The following letter was published by Guelph's student newspaper, The Ontarion, on Feb. 7, 2013

Dear Editor:

Re: Sugar Coated Relationships, January 31, 2013

I was appalled to hear of a university professor here in Guelph  pushing the notion that prostitution for students is no big deal. She argues that giving sex for money has existed, “throughout the history of human relationships.”  But stealing, lying, killing, raping, etc. have also been around for quite some time, so the longevity argument for prostitution is not particularly compelling.

Dr. Ruth Neustifter defends the idea of students prostituting themselves for tuition because after all it’s “nothing new” and not something “necessarily negative.”  She goes on to support the practice because after all, even though it is sex work,”that doesn’t make it good or bad.” I find these comments absolutely appalling.

Way to go professor—you have turned thousands of years of history on its head.  Has it not been the norm for most of recorded history to discourage girls from prostitution? Tragically in our endarkened age respecting all things sexual we seem to be going in the other direction.  But allow me to pose this simple question, “Would you encourage your daughters to work as prostitutes to pay for tuition?” And if not, how dare you encourage young women who are someone else’s daughters to step into this degrading and enslaving lifestyle in order to earn a few dollars.

As an evangelical minister I recently heard from a former sex trade worker who spoke at one of our meetings in Guelph. Her story is one of enslavement, victimization, and brutality. Katrina (I share her name with her permission) was formerly a sex-trade worker who escaped the snares of prostitution and now openly shares her story to protect the vulnerable from getting enslaved and to help those who want out. Her story can be accessed at (risingangels.ca) . It is well worth reading.

I long for the day when our universities might once again be places of light and wisdom. If that’s too much to hope for—may they at least be a safe place for our daughters. 

Royal Hamel, Guelph

Will Christians defend the Jews?

Even as a young boy I read avidly. Born shortly after the Second World War, by the time of my early teens, I found plenty of articles and stories about the war years. And so I became aware at an early age of the appalling holocaust of the Jews at the hands of the Nazi regime.

I remember my revulsion and indignation at this horrific injustice against totally innocent people. I didn’t understand how people could allow such evil to take place. I remember thinking, “If I had been there I would have stood up, I would have tried to protect the Jewish people.”

As the years passed, I discovered to my shame that far too often church people had been among the worst offenders in persecuting the Jews. Indeed, under Hitler a large part of the German Protestant Church accepted the Nazi racist doctrines and allowed the persecution. As an evangelical Christian I am ashamed that Christians throughout history, on many occasions, permitted or joined the persecution of Jewish people.

In many areas of the world today Jewish people live in fear for their safety. There appears to be a growing anti-Semitic trend in many parts of the world. Guy Milliere, in his excellent article, The Full-Blown Return of Anti-Semitism in Europe, documents synagogue burnings, vandalism of cemeteries, anti-Jewish inscriptions on walls, and assaults on Jewish people. He writes that in some cities in Sweden and France the level of persecution has forced Jewish people to flee. On Feb. 6, 2013, The Huff Post headlined an article:Anti-Semitism On the Rise In Europe, according to Anti-Defamation League Report.

Canada is not exempt. Thestar.com reported on Feb. 6, 2013 that Ottawa has been urged to tackle anti-Semitism amidst a startling increase of hate crime. The article stated that Stats Canada released a report in January, 2012 indicating a 42 per cent increase in hate crime in 2009 as compared to 2008. Shockingly, 71 percent of these crimes were motivated by religion and had targeted the Jewish community.

During the time of Hitler’s bloody targeting of the Jews, some Christians stood up and tried to help. Sadly they were not many. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stands as a stellar example of one clergyman who resisted the Nazi regime by attempting to rescue Jews destined for slaughter.

I hold a sombre concern about the response of today’s Evangelical Church if a new holocaust were to threaten the Jewish people. I wonder if Christians and pastors would stand up to an evil power? Would they resist tyranny and defend Jewish lives? I hope they would. I pray they would. But I wonder.

Here is my great concern. Over the last 100 years most evangelical Christians have been programmed to abstain from political involvement. In my own lifetime I have witnessed evangelicals abandon their duty to defend moral principles over and over again—precisely in the area of politics. For example, very few white evangelicals got involved in the civil rights movement of the 1960s that sought to bring justice to black people. And to this day most evangelicals seem to have little concern for the innocent unborn child in the mother’s womb.

I profoundly hope that any renewed persecution of Jewish people would awaken thousands of Christian defenders like Bonhoeffer. Just maybe, Christians in this generation will abhor evil, stand against political tyranny, and fulfill our call to seek justice. I live with that hope. But given our track record—I wonder.

The whole tenor of this article is hypothetical. But in fact the new anti-Semitism is far from hypothetical—it is actually happening on our watch. We who follow Christ must wake up to the times! Let us defend our Jewish friends now, before the storm is fully upon them, not after it is over.

Published in The Guelph Mercury, Feb. 9, 2013

Royal Hamel is a freelance journalist and the author of Unmuzzle Your Inner Sheep (Word Alive Press), available in bookstores in early April, 2013.

Has Christmas Lost its Lustre?

For many people Christmas is perceived as a bother and a chore.  To be sure we once lived in a country that was overtly Christian but now we are all heavily secularized.  I suspect that many who will read this column do not see the lustre in the Christmas story even if they once did. Perhaps for a majority, the Nativity and all its trappings is merely a faint and distant light. 

Now for sure merchants love Christmas. Usually a third or more of retail profits come because of Jesus and the manger. Or did I get that wrong?  Perhaps I should say because of Santa and his sleigh full of gifts bought from these same retailers.   But some merchants and administrators are beginning to wonder if they can finally jettison the heavy cargo of the Nativity. Witness what the managing team of the Stone Road Mall tried to do only a few weeks ago—they attempted to off-load Jesus, Mary and the whole scene.  Some others as well would like to get away from the word Christmas completely, and just focus on the “happy holiday” aspect. With each passing Christmas season we are increasingly waging the Christmas “wars”—some want this season to be wholly secular, while others like me want to retain its spiritual meaning.

But beyond the merchants, what about you who are presently reading this article?  Do you see the historical story of Jesus’ birth in a manger as a wonderful truth? Do you pause, as shepherds once did, to worship King Jesus with awe?  Or is the whole scene simply ho hum to the point of boredom?

Why have so many lost the wonder and the awe surrounding the Nativity?   Why are so many disillusioned with Christmas?  I would like to suggest six possibilities:

1)      You may have been spiritually wounded and confused by a pagan god in a red suit, big belly and long white beard who comes bearing gifts.

2)      You may be one of those unlucky people who have been conned into thinking the historic birth is nothing but myth. Isn’t it ironic that an atheist group in New York City has a billboard urging people to “Keep the Merry, Dump the Myth?” Yes, they want you to dump the historical Jesus and embrace Santa.  Please don’t believe the lie. The truth is out there.  Refind the lustre.  Dump Santa instead.

3)      You may be a name only Christian who shows up at church on Christmas and Easter. Trust me, I’m not blaming you. There’s a really good chance your mom and dad reared you to think that Jesus and his teaching didn’t matter.  Since the apple usually falls close to the tree, you may loosely call yourselves a Christian, but in your heart of hearts you don’t have the foggiest notion of what it means to follow Christ. Sadly, you have been inoculated against experiencing the real thing.  How can you perceive the lustre for the first time? Embrace Jesus.

4)       You may have had a sincere belief in the past because you saw the light and the glory around the baby called Jesus. But somewhere, sometime, someone in the church profoundly hurt you and you turned away. You concluded falsely that it was all humbug.  And not really knowing what you were doing you threw out the bathwater. Tragically you chucked out the true God-who-came-in-flesh at the same time. No wonder the lustre is gone.

5)      You may see no lustre around the Baby in the manger for you have willed to follow light that is no light at all. Jesus warned that this would happen to some, “...Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” See and embrace the ancient lustre—love not the darkness, love light.

6)      You may be one of those persons who truly believes in the historical baby Jesus who was indeed born of a virgin. You know in your heart it is true. You know that it happened as described in the ancient trustworthy texts but somehow the intellectual knowledge of the truth has never made it to your heart and your spirit.  You are not one who rejects the glorious shining of this true Baby who came in the flesh— you simply do not perceive it.  There is not likely any lustre in Christmas for you for head knowledge without experience of personal faith remains but head knowledge.  Discover the lustre—trust and confide in Jesus.

Guelph Mercury: December 22, 2012

Royal Hamel is ordained with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at watchman2003@sympatico.ca

Popular novel should be renamed Fifty Shades of Porn

Because of its popularity this is my second post on Fifty Shades. This fuller article was published today. See link below.

British writer E. L. James’s erotic home run is flying off the shelves.

In the United States alone, almost 20 million copies of the 1,594 page trilogy have been sold. The book has held the top three spots on USA Today’s bestselling books list for nine weeks. In at least one hotel it has upstaged the Bible. The owner of the Damson Dene Hotel in Windermere, England has replaced the Gideon Bible in each room with a copy of the steamy novel.

Many people have asked, “Why are women by the millions buying this book and simply devouring it?” I am sure there are many different reasons. For instance, the story line is apparently profoundly romantic, and women have always been attracted to this genre. But there is another very basic reason. This popular work might be titled Fifty Shades of Grey, but a better title would be Fifty Shades of Porn. The book is all about explicit sex. Does sex sell? You bet it does — when doesn’t it sell? 

E. L. James deals with sex in a way that is new for most mainstream people, which is another reason for her popularity. She delves deeply into the realm of sadism and masochism and does so in a focused, erotic way.

Although there is nothing new under the sun, there is plenty under the sun that is new to people who have never tried it or thought about it. This material directly appeals to the curious crowd who have an interest in trying something new in their intimate lives.

My great concern is that unwary and unwise Christians might take up this book. They might think any book so mainstream and at the same time so wildly popular is not likely to be harmful. They would be wrong. In my view this work has power to attract and seduce. Like all porn, it wields the ability to deeply invade the thought life and to take people to places they should not go. It is a sad sight to see people caught in the web of porn addiction.

I suspect that some reading this article will at this point be furious at me. They might say to themselves, “There goes another prudish, sex-hating, repressed and bigoted Christian.” Well they would be wrong. 

The Bible is explicit that sex is a good gift. After God created all things, including Adam and Eve, he described everything he had made (including sex) as being very good (Genesis 1:31). In I Corinthians 7, God instructs that husbands and wives are to meet the sexual needs of one another. In Hebrew 13:4, the Bible instructs that, “marriage should be honoured by all and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

Now, it is true that from the time of Christ to the present, Christians have accepted God’s guidelines around this good gift of sex. Simply stated, sexual intimacy is a gift to be shared only between husband and wife in the covenant of marriage. God gave commandments regarding sexual conduct because the wrong use of sex with the wrong people causes offence to God, leads to the killing of innocent life in abortion, promotes the destruction of families, and leads to unhappiness in marriage ... I could go on and on.

So what impact, in particular, does porn have on marriage? Sheila Wray Gregoire, author of The Good Girls Guide toGreat Sex, writes a cautionary note to men in one of her blog posts.

“Porn rewires your brain so that what becomes arousing is a picture or an image, and not a real live human being. Porn will make you impotent in your marriage, it will make your wife feel like trash, and will make her feel angry and unwanted. And it is a form of cheating. It is not OK. It is wrong. End of story.”

I would counsel everyone to resist the temptation to pick up this book — running in the other direction is a far better choice.

Royal Hamel is ordained with The Christian and Missionary Alliance and now writes as a freelance journalist.

Published Guelph Mercury, July 28, 2012    Find it here

Fifty Shades of Porn

British writer E. L. James erotic home run is flying off the shelves. In the United States alone almost twenty million copies of the 1594 page trilogy have been sold. The book has held the top three spots on USA Today’s bestselling books list for nine weeks.

Not a few people have asked the question, “Why are women by the millions buying this book and simply devouring it?”  There may be nuanced reasons, such as the fact the story is apparently profoundly romantic, and women have always been attracted to this genre.  Nothing new here.  But beyond that simple fact there are some other very basic facts.  The book is all about sex; it is without doubt a form of soft porn.  Does sex sell?  You bet it does, the more profound question is, “When doesn’t it sell?” 

A further reason for the high sales relates to the fact that this book deals with sex in a way that is new for most mainstream people.  It delves deeply into the realm of sadism and masochism and does so in a focused erotic way.  Although there is nothing new under the sun, there is plenty under the sun that is new to people who have never tried it or thought about it. This book directly appeals to the curious crowd who have an interest in learning and maybe even trying something new in their intimate lives.

My great concern is that unwary and unwise Christians might take up this book.  They might think that any book that is so mainstream and at the same time so wildly popular is not likely to be harmful. They would be wrong.  In my view this work has the power to attract and seduce well meaning Christians.  It has the power to invade their thought life and to take them to places they should not go. Porn will do that, you know.  

It might be called Fifty Shades of Grey, but a better title would be Fifty Shades of Porn.  I do not believe that literature like this has any place in the life of a committed follower of Christ.

It is dangerous to even toy with the temptation to pick up this book—Running is a far better strategy.    

Alleged Killer/cannibal Luka Magnotta has Plenty of Fans

Yes, it’s unbelievable, but the alleged killer/cannibal, Luka Magnotta, has his own fans on Facebook.  At least he did until the service shut down some 1400 fans because it was deemed  inappropriate. Apparently the fans consisted mostly of teenage girls as well as some older women. The following is a quote from an ABC news article.

"I like EVERYTHING about him," Destiny St. Denis, the 21-year-old creator of the now defunct page told ABC News in an email. "He needs to know that there are A LOT of people that care about him. He doesn't have to go through life thinking that no one does. That isn't fair. What he did, is his business! No one is in the position to judge him. I support him because he is a human being who deserves love, respect, and affection just like anyone else."

So here is one fan who thinks that no one is in a position to judge Magnotta, because after all what he did is his business.  How many others of his fans believe essentially the same thing?  Well, we don’t know for sure, but there are probably a few others among the remaining 1399 fans.

So what does this have to do with walking and talking our Christian faith?  Well it raises the profound question of whether it is every right to pass judgment on other people. In our contemporary Christian society I’ve heard more than a few Christians loudly proclaim that we have no right to judge anybody. But is that true?

Come and let us reason together for a moment. Is there such a thing as right and wrong?  Is there good and evil in the world? Are there not people in Nigeria right at this moment plotting to murder as many Christians as possible, simply because they are Christians? Were those people who flew the planes into the World Trade Centre guilty of evil because they mercilessly slaughtered over 3000 innocent people? What about serial killers? What about pedophiles who abduct, rape and murder young children. Were Hitler and Stalin and Mao Tse-tung merely misguided in their calculated slaughter of millions of innocents, or did they do evil, and are their actions culpable and worthy of judgment?

Our whole society has gone gaga over moral relativism. And those moral relativists who are consistent cannot condemn anything, because after all, it might be right for some to do “evil”, even if it might be wrong for others to do that same “evil.” 

Sadly I think some of this relativism has infected and affected even some in the church.  For we are at the point where in the name of tolerance and non-judgmentalism Christians are being asked to not pass judgement on actions that former generations clearly saw as moral evil. 

Christians are often referred to as sheep in Scripture.  I put it to you that well armed lambs are neither mute nor stupid. Christians possess wisdom and discernment from scripture. Let us bleat out warning and admonitions to a generation fumbling in the darkness—for the love of God, and the love of people.

I invite you to follow this blog by signing up by email (see top of page). I invite you to follow me on Twitter @royalhamel           

Let us talk the walk 

Let us flood the darkness—with light!

  

Great Message on Repentance

For the last while I've been writing on the important topic of repentance. Sometimes I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness crying out about the virtual loss of this crucial doctrine.  How important is it?  Quite simply there is no true following of Christ without it.  Indeed I think there is no true conversion unless the one who is trusting in Christ also manifests repentance.

With the dearth of this teaching everywhere, imagine my surprise  to hear a guest speaker at my local church bring a message on precisely this theme.  David Loney is an active part of Crossings Community Church in Acton and he spoke last Sunday.  I would very much like you to hear this sermon. It is available here.

Be blessed, challenged and grow in the things that shall last forever.

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