Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

Over the course of a few days, I heard/read inquiries/comments like this:  At our church, we don't apologize for what we believe . And,  I'm new to the area: can someone please recommend a church that follows and teaches the Bible?       A few years ago when our teaching pastor dealt with the question of biblical authority, interpretation and how to read the Bible, one of the results was that some people left the church. It wasn't so much what he taught during this series -- although some took exception to that as well -- it was his approach and attitude. Which was one of:  I can't possibly be right 100% of the time about 100% of all things theological, therefore... humility?  It deserves to be noted that said teaching pastor who advocates humility is currently working on his Phd in theology.  Some didn't like,to be reminded for example, that within any biblical tradition -- even the particular strand of, say, evangelicalism to which you belong -- there are gradie

Who knew  Anna Sewell's Black Beauty had so much to say about religion? There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham […] I have heard the commandments read a great many times, and I never noticed that any of them said, 'Thou shalt be rich.' And there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them." (35.43) "Real religion is the best and truest thing in the world and the only thing that can make a man really happy, or make the world any better." (36.24) "[…] I don't see that your religious people are any better than the rest."  "If they are not better... it is because they are not religious. You might as well say that our country's laws are not good because some people break them." (36.24)

Misanthropy  I heard the word "misanthropy" while watching Jessica Jones of all places. It rang a bell. My wife asked what it meant. I said (trying to sound impressive and fairly sure I'd get it wrong), "Well, "mis-" is a prefix that means wrong, bad, miss, askew and "thrope" is in the word an throp ology which has something to do with humans, so... dislike of humans?" Not a bad guess :) Miriam and Webster (two of my favourite people) define it as "a hatred or distrust of humankind." I recalled a play from my years of studying literature. Not sure I'd ever read it, I looked it up: The Misanthrope , a seventeenth century French satirical play. And then, I thought, hmm, misanthrope... Facebook/misanthrope: Damn -- that's half of my Facebook feed! After nearly two years of Donald Trump, what I've found even more disturbing that Donald Trump is the hate and venom that people are showing toward one another over ideo

It was four years ago on January 27 that I was diagnosed with NHL, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, not the National Hockey League. Former, bad; latter good :)  It didn't occur to me until this year that our granddaughter was born on this day a year ago. I'm sure if I thought long and hard enough -- or did some clever Googling -- I'd come up with some classic or eastern idea that correlated these two events, but I'd rather dwell on being thankful for the birthday of our beautiful granddaughter, Grace, and being grateful that my follicular lymphoma is not active. For those of you who haven't been following my updates, here's a quick review. got sick in Fall of 2013 was diagnosed January 2014 (was in watch-and-wait protocol because my CT scan was misread: YIKES) did 6 months of Rituxan and Bendamustine: June - November 2014 (CT scan showed my swollen lymph nodes were shrunk into near oblivion)  did one year (February 2015 - February 2016) -- instead of 2 y

(I had the privilege and honour of meeting Martin and Sharon this past November. This story is what followed; it was published this Sunday, February 4, 2018, by Southridge Community Church .) I am told that when Martin Durksen was asked to be the subject of this story, he didn’t respond with an immediate  yes .  In the end, Martin weighed out the discomfort of putting himself out there for our whole community to see against the encouragement and inspiration that his story would bring to our congregation. Fortunately for us, the latter value won out. On a balmy November afternoon, Chris Fowler and I spent an hour and a half with Martin and Sharon (more on Sharon later) on her farm in Welland and then another hour and half with Martin in an empty Chinese restaurant awash with vintage 1980s décor. I was overwhelmed with God’s activity in and through this man, Martin, who humbly and simply says  yes  to God’s leading. Chris and I were also struck with Sharon’s uncomplicated