Matthew Burkholder

In a few days or weeks the state of Palestine will more than likely be a wasteland. It's hard to imagine an area suffering any more heartache. I know when I look at pictures, and read about the staggering number of children, some 80%, that live in extreme poverty my heart breaks. I cannot relate to such a life - a life in which two Palestinian children die every week as a result of being forced to live on the bare minimum, a pattern stretching back fourteen years. Source: http://socialistworker.org/ As I read the social media musings on the situation, I can't help get the feeling that there are a lot of people on "Team Israel". They say things like, "Israel has a right to protect itself", and paint a portrait where Israel is an innocent victim. They divide people into "good" and "bad", a classic national strategy to shed any culpability of action. A nation or group can't be morally culpable when the people dying are bad guys, or...

Over the years I have had the privilege of having some great friends, people who have invested into me, encouraged me, and helped me along the ups and downs of life. Many of my closest friends - my family, have modeled a type of friendship that has had a lasting impression on me. I've tried my best to model the following type of friendship over the years, and like most lessons in life, have learned more from my failure than my success. Here are some things I think will help us all excel in the friendship department. 1. Take an interest in the interests of your friends.  I can honestly say that I have come to love so many different things in life simply by determining to be interested in the things my friends love. I think sometimes we define friendship as simply a relationship between two like minded people. Certainly it is nice to share interests with people that you care about, but a relationship will be deeply cultivated when you take an interest in what your friend loves. L...

"If I were in charge, they would know that water boarding is how we baptize terrorists." - Sarah Palin I am not sure if you aware of this, but you just committed a pretty serious sin. No, you didn't commit adultery, get caught doing drugs, or pocketed public money. This type of sin makes those look pretty petty. Let me try to spell out just exactly was has happened here. It actually shouldn't be news to you. In fact, there have been people calling you and your lot out on this for as long as I can remember. From within the Church, and from without. People from all walks of life, from all over the world, from every political persuasion. The criticism basically is this: You have turned Jesus into a war lord. Now, you may deny this. Many on your side have carefully constructed a personal/state dichotomy which looks at the message of the Kingdom and applies it differently in different circumstances. Different standards are expected from different groups of societ...

When I got home from work yesterday, my head was pounding - the kind of headache that pain killers don't touch. This was the moment my daughter unleashed a full on, 20 minute, scream competition winning, angry at the known world, tantrum. It all started because my daughter had barely been drinking all day. She has been just getting over a cold, and I, because I wanted my daughter to you know, "feel better", offered her a cup of water, even from her favourite Montreal Canadiens cup. She proceeded to show her gratitude by launching herself off the couch, and kicking the cup of water out of my hand with ninja like accuracy. (Dear Leaf fans, you can insert your joke here.) A few minutes later, after a mutual break from each other, I sat her down to eat dinner. She was hungry. I knew, as a parent, that she was pretty angry because she was hungry and thirsty. She needed food. I am afraid that my condition, which I like to call "Bruce Bannerism", a condition that t...

The whole, then, comes to this: As soon as the minutest particle of faith is instilled into our minds, we begin to behold the face of God placid, serene, and propitious; far off, indeed, but still so distinctly as to assure us that there is no delusion in it. In proportion to the progress we afterwards make, (and the progress ought to be uninterrupted), we obtain a nearer and surer view, the very continuance making it more familiar to us. Thus we see that a mind illumined with the knowledge of God is at first involved in much ignorance, - ignorance, however, which is gradually removed. Still this partial ignorance or obscure discernment does not prevent that clear knowledge of the divine favor which holds the first and principal part in faith. For as one shut up in a prison, where from a narrow opening he receives the rays of the sun indirectly and in a manner divided, though deprived of a full view of the sun, has no doubt of the source from which the light comes, and is benefited by...

Warning: The following is a brutally honest, religiously charged article about a 30 year old's Christian experience. I don't get it. I don't remember completely not believing it. I don't remember completely believing it. I've wandered away from it, beat others up with it, ignored it, immersed myself in it, been saved by it, been lost by it. I've learned from it, but it's confused the hell out of me (or into me). It keeps me up at night, it helps me fall asleep. It makes me angry, cry, laugh, cower and wonder. I love it. Part of me hates it. I've watched it bring people together, I've watched it tear people apart. When the Bible refers to itself as a "two edged sword", I can't think of a better metaphor. I've spent the better part of a decade slowly biting away in the form of a theology degree on the meal that is Holy Scripture. Last year I went back to college full time after a two year hiatus, and I've had more restless nig...

My good friend Andrew Barley is a huge Neil Young fan. He also happens to live in Fort McMurray and work in the energy sector. Here is what he had to say. Disclaimer: if you're interested in winning friends and influencing people, don't do what I'm about to do. Dear friends on both sides of the oilsands arguments, we all suck. If you aren't going to be objective in how you deal with the topic of environmental stewardship and the mining of oil, you should probably just stop talking about it. Yes, I get it, Neil young hurt your feelings or you applau d the things he's said. The good/bad news is that your emotions don't matter in the discussion. What Source: Financial Post matters is objective reasoning and sound science. People need to use FACTS not OPINIONS. Supporters of oilsands(I am one, for the record), you need to accept that there are LEGITIMATE concerns that HAVE to be addressed and stop shoving your fingers in your ears and singing lalala when f...