We cannot allow profit to be more important than the well-being of the human family
Since taking office in 2013, the world has been calmed by the presence of Pope Francis. The documentary A Man of His Word notes his lifelong effort to respect each person, regardless of their station in life. Since becoming Pope, he has emphasized the importance of giving homes to refugees, challenged traditional Catholic teachings on…
In this new religion, heroes speak the truth and model the behaviours, values and norms of an increasingly diverse society
The movie Captain Marvel is a stunning box office success. Finally, it seems, an historic wrong has been arrested. Females have broken the male hegemony on physical violence and taken their rightful place in the annals of warrior gods. Females aren’t the only new members of this celebrated superhero club. There’s Black Panther, Moon Girl,…
History shows again and again that the church can mobilize an unstoppable force driven by a desire for love and peace
As tensions mount in the United States over whether a wall should be built along the Mexican border, little has been written about a force that could well become the determining factor on the issue. Despite its own struggles and coverups, the Catholic church has shown itself to be an insurmountable force when it fully…
Al Smith fell prey to the three Ps – prohibition, prejudice and prosperity – in 1928
When John F. Kennedy was running for the U.S. presidency in 1960, the ghost of Al Smith hung over public discussion of the campaign. Smith, a New York Catholic, had been soundly beaten in the general election of 1928. And his defeat generated the conventional wisdom that no Catholic could be elected to the presidency.…
A survey shows that independent school graduates are much more likely to work for the common good. How can that be bad?
By Doug Sikkema and Dr. Beth Green Cardus More than six per cent of children in Ontario are enrolled in independent (non-public) schools. In the 1960s, such independent school enrolments made up a mere 1.8 per cent of the student population. Six per cent might not seem like much, but the long-term trend in Ontario…
Each of us needs to be true to our mission if we’re to be effective agents of universal change
Religion can provide guiding principles for a meaningful life, yet few concepts have been more divisive in human history. Seeing the tensions of the first half of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a deeply spiritual man, came to the following conclusion: “One should accept the faith into which one was born, but seek always…
Fostering collaboration rather than conflict, the Aga Khan builds bridges between people, religions and cultures to help the world’s most vulnerable
When your last name is Arab and you’re not a Muslim or terrorist, you defy a few Islamophobic stereotypes yourself. I’m Arab in name, but my father’s religion is Maronite Catholic – an early branch of the Roman Catholic Church. I was brought up Roman Catholic and indoctrinated in papal infallibility. So the idea of…
It’s far too easy to look at others as the problem with the world. It’s much harder to see our own commonality as humans
When we read the newspaper or watch our news feeds, we learn about people doing horrendous things to each other. If we allowed ourselves, we could become inundated with evidence of our inherent inhumanity. It then becomes very easy to conclude that evil people walk among us and that something drastic needs to be done…
Religious authorities still hold on to their power, insisting that completely outdated concepts must stay
Shariah law is based on the Qur’an and the Hadith, the collections of sayings attributed to Mohammed. Islamic fundamentalists believe that Shariah courts should decide virtually all disputes, based on that law. Such courts are a fixture in Islamic countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some fundamentalists even want to see them established in North…
If we’re to rid the world of this horrendous theft of innocence, we need to approach it the same way we approached the Holocaust
In the song Sympathy for the Devil, the Rolling Stones repeat several times, “Pleased to meet you. Hope you guessed my name. But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.” In essence, the Stones are talking about the nature of evil and our relation to it. We see it but we often don’t…