Oh Canada! Killing Nanas

In Canada, the elderly are being offered up for sacrifice through the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law. Some of these cases are horrific examples of where such laws can lead to. This first one  from The Daily Mail might even qualify as murder,

Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen.

‘I used very frank terms. I said: “Do you know that you’re going to die on Friday?”'

The 83-year-old was in visible disbelief and began crying for 45 minutes. ‘I’ve made a mistake,’ Brigitte Stegemann, known affectionately to her family as ‘GG’ or ‘Oma’, wailed.

‘She was bawling. Inconsolable,’ Kranendonk, a real estate agent who shares the same first name with her late grandmother, tells the Daily Mail.

In a cognitive test, designed to ascertain whether she was sound of mind enough to consent to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), Stegemann ‘got every question wrong’, believing her two living siblings to be dead, according to Kranendonk.

Yet 48 hours after she wept uncontrollably at the notion of MAiD, Stegemann is said to have died with her hands clasped in prayer, covered in her own blood due to a botched first attempt at connecting the IV, administered by a nurse allegedly not wearing gloves.

Kranendonk is currently in the process of desperately appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, in a bid to ascertain whether what happened the morning of July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton was legal.

Bereaved and distraught, she claims MAiD practitioners took advantage of her grandmother’s vulnerability to perform the procedure, which she alleges was carried out without express consent.

 In another case from The Christian Post, we get a happier outcome from a MAiD near miss, 

A woman in her 70s who felt she no longer offered value to her family because she lost her cooking ability was reportedly approved for euthanasia in Canada, prompting doctors in Toronto to raise the alarm at the ease with which Canadians can undergo physician-assisted suicide...

"She sought and received approval for assisted dying after she lost the ability to cook. She felt she had lost her value to her family. Through counseling, she came to understand that her family valued who she was, not what she did for them. She decided not to go through with ending her life, at least for now. That Christmas, her family gathered and she sat proudly at the table, while others did the cooking and serving," they wrote. 

Why is Canada so hell bent on Nanas? Could it be that the winters are too long? Or is it that the health care system is using this to save money? Or maybe it is because they have no faith in God?

It is probably a combination of the three.

Heaven help us.

Room to grow

 This Sunday's reading from 1 John 3:1-3 reminds us that while we are children of God, we still have room to grow.

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

What we will grow into has not yet been revealed. 

Where praying silently is a crime

This from Premier Christian News, 

A Christian woman who was originally charged last year with silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham is now facing five charges after prosecutors brought fresh allegations against her.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce is accused of breaching an abortion clinic buffer zone on five separate occasions by standing and praying silently within 150 metres of the clinic.

The five charges were brought this week, replacing an earlier single charge which a judge said was not properly drafted.

Vaughan-Spruce has pleaded not guilty. She does not dispute that she was within the 150m buffer zone, but her lawyers argue that silently praying and being present did not amount to a criminal offence and that her prosecution breaches her freedom of thought and religion.

Vaughan-Spruce was previously acquitted in a separate case after being arrested twice over silent prayer, and received a £13,000 settlement from West Midlands Police.

The charity volunteer was the first person to be charged under national buffer zone legislation, which came into force in October 2024 and prohibits “influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services” within 150m of abortion facilities.

Responding to the new charges brought against her, she said: “Standing silently and holding certain beliefs in a public space should never be a crime. Yet, despite being vindicated of wrongdoing on multiple occasions and receiving a financial settlement after two wrongful arrests, I was once again charged last year for my mere presence within a “buffer zone”, and have today received fresh charges.

"I am deeply troubled by this violation of the basic right to my own thoughts and to my deeply-held Christian pro-life convictions. I pray that common sense and freedom will prevail, so that no one else has to face criminal treatment for what they believe.“

Her trial is expected to take place next January.

Her trial is expected to take place next January.

Don't ask any more questions!

This Sunday's reading is from Matthew 22:34-46,

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

“The Lord said to my Lord,

‘Sit at my right hand,

   until I put your enemies under your feet’ ”?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Jesus quotes directly from Psalm 110 verse 1. Three verses later in that psalm we get, 

"The Lord hat sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

I have always thought that Jewish scholars of Jesus' day had long speculated about Melchizedek and his brief appearance. Today we see him through the lens of the letter to the Hebrews in our Bibles. 

Jesus is telling us that it is he who sits at the right hand of God. 

The connection to Jesus becomes apparent now but would have been totally obscure to the Pharisees. 

 

I hope I don't receive any "Winter Cards" before Christmas

From the Telegraph, 

A primary school in Scotland has dropped the phrase “Christmas cards” in an attempt to be more inclusive.

Teachers at Kaimhill School in Aberdeen said they would instead be referred to as “winter cards”  to show “value and respect” towards different cultures, beliefs and traditions.

The email, first reported by The Press and Journal, said: “To reflect this inclusivity in our communications, we refer to seasonal cards as “winter cards” rather than “Christmas cards”.

“This terminology helps ensure that our language is welcoming and inclusive of all members of our school community.

“Of course, families are free to refer to these cards as Christmas cards if they wish.”

The emperor is not a god

This Sunday's reading from Matthew 22:15-22 always seems to come out around the time when churches are working on next year's budgets and want the pewsitters to reach into their pockets. Churches call it "stewardship" but it is really about money.

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title? They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

The Pharisees had to be upset that they could not trap Jesus, but just think what the Romans would think when they found out that Jesus did not consider the emperor to be a god.

Oh, and by the way, it is ok to give your George Washingtons, Hamiltons, Franklins, or stocks and bonds to your church to keep the lights on as long as ya'll are working to spread the Gospel of Jesus. 

An Answer Too Far

The teacher in this case from the U.K. needs our prayers as a preliminary hearing is being held in 2 days.

From Premier Christian News,

 A Christian teacher is taking legal action against a school in Sunderland after being sacked for telling students she is pro-life.

Anita Meston, who's been a teacher for 28 years, joined Biddick Academy in Washington in October 2024. During a Year 8 history lesson which focused on the bombing of Dresden in World War II, she asked whether similar moral questions surrounded the current conflict in Palestine. When asked by a pupil, Meston said that she was “pro-Israel” but lamented the deaths of innocent people in Gaza.

Later in the lesson, a different student asked if she was “pro-abortion”, to which she responded that she was “pro-life”.

When asked to elaborate on her position, Meston explained that she held this view because she is a Christian and that she knew women who had had abortions and regretted the decision. A student replied that she knew women who had had abortions and not regretted them, to which Meston responded, “fair enough”.

The following day she was called to a meeting with the school’s headteacher, who told her that a complaint had been made. Meston said she had only shared her personal views in response to a direct question, but following the meeting, her contract was terminated for “sharing personal opinions on political issues with pupils”.

The school’s headteacher said there was a “real concern” that Meston would continue to “cause harm or distress to pupils”.

Meston said that she was “profoundly shocked” at the decision and is suing the school for discriminating against her as a Christian, which she argues is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 16 October 2026 at the Employment Tribunal. 

I can't tell if it was the pro life or the pro Israel answer or both that got her fired. Either way, some student in that classroom wanted her punished and reported the teacher to the thought police.

Imagine what would have happened if a kid had asked her if she thought that Mohammed was a prophet.