Matthew Burkholder

Consent and Liberty. That's it. That's the only thing governing the masses of culture regarding sexual expression. The battle was won quickly. A small single weapon shaped like a pill single handily loosed the shackles of temperance and chastity. We are all the illegitimate children of parents who failed to safeguard the ethos of our being. Lust is just another thing to be consumed. We love consuming, it's in our nature. We consume the world and we consume each other, one orgasm away from attaining some definition of meaning that isn't there. We are a generation out of control. I am not a saint. I live in the cognitive dissonance of the morality of my Creator. I battle the dark regions of the mind, winning and losing, hoping one day to be made whole. Religion is always enduring. People have attempted to squash it out, but it always has a way of resurfacing. The religious way of thinking, talking and acting will always influence us. To be irreligious is a contrad...

It's taken me a few days to try and process what happened this week. Our soldiers are suppose to lay down their lives for our citizens, not die at the hands of them. It doesn't make sense, and I don't think it is suppose to. Whatever delusional and disturbing sense of identity two people thought they had found, that they would take the lives of two soldiers, isn't suppose to be rational. My heart broke as I read of the mother of the Ottawa shooter, with no explanation for their son's actions, wanting to hate the very child she brought into this world. What happened was a terrible tragedy on so many levels. I must admit, my sadness quickly turned to concern. Words like "terrorism" began to quickly emerge from certain media outlets and individuals on social media. "Terrorism" is not a new thing in this country (FLQ), but usually (not always) refers to actions conducted by an organization. I am worried that a word is being used for emotional/p...

If you have any familiarity with the Bible, you will undoubtedly know the story about the woman caught in adultery found in John's gospel. According to the story, a group of religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees, bring a woman caught in the act of adultery demanding that Jesus act as judge over her fate. Jesus' famous retort: "let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" is one of the most famous lines in all of scripture, known to most in the Western world. Without going into many details, there is essentially good reason to believe that the Apostle John did not actually include the story in his original writing - the chief reason being it's absence from early manuscripts. This is not to say that the story isn't historical - clearly Jesus historically was at odds with the religious leaders, and the gospel of Mark, the earliest of the gospels, records several instances in which the Pharisees confront Jesus (Mark 7, 8, 11, 12...

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...