6 - Friday, March 24, 1989 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Is Christianity halted by a language barrier? GOOD FRIDAY SEEMS A GOOD DAY to listen to readers who responded with comments to my Feb. 12 col- umn — ‘‘Christian fears Lord’s Prayer No Help to Kids.”’ That column featured a letter from longtime North Van Sunday School teacher John Psyne who suggested that the archaic language of the Bible is a major reason why formal religion, as preached by the old-line churches, turns off so many children and young people today. Space allows for highlights from only four of the letters which, however, summed up the overall consensus. The consensus being that Mr. Payne was right — that the Bible and traditional church liturgies often fail to communicate in today’s terms the positive essence of Christianity: LOVE, SHARING and HOPE. Traditional churchgoer George Barton of Nortit Van stresses that this conflict worries adults as well as children. He cites Biblical passages that are the very opposite of love, sharing and hope — like Deuteronomy:5,9: '‘For I the Lord am a jealous God, visiting the in- quities of the fathers upon the children unto the fourth genera- tion.” While the Bible is impor- tant, he says, it’s NOT the final or only word of God — which early dogma and human error have distorted over the centuries. So Christians today have a very real duty to separate the truth from er- ror and accentuate the positive. North Van's Maria Lenos echoes his theme — pointing to the vast intellectual gap between the uneducated, nomadic shepherds and fishermen (‘‘humanity in its mental infancy’') for whom the Bible was originally written and the highly educated, analytical, probing society of the 20th cen- tury. The churches, she charges, have failed to grow with the times. As a result, we are not teaching children about a LOVING God residing in each of them and the great PURPOSE there is in each simple life here on earth. Once again, Mrs. Lenos em- phasizes the importance of teaching ‘the law of love"? which John Payne defined as the thing children relate to most easily. She also questions the heavy concen- tration down the ages on the Crucifixion -— the idea that suf- fering is the ultimate level of salva- tion, She would replace it with much greater concentration on the glory, hope and promise symbol- ized by Christ's Resurrection and Ascension, Keaneth Foster of North Van puts the more conservative view- point. Rewriting the Bible is a no-no, he says, because it would no longer be Christian. As a child, he himseif had no problem with the image of God as a grey-haired old man in the sky because he'd been taught from infancy that the oldest people were the wisest. Remember, moreover, that Chris- tianity is not ONLY for children. But that said, Mr. Foster is al! for ADDING to the Bible new prayers and writings to make it more un- derstandable to the bright, ques- tioning kids of 1989. Link Chris- tianity with patriotism, too. Teach children, he says, that Canada is a . eountry based on Christian morali- ty; that we don’t try to make im- Commitment needed ONDAY’S announcement from Advanced Education Minister Stan Hagen of a post- secondary education strategy to increase by 15,000 the available spaces in provincial university programs is good news for the North Shore’s Capitand College and other B.C. community colleges if the commitment is backed with the necessary government financial follow-through. Though there were no specifics of how the plan will allot the initiat 3,000-space increase this year, Hagen said more than 1,800 of those will be made available at Lower Maialand colleges and universities. Capilano College, outgrowing its current facilities and with ever-increasing enrolment demands, wiil surely be in line for a large portion of those extra stu- dent spaces. The cotiege has had waiting lists of approximately 1,500 students for the past few years. Allocation of funds for extra student capacity can only help shorten those lists. And with the aliowance for more students must come a parallel funding for the overdue overhaul of the college, which needs an estimated $35 million to increase its facility capacity by 60 per cent and upgrade inefficient buildings if it is to accommodate current and future demand to the year 2001. Monday’s good news will have to be backed up with an equally good financial commitment in the provin- cial government’s spring budget if it is to be any more than another public relations gesture. migrants change their religions and we don't expect them to try and change Canada’s. Finally, West Van’s Bill Cordts — who has found personal peace in the Missouri-based Unity Church and sent me copies of its literature. Knowing nothing else about the sect, IF can't judge it in relation to other Christian chur- ches, but certainly its LAN- GUAGE is right in line with what our readers are talking about. With due respect to Mr. Foster's fears, I can find nothing un-Chris- tian in Unity’s re-wording of Cor- inthians 13:4-5,7, which reads in the King James Bible cs fo.tows, “Charity suffereth fong, and i. kind; charity envicth not; charity vaunteth not itsell, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unscem- ly, seeketh not her own, fs not eas- ily provoked, thinketh no evil ... beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” The Unity Church ‘‘transla- tion’’: : ** Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not ir- ritable or resentful ... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."* LOVE. I have a hunch that the kids — and some of their question- ing parents too —- might relate to that when they ask what this Easter weekend is all about. happy Easter thought as é&: turn green again: It is nee late to be what you might “ave been! WN } Yarra ied ie bye “4 | ADMSE YOU To KEEP A TIGHT CRIP ON YOUR WALLETS AND PURSES... Publisher Managing Editor Associate Editor aoa Peter Speck Barrett Fisher Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart Photo submitted EASTER FUN UNDER THE SAILS...MP Kim Campbell, young friends and ‘‘Shivers'' get ready for Sunday's big Easter celebration, 1:30-4:30 p.m., at Canada Place — featuring a huge 40, hunt, full-scale Easter Parede, clown, live musical show and much more. BRIAN MULRONEY. CANADIAN FD. Fed WOKE OF ta pert ot ANG WEST eA OUWE Display Advertising Classified Advertsing 4 y a Newsroom ene Rereithent Di remntl Suesenn ans SUNDAY © WEDNESDAY | O01QA® Fay 1139 Lonsdaie Avenue, North Vancouver. BC —_ MEMBER V7M 2Ha4 59,170 (average. 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