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My blog posts revolve around my interests and vocation as a historian: the intersection of history and contemporary church life, the intersection of history and contemporary politics, serendipitous discoveries in archives or on research trips, publications and research projects, upcoming conferences, and speaking engagements.
I sometimes blog for two other organizations, the Canadian Baptist Historical Society and the Centre for Post-Christendom Studies. The views expressed in these blogs represent the views of the authors, and not necessarily those of any organizations with which they are associated. |
 I am teaching a class on the Reformation this semester, and to get students into the drama of the period I like to show a brief movie clip of Martin Luther making his iconic “Here I Stand” speech at the Diet of Worms (1521). There were a number of iconic moments in his life but that was probably one of the most poignant, dangerous, and well known.
But what few know is that a movie on Luther was banned in theatres in Quebec in the 1950s.[1]
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 Most Canadians know about the impressive Canadian success in the Battle of Vimy Ridge that was fought in the First World War on the Western Front (April 1917). From that success onwards it was increasingly seen by Canadians as a glorious nation-building battle that proclaimed to the world that Canada was not a mere colony of the British Empire, but increasingly a peer worthy of national status.
But few Canadians know that there was a battle that predated Vimy, a battle fought not in Europe but in Africa. And in its day it was seen by Canadians to be the nation-building battle where Canada had demonstrated its military prowess and its maturity as a growing Dominion. The battle was the Battle of Paardeberg (18-27 February 1900). And the war was the South African War, 1899-1902 (often called the Boer War).  Some words should rarely be used and instead be saved for only the most extreme circumstances. If overused, such words will lose their power. And if that happens, we are left in the dangerous situation of not having the vocabulary to deal with a crisis.
One such word is “genocide”. |
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