statues.  We erase the word "pioneer" from historical installations.  We rename our public spaces with monikers that have no connection to our history."   

Hear, hear.

"The most affected are young people.  They are not encouraged to find common bonds, but to focus on what divides them.  Wander the halls in any public high school in Toronto and you'll see displays and murals commemorating Canada's sins:  Murdered Indigenous women, Black Lives Matter, Trans Rights Matter."

British Columbia even has an entire "inclusive calendar guide" for K-12.  It's 30 pages long and lists 193 days, months and seasons to recognize various holidays, heritages and minority rights.  Of those, only five commemorate Canadian historical figures:  Louis Riel, Queen Victoria, St-Jean Baptiste, the Famous Five and Lincoln Alexander.  

You read that right.  Five, out of 193.  Only five in this country!

What is recognized?  Sikh holidays number at least a dozen, LGBTQ gets an entire season, plus many days and every month is some culture's heritage month.  

"Today, kids are fed a culture of division, not diversity.  Schools practice segregation.  Everyone must be labelled, put in a box.  You are this first, that second, something else third and then, somewhere along the line, oh ya, you are Canadian," she writes.  "If you're not in a box, you're just a basic Canadian.  What is that anyway?"

It's as if Canadians are being told to shelter in place, stay out of the way and keep quiet.

This has to change.  But I bet it won't.  We are a culture and society in decline.