The Prince of Peace

I've resisted writing anything about Michael Jackson up until now. On Sunday I bemoaned the fact that it was "all Michael Jackson: Michael Jackson all the time." But when I read a piece on CNN.com, I needed to weigh in.

The mayor of Gary, Indiana (Jackson's home town) wants to have a memorial service there, and have Jackson "lie in state." He called Jackson, "the prince of peace."

CNN reports

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay has been in contact with the Jackson family, hoping to make that happen, spokeswoman Lalosa Burns said Tuesday.

Clay told Chicago radio station WGN that he expects that Jackson's body will, at the least, be taken to Gary for a memorial service he is planning next week.

"I believe that his body will lie in state in Gary, Indiana," Clay said Tuesday. "Now, it may not happen, but I believe it will."

The Jackson memorial service is set for July 10 at U.S. Steel Works ballpark in Gary, Burns said.

It would be "a memorial that's fit for the prince of peace and a memorial that's fit for Gary, Indiana's favorite son, the greatest entertainer that ever lived," Clay said.

Much has been said about Michael Jackson. Some call him "Prince Michael"; others "Wacko Jacko." But this is the first time I've heard him called, "The Prince of Peace"! It is not often that popular culture so clearly displays its idolatry but when a burned out performer is given names reserved for Jesus Christ, it really makes one wonder!

Moreover, lying in state usually only applies when the bodies of government officials or royalty are displayed in the principal government building of a country or city. I suppose the Mayor of Gary wants to cash in on some tourism dollars!

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Who Would Have Thought?

A new study links the kind of sexually explicit movies and television programming young children watch to the age at which they engage in sexual activity. Who would have thought?

The Advent Conspiracy

I support the Advent Conspiracy!

Prayer at a Remembrance Day Service

I was invited to lead the assembly in prayer at a Remembrance Day Memorial Service at a retirement complex in Burlington. I asked our heavenly Father to comfort those who mourn the death of loved ones and that the memory of the dead in the past 100 years in the battlefields of Europe Asia and Africa might spur us on to strive for peace. I then acknowledged that this could only ultimately occur under the grace of God in the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray and who will come again.

It was remarkable how many of the seniors came to me and thanked me for praying in the name of Jesus. They all said, "That no longer happens in public prayers." Imagine that! It has become remarkable for a Christian gospel preacher to pray publicly in the name of Jesus Christ!

Death Day in Canada

Ian Hunter has a brilliant piece on Morgentaler, Canada's Birhtday, and the Order of Canada at "A Symbol of Moral Decay" . He writes in the National Post (pg A15), "It would require macabre sarcasm to call this a "birthday" present; so, for this "deathday" present, let me briefly remark on three propositions." He concludes, "... do not honour men without honour."

Even as the church remembers Pontius Pilate every Sunday, and Judas at least once a year, their remembrance is subsumed under the triumph of the victim. So let it be to Morgentaler. One day perhaps in our fair land we will remember him, not as a hero, but as a horror.

Dion's New Tax

I think it was last year sometime that I read that as Stephen Harper and his Minister of Finance were cutting taxes and the GST, they were also undercutting the Liberal Party's ability to find money for great social engineering spending programs. The Liberals didn't take long to find a new way to advance their cause. Find a new tax. They couldn't, with any credibility suggest that they'd raise the GST or income tax to spend their billions on whom ever they wanted to make recipients of their largesse. So they've hooked their "tax cow" to the "environmental cart". They'll tax the living daylights out of "carbon sources", with the mantra, "this is for the planet"; but really it's for their programs.

And may all of you have pleasant and blessed "Dominion Day."

Designer Babies

When I read Brave New World decades ago I wonder if these things could be. And then I read the news today. A woman who was able to conceive in natural ways used in-vitro fertilization in order to screen out a cancer gene from her off spring. Eleven embryos were created and any with the cancer gene were destroyed. The new eugenics. Soon children will be chosen and discarded on the basis of their hair colour. Embryos are simply "products of conception" and are chosen and discarded on the basis of their potential flaws or characteristics. Children offered to Molech.

Balanced News?

Some weeks ago 8000 Pro Life marchers converged on Parliament Hill. The main stream media did not report it. I searched the internet for two days after, to find any report. There was only one that I could find on Canoe.com. But it was about a traffic cop who got hurt directing the traffic night-mare the march caused. Today however, 100 marchers show up on The Hill demanding safe injection sites for heroin addicts, and they get national attention! Like, what's with that?

Chance and Power

I was reading the Financial Post's Canada's Top 500 Largest Corporations in the FP Business that came with the National Post this morning. In the listing of the Top 500, I noticed that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp came in at # 68 and that Ontario Power Generation came in at # 73. Does it say something about Ontario's Citizens that gambling surpasses power generation? OPG has 3 Nuclear Power Stations, 5 Fossil Fuel Power Stations and 64 Hydro installations. Like, this is a really BIG company! But the Province run lotteries and casinos out perform OPG in revenue! Surely a sign of decadence.