Michael Coren on Easter

I had a post planned this morning which, in light of reading Michael Coren's post on Easter, I have opted to postpone until later.

This column ran in all Sun newspapers across Canada. Here is the entire post:

The meaning of Easter
The belief that life without suffering is possible if we behave in a certain way is a lie

I remember when my mother had her most serious stroke. She’d suffered numerous smaller attacks in the past, but these had affected her mind and not her body. I fed her, put her to bed and played the role of parent that mum played so beautifully to me.

It was extraordinarily painful because my father had died three years earlier, but mum, already seriously ill, was largely unaware of what was going on. We couldn’t share the grief with her and this made the experience all the more biting.

Dad died alone, something for which I have been unable to forgive myself. I arrived too late and I am convinced that he was holding on to see me. He was such a strong man, and I am so very weak. My indecision was dreadful and my father deserved better.

I say all of this because it is Easter, the epicentre of the Christian calendar. The agony and death of Jesus followed by his resurrection.

We live in an age when the government and the culture tell us that life without suffering might be possible if we behave in a certain way. It’s a cumbersome lie. Bad things happen.

We all die, and many in discomfort. Jesus died in absolute agony. Then rose again in absolute perfection. The same is offered us, and we commemorate his sacrifice and that offer on Easter weekend.

As a direct consequence of this, those of us who are believers are asked why bad things happen to good people, as if this is some threatening dent in the Christian faith. Our reply should be to ask, why on earth would bad things not happen to good people? Christ didn’t promise a good life but a perfect eternity.

Indeed in some ways the Bible predicts earthly suffering more than it does earthly triumph. Which is one of the reasons why alleged Christians who promise instant solutions are not to be believed.

Miracles do occur, but they are no more proof of God than failures to heal are proof of his non-existence. Many are the saints who spent their lives in physically broken bodies or in mental struggle.

This is vital to understand if we are to understand Easter. Modern cults offer a grand variety of solutions to life’s problems and promise avenues to happiness. They don’t last, just as none of the other cults lasted. The New Age is merely a redecorated old age. The most glamorous of them all, hedonism, always hurts the most when it fails to produce. We obsess about materialism, sexuality, physical beauty and ambition. Then find the guarantee of satisfaction was hellishly fraudulent. The pain is not pointless. It has purpose and meaning. Nor is it without end.

Mum and dad, and so many others, will be complete in the glory of heaven, where we shall celebrate the rising of Jesus in a diamond-like and never-ending Easter Sunday.

For all of you, and in many ways especially the mockers, the ones who pretend to laugh when in fact they are rather frightened, those who disguise their fear and insecurity behind anger, I pray the same.

Have not a happy but a meaningful Easter.

I also strongly encourage you to watch this video of similar material from Michael: The meaning of Easter.

William Lane Craig on The Michael Coren Show

I have often mused, while watching his talk show, that I wouldn't want to get into an argument with Michael Coren. Well, even less would I want to get into an argument with his guest in this video clip. William Lane Craig is an articulate and highly intelligent communicator which can be clearly seen in this piece from Coren's show.

William Lane Craig's appearance on The Michael Coren Show from Thursday January 29, 2009. Discussion and debate on the existence of God:

Michael Coren on the United Church of Canada

"While lazy journalists continue to say that the United Church is, "the largest Protestant denomination in Canada" the truth is that while the church boasts 545,000 adherents, these are mostly paper members and perhaps a third of them actually attend the United Church.

Hundreds of thousands have left for evangelical churches where Jesus, rather than the Smart car, is worshipped each Sunday.

If people want environmental lectures, distorted history about evil Europeans oppressing natives, radical feminism and anti-homophobia workshops they only have to turn on the television.

They go to church to praise God and learn about salvation.

The Protestant churches that are behaving as churches -- Pentecostal, Reformed, Baptist, Community -- often purchase theatres because their congregations have grown so large.

The only time a local United Church has anything to do with a theatre is when there's an Al Gore movie playing."

Read the whole article here.

Michael Coren makes some predictions for 2009:

From www.ottawasun.com :

Crystal Ball Time

No Canadian coalition, Barack backlash in the cards for 2009

By Michael Coren

New Year predictions: As risky as they are predictable for a columnist, but here goes.

- There will be no coalition government in Canada.

The entire episode was an NDP and separatist fantasy sold to a weak, vacillating Stephane Dion. At least a dozen Liberal MPs were convinced that any such regime would have cost them their seats in a subsequent election and, anyway, the Liberal establishment despises socialism even more than it does conservatism.

Harper will compromise on his budget as he already has with his economic statements and it will be politically impossible, as well as electorally disastrous, for the Liberals to bring down the government.

Michael Ignatieff will take firm hold of his party but will increasingly alienate his caucus and grassroots Liberals, who can tolerate almost anything apart from admiration for the United States.

- In the U.S. itself the media will begin to turn against President Barack Obama as the new shiny gift is unwrapped and people realize that it's just the same old present in new paper. We already know that it's editors rather than reporters who adore the man and that ordinary reporters find him to be cold and difficult. His policies will be more of the same old, delivered by more of the same old hacks.

- In foreign affairs the most surprising development will be direct negotiations between Israel and Syria. President Bashar al-Assad is terrified of Iranian influence and Islamic fundamentalism. His economy is stagnating and he is desperate to bring Syria into the West's orbit. There will be compromise on the subject of the Golan Heights and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and most of the Gulf states will marginalize Hamas, Hezbollah and Tehran.

- The economy will not reblossom but it will find a natural equilibrium. The banks have learned a lesson and are now using credit as they should have done several years ago. Governments will use stimulus packages moderately but usefully and the market will recover up to half of its 2008 losses.Lower housing and oil prices will partly compensate for lack of wage increases and unemployment.

- The obsession with the environment will decline and green organizations and special interest groups will lose much of their momentum. While ecology and climate change will always be serious issues, there will be less support for the hysteria of ecological zealots who seem to dislike people but love the planet. The Canadian Green Party will slide into even greater obscurity.

- Human Rights Commissions will have their powers limited and be redirected to do their real jobs in guaranteeing that people are not denied jobs or homes because of their race, faith, disability or sexuality. There will be far less tolerance for extremists posing as human rights bureaucrats trying to limit freedom of speech merely because someone, somewhere, finds something offensive.

- The Michael Coren Show on CTS, available on basic cable throughout Ontario and Alberta and on digital in the rest of Canada, will extend its audience even beyond its current 200,000. Viewers will agree that it's the best current affairs show on television and that its host is also modest.

- Canada will continue to be the most inviting, tolerant and fertile country in the world. The envy of all and the pride of those fortunate enough to live here. They will all, irrespective of politics, wish one another a happy, safe and profitable 2009.