A Winner

Having watched the English language leader’s debate in it’s near entirety (I was unfortunately not able to

Jack Layton, NDP Leader, Winner of the Debate

 watch nearly as much of the French language debate), I feel confident that I can come to an opinion on who won. Although most of the leaders gave compitent arguments (I dare say that Stephen Harper never did anything other than proffer vague assurances and downright lies), I think that Jack Layton came out on top.

I am not an NDP supporter. I have briefly flirted with them, but my first party was Liberal, and now I am vocal Green voter. But Jack came out of the gate swinging, didn’t hold any punches, and drilled Dion and Harper on the flaws in the records of their respectives parties while working together with Elizabeth May and Gilles Duceppe to present a better vision for Canada (I would in fact prefer an NDP government to a Liberal one on the whole, I prefer their economic and social policies, though I do support the Liberal Green Shift plan above the environmental policies of any of the other parties excepting the Greens).

I would hand the second place position to my aquaintance and school-mate Elizabeth May (she and I are in fact both studying theology at Saint Paul University, though she is in the Anglican Studies specialization, and I, though Anglican, am in the general civil BTh). She proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Green Party can debate on every issue, not just the environment, and that she belonged at that table from the get-go.

Dion and Duceppe both did fairly well. Stephane spent too much time pushing his policies and not enough actually debating the issues in my humble opinion, which seems odd coming from a University professor. Duceppe, who spent the evening advertising Quebec’s achievements and his own party’s policies that were good for Canada as a whole, rather than demanding special treatment for his province, is actually a very convincing speaker when he’s not being assinine (though his accent is occasionally rather funny).

Harper, well he spent the evening blurting out vageries and lies (that’s not an exageration, he really did lie a couple of times). Also, his makeup was preposterously femminine, my girlfriend doesn’t wear lip gloss that shiny. But then I just don’t like him, so many i’m not the best person to comment.

Choose

An odd incongruity exists between the Tory position on the economy when asked about their record/what they will do about the potential finanical crisis, and when they’re talking about the Liberals. When asked if Canadians should worry about the economy, whether we are safe from the crisis taking place in the States, what they have done/will do about it, all is well, our economy is strong. When they are commenting on the economic effects the Liberal Green Shift policy, then we are in shaky economic times and we can’t take the risk. I’m thinking Sweater Vest should make up his mind.

Marionette or spinning the strings?

Being a student of the Queen of the Sciences can often be trying. You wrestle with difficult issues and wrangle with profs whose lectures are often an extended confession of their beliefs. And when those really contentious issues come up, like homosexuality and the means of salvation, spirited debate can waver precariously over the abyss of acrimony. One of the more volatile issues, and one over which I myself have lost some sleep, is free will vs. predestination.

Is salvation only available to God’s elect, an elite group whose membership was determined by the Almighty at the very moment of creation, or does our salvation require our participation? I remember a professor (and Roman Catholic priest) who told me about the many Saints who, in their private memoirs, speak of their great terror at their own power to say no to God. Now, not that I care particularly about the assumptions of modern Roman Catholic hagiography, but that raised in my mind an interesting question: do I have the power to say no to God?

Some would argue that it is precisely this power which caused the Fall: God’s greatest and most horrible gift to humankind of free will. Obviously I don’t mean the Fall as in the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I mean the fact that humanity, because of our gift of free will, falls easily into sin. God gave the power to choose to follow Him or not, and we must exercise that power as we see fit, it is our gift and out curse as beings created in God’s own image.

The flip side of the coin is Predestination – John Calvin’s most famous and controversial doctrine. God controls everything, He created us and the circumstances in which we exist, therefore everything that happens is exactly what and how He wanted it. Our salvation was determined long before we were born, and nothing we can do will ever change it. Now to Calvin this was a comforting doctrine – we need not worry after our salvation, nor throw our money away on indulgences and donations to the Church, God’s plan will unfold just exactly as it should and were are just along for the ride.

Each side posses a certain appeal: Free Will means that I am in control, Predestination means that a power and intelligence much greater than I is in control. But each also has it’s holes: how can a little mortal like me defy the will of the Almighty, the First Cause, the Father of Creation (the doctrine of Free Will assumes that it is God’s wish that all humanity be saved); but why would God determine that some people should enjoy the eternal beatitudes of Heaven while others suffer for all eternity?

And what about the Lutheran doctrine of justification by Faith Alone? According to Sola Fide, our salvation comes about through our faith in Christ, but that faith is beyond our power, since humanity is irredeemably tainted and by sin, and can only come about as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Anglican or no (Anglicanism is the Church both Catholic [Free Will] and Reformed [Predestination]), I am inclined toward Sola Fide. But that inclination is not for theological reasons (when it comes down to the theology I am split between the three of them), I just like Sola Fide. Is going with your gut a good way to pick a doctrine of salvation?

Maybe the answer is none of the above. Maybe, as some of my fellow comtemplative Christians argue, salvation is not at all what Christianity has historically envisaged. I guess it’s just something we all have to work out for ourselves.