A few years ago, I entered my room to discover my little grandson looking up at a large crucifix on the wall above my bed. He turned and asked if that really happen?” “Yes it did.” I replied. “Did Jesus die?” he asked, turning back to look at the crucifix. “Yes, he did. But that’s […]
It never ceases to amaze me that in the 21st Century there are still people who pose the ridiculous question: “When do you think life begins?” Quite frankly, it does not matter when you or I think life begins: Biology established long ago – before abortion on demand became legal in Canada – that human […]
In the great treasury of music, I keep finding myself coming back again and again to Beethoven. You may think it’s because he was one of the greatest composers who ever lived despite his deafness. That is true, everybody loves great music and everybody loves an over-comer. But there’s something more that keeps drawing me […]
Is there anything so wicked as a man trying to silence his conscience? It is a willful act that happens in stages: Bit by bit, incident by incident, rationalization by rationalization, the voice of a man’s conscience can be stifled—that still small voice within him eventually becomes fainter, until his heart turns to stone and […]
A number of months ago I accepted a request to speak at a Baptist church about an hour and a half drive from where I live. They asked me to speak about the rising acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, and my Christian perspective about suffering. Unfortunately as the date drew nearer, this […]
I keep a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven on the fireplace mantle in my home. It reminds me of the human capacity to overcome adversity to achieve great things. When I doubt myself in my own acquired disability of multiple sclerosis, I listen to Beethoven — particularly his 9th symphony — written in total deafness, […]
My college training was in radio and television arts. I love the arts, particularly with Christian themes. I came across an excellent production of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor (Capella Reial Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations conducted by Jordi Savall). The setting is the French Abbey Church of Saint-Savin Sur Gartempe. Superb location, the performers, […]
This past weekend I met four other people with multiple sclerosis. It was not by design. I met them at events that had nothing to do with MS or disability. The uncertainty of the disease is terrifying them all. Multiple sclerosis can take a benign course and cause very little disability or it can take a […]
In the small Canadian prairie town where I grew up there is an arts centre named after my mother. The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre is dedicated to the performing arts. At center-stage sits a grand piano like a tribute to her. My mother taught piano for 60 years. Even at the age of 93 years, […]
My father’s generation knew the Holocaust of the Nazis. The holocaust of abortion and soon euthanasia and assisted suicide hangs over mine. Nazi propaganda Minister Josef Goebbel’s guiding maxim was “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it.”[1] The Lie was of Aryan superiority and their […]
I watched a thirty-seven year marriage end. It was a tragedy for everyone involved. The husband’s infidelities came to light and his wife was overwhelmed by deep and justifiable feelings of betrayal and grief. She was an emotional wreck: One moment she was shouting and stomping around her house, the next moment she was sad […]
I believe that God uses people at certain junctures in history to speak to their generations when they’ve lost their moral way. God used Abraham Lincoln to set slaves free in America. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for racial equality. Dr. Bernard Nathanson (and many others) exposed the corruption of the abortion industry. During […]
When I was young, it was fashionable to grow a beard and long hair, put on a tie-dyed t-shirt, faded jeans and head off to Europe to “find oneself.” Often I wondered what would happen if those searchers didn’t like the inner-self they found? At a personal level, I had already met my inner self, in […]
I read about a young man paralyzed in a freak accident. The story gave a glimpse of his grief and sorrow. It’s been just a year since his accident. The terrible prospect of permanent disability is beginning to sink in and it’s breaking his heart. He told the reporter, “It’s really, really hard.” And so […]
In the January/February edition of Christianity Today (they called themselves CT now) a small article caught my eye. It was entitled “More evangelicals see suicide as moral.” Really? According to the Pew Research Center, 1 in 3 evangelicals who worship weekly think that “a person has a “moral right” to suicide if, they are “in […]
I remember sitting with my father in a boat on the middle of a still prairie lake. It was August of 1969 and I was sixteen years old. A cool mist rose from the surface of the lake that August morning. Fishing was good just after sunrise and so there we sat still half-asleep, casting our […]
There are two questions most people avoid. The questions are: “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” They are such penetrating questions that vast numbers of people spend their lives going to great lengths to avoid them.Questions call for answers and these two questions pierce to the core of who and what a […]
My wife, LaRee, and I were asked to address a conference about critical life issues sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey. They wanted us to speak about a Christian perspective on suffering, disability and end of life care. It is a timely topic because New Jersey is considering a law to allow […]
I came across a headline that posed a bold idea: Killing MS Patients VIA Assisted Suicide to Harvest their Organs? As a theoretical question for provocative bioethicists to ponder or advocate, it may be interesting, but I live in the real world far from academia. The real world is being asked to answer that very […]
If you go into western Canada’s Jasper National Park, you may see the beautiful and majestic Mount Edith Cavell. The mountain’s namesake was the daughter of an Anglican vicar. Edith Cavell (1865-1915) was a British nurse and patriot during the 1st World War. Although she tended wounded soldiers on both sides at the Berkendael Medical […]
In my little corner of the world (Alberta, Canada) there is an issue raging about government cutbacks to support services for people with severe disabilities. Disabled Albertans feel threatened — and with good reason. Many of the support services that will be cut provide personal daily care that will directly impact the ability of disabled people to function, […]
On June 5th 2007 George Delury (74) committed suicide. For those readers who don’t remember him, Delury gained notoriety for the 1995 assisting the suicide of his wife, Myrna Lebov (52) at their Manhattan apartment. Although euthanasia advocates initially expressed confidence that Lebov had not been coerced, nothing could have been further from the truth. […]
My wife was in the basement going through an old box filled with personal mementos and yellowed family photographs. She came up the stairs and put an old love letter in front me that I wrote to her in 1973 — the year we married. We were both very young. At one point in the […]
On a number of occasions I have written about the loneliness of disability. I suppose readers might be apt to think loneliness is not unique to people with severe disabilities, and they are right. Most lonely people are not disabled. You don’t even need to be alone to be lonely; a person can be lonely in a crowded […]
