Gordon L. Heath

“The accursed partnership of Turk and Teuton”: American Churches and the Armenian Genocide

11/18/2020

Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armeniangenocidemap.gif

Today I presented a paper entitled "'The accursed partnership of Turk and Teuton': American Churches and the Armenian Genocide". The paper examines the reaction of American churches in the First World War to the devastation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

If you would like read the research in more detail, see my chapter in The Globalization of Christianity: Implications for Christian Ministry and Theology.

For an analysis of how Canadian churches responded to the genocide, see my chapter in Canadian Churches and the First World War.

For the implications of the genocide for the teaching of global Christianity, see my article in McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry.

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Being a Political Sycophant: Thirteen Signs of Being Way Too Partisan

11/17/2020

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Sycophant: “someone who shamelessly does anything to please one’s leader or promote one’s political party”

Having watched what seems to be endless politicking for the past few years, I have made a checklist of actions that poison civil political discourse. What I find vexing and distressing is that Christians seem zealous to enter into the folly of such dysfunctional political engagement.

I have no desire to see Christians disengage from political action – I just wish that they would go about it in a less partisan, toxic, and harmful way. Thus, my little list to identify sycophantic behavior that harms Christian witness, dehumanizes people, destroys relationships, poisons civic engagement, and undermines national unity.

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The End of War, 1918

11/6/2020

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One of my interests in life is reading old newspapers and seeing how people in the past responded to current events. As Remembrance Day approaches, here are some glimpses of how those in the past reacted to the end of one of the world’s worst conflicts. The following images remind us of many things, one being the enormous sacrifices made – may we never forget.

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Christians and the “Darkening Curse” of Journalism

10/21/2020

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Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puck112188c.jpg

If you think today’s media is wildly biased, spewing vitriolic commentary, and destroying the fabric of the nation, you need to read up on early twentieth-century reporting during wartime Canada. It was so bad that one commentator wrote: “This prostitution of a great privilege…is the darkening curse of Canadian journalism.”

The issue then was support for the nation’s war effort. It was a hostile binary world of French (Catholic) versus English (Protestant), and the tensions – stoked by the irresponsible and partisan media – turned to violence as rioters took to the streets in Quebec.

With the US in the midst of an election, and Canada teetering on one, there is wisdom be gained by looking back to a time when the media had run amok and was tearing the nation apart.

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Applause vs Violence: The Venerable Bede and Theological Disputes

10/20/2020

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Image of Pelagius taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pelagius_from_Nuremberg_Chronicle.jpg

The history of Christian theological debate is far from stellar. Accounts of violence are endemic, marring the witness of the church. For those today mired in theological disputes, there is one brief description in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History(731) that is a pithy helpful reminder of what to do (or not to do) when passions over doctrine are running high.

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“Chewing the Cud”: The Venerable Bede on Theological Education & the Making of Worship Leaders

9/28/2020

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As I noted in my previous blog, I finished reading the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c. 731) this past summer. There was much to note, but one thing that caught my attention were his comments on the making of a worship leader.

Surprisingly, the metaphor used for drawing on one’s theological training in ministry was “chewing the cud.”

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The Venerable Bede & Post-Christendom Missions and Possibilities

9/23/2020

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Image of Bede is entitled "The Last Chapter" by J. Doyle Penrose (1902). Image from public domain.

I am embarrassed to admit it, but it took me twenty years as a professor of Christian history to finally get around to reading the entirety of the Venerable Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c. 731). But I did it this summer, and it was worth the wait.

There is much to say about the book, with its fascinating descriptions of saints and sinners, relics and miracles, missionaries and monarchs, and church divisions and unions. But what I want to address here is how the text stirs the imagination when it comes to post-Christendom missions and possibilities.

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Lost Land and Revanchism

9/8/2020

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Albert Bettannier’s painting La Tache Noire (The Black Spot) in 1887 is a vivid depiction of the education of French children on the subject of the lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. It captures the spirit of revanchism, a movement that sought to instil in every Frenchman the duty to wage war against the Germans to retrieve sacred French soil.

The spirit of revanchism – revenge – stirred a French generation and contributed to the excitement surrounding the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.

Sadly, in numerous places around the globe, the spirit of revanchism is alive and well. In countless places, past injustices are highlighted, bitterness nurtured, hatred stoked, and revenge plotted.

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The Waxing, Waning, and Wandering of the UN and NATO

9/4/2020

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The United Nations (founded 1945) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (founded 1949) were two critical organizations throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The UN played a seminal role in famine relief, educational assistance, medical care, humans rights advances, and global peacekeeping. NATO helped to ensure the security of western Europe until the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

However, the future (or at least efficacy) of both organizations is increasingly uncertain. And the consequences of their demise are serious.

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Climate Change & Inevitable Conflict

8/28/2020

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I am a sucker for a good science fiction movie, especially one that casts a vision for what life on earth will be like in the near future. While there are positive portrayals of the future, the genre is rife with visions of a dystopian future brought about by sudden climate change – whether the future is hot or cold, violence is inevitably one of the ways in which humans respond to the loss of habitat and security.

While the movies are fantasy, the harsh reality in the real world is that changes to climate lead to unrest, uncertainty, and inevitably violence.

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Blog

“The accursed partnership of Turk and Teuton”: American Churches and the Armenian Genocide

Being a Political Sycophant: Thirteen Signs of Being Way Too Partisan

The End of War, 1918

Christians and the “Darkening Curse” of Journalism

Applause vs Violence: The Venerable Bede and Theological Disputes

“Chewing the Cud”: The Venerable Bede on Theological Education & the Making of Worship Leaders

The Venerable Bede & Post-Christendom Missions and Possibilities

Lost Land and Revanchism

The Waxing, Waning, and Wandering of the UN and NATO

Climate Change & Inevitable Conflict

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