Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

My wife and I have this tradition: we like to watch a movie at the theatre when we're on vacation in the southern states. If memory serves, in the last few years, we've seen Ten Years a Slave, American Sniper and Silver Linings Playbook . On our most recent trip, after having spent several days visiting family in Georgia and Florida, we eventually landed in North Myrtle Beach. We checked out the movie listing and, after consulting the ratings (a lot of 6.somithings), my wife wanted to watch... wait for it... Logan !? You know: X-Men, Wolverine? It was rated at 8.5. Being the excellent husband that I am, I asked, "Are you sure? You know it's a superhero movie, don't you? It's gonna have a bunch of that crazy action you hate. Are you sure you don't want to watch The Shack ?" She said, "No, it got bad ratings." "Yeah, but your friends watched it and they really liked it." "No, let's see Logan ." "Oh well, ...

Our Local Niagara Version of "Jim and Casper Go to Church" " In January 2006, Hemant Mehta posted an auction on eBay   where he explained his background in atheism and offered to go to the worship services of the winning bidder's choosing.    The auction ended on February 3, 2006 with a final bid of $504 from Jim Henderson, a former minister from Seattle Washington   .... "Henderson asked Mehta to visit a variety of churches and write about the experiences on Henderson's website, offthemap.com. "  ( Wikipedia ) Henderson also wrote a book about his experiences: Jim and Casper go to Church . In October 2016, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Pastor Jeff Lockyer of Southridge Community Church (where I attend) interviewed Grant Lafleche, local columnist and atheist -- hence my title, "Jeff and Grant go to Church".  Click the link below to see the full interview. Be prepared to have some preconceived stereotypes of both evangelical pasto...

I was tooling around on the internet the other day and came across this (a warning from a large US fundamentalist Christian organization): "The book's [Harry Potter, The Sorcerer's Stone ] discussion guide ...implies that we can find out truths about bravery, loyalty and the power of love by reading imaginary fiction." Okay, this is so bizarre that I need to clarify that this group is criticizing the discussion guide for implying that readers can learn important ideas from "imaginary" fiction. Let's leave the phrase "Imaginary" fiction aside for a moment and ask really? about the rest of the statement. I can only guess that fiction is meant for what? Just entertainment or escapism? Or is all fiction -- imaginary fiction -- totally evil? It's mind-boggling. So what kind of fiction discussion guides are they okay with? Discussion guides that ask questions like, um, I dunno, "What colour hair does the main character have? And ...

I've been thinking about writing this blog for a while now, but I've hesitated because writing it means not only facing attitudes I have that I'm not proud of, it also means baring my soul to my 15 followers... and random people from Kirksvill Missouri? and Kristiansand, Vest-Agder -- really? According to Feejit, I guess so. First some background information: The church I attend runs a 24-7 homeless shelter. We've been at it for several years during which time we've helped countless people by giving meals, beds and clothing. We've also worked closely with outside agencies to help with everything from social services to education, rehab, recovery and the list goes on. The "Shelter", as we call it at Southridge Community Church, is the most singular thing that has defined us in our community. When we say we attend Southridge, invariably the response is, "Oh ya; aren't you the guys who run the homeless shelter?" Having said all this, much to...

When I took the leap in 1977 and "asked Jesus into my heart" strange things happened. Some of them good and right, some of them weird and ugly. I remember that day, the day after and the two ensuing years vividly. That day was euphoric. Not everyone feels something when they make a commitment to change their lives. I did. It felt good -- like gears that I didn't know were there had clicked into place and my soul was in motion. The day after is when my faith journey started. On that day, I walked home from school with Dale. After, fifteen minutes, I was frustrated that I couldn't get him to see the light, so I told him that he was going to hell if he didn't accept the truth. He was not impressed. The following two years were filled with beauty and doubt; maturity and immaturity; and falling and growing. I met people who later fell hard from the faith and others who went on to be pastors and missionaries. I went to Catholic church, Lutheran church, house church and...