Issues, ethics, memory
Several Post media newspapers carried a question and answer piece on either October 29 or 30 by journalist Paul Gessell with Dennis Gruending regarding his new book Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life. The newspapers carrying the piece included the Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader Post and Edmonton Journal. Those papers and a number of... Continue Reading →
I have received comments to my blog recently from Gerald Wry, who is one of my readers, if only by chance. He came across one of my earleir pieces of April 2011 when Stephen Harper announced that his government, if reelected, was going to do away Canada's long gun registry and destroy all of its records. Of course, the majority Harper... Continue Reading →
Two recent pieces of information give pause to claims that our economies are serving people well in North America and other countries. Jim Wallis, the American evangelical who has long been involved with a group called Sojourners, writes about an “un-economy” that is “unfair, unsustainable, unstable, and is making many people unhappy.” Elephant in... Continue Reading →
You can read reviews of my new book Pulpit and Politics at Amazon.ca:
The Ottawa-based Hill Times carried an interview with me in its October 17 edition regarding my new book, Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life. It was released earlier in October by Kingsley Publishing of Calgary. It is available in Ottawa at Brittons magazine stores: 846 Bank Street or 352 Richmond Road, or from Alpine... Continue Reading →
Paul Dewar, the Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, has entered the race to become leader of the New Democratic Party. Dewar was raised in a political home in Ottawa and his parents were staunch Roman Catholics. Two years ago, I invited him to talk to a class that I was teaching about faith... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending Óscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, was recently awarded an honourary degree by Carleton University in Ottawa. Arias used his 30-minute acceptance speech to deliver an impassioned message about the urgency of shifting out-of-control military spending into investments for peace and human... Continue Reading →
Jack Layton received a fond public farewell from Canadians genuinely saddened by his untimely death. Now, the focus has, inevitably, begun to shift as members of his party contemplate next steps and the NDP’s opponents ponder with trepidation what the flood of public affection toward Layton might mean for them. Some NDP MPs and others... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending On July 22, Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik set off a car bomb in downtown Oslo that killed eight people. Then, dressed as a policeman, he traveled to a nearby small island and used a semi-automatic rifle to massacre 77 members of the Labour Party's youth wing who were attending a summer camp.... Continue Reading →
Released by: Kingsley Publishers (October 2011) A provocative expose of the competition between religious progressives and conservatives for power and influence in Canadian politics. Gruending follows this contest between from Parliament Hill to the church basements, synagogues, temples and universities of the nation and abroad. Available from the author: dennis.gruending @sympatico.ca Tel: 613-730-6902 Readers™ Comments:... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 