Issues, ethics, memory
The Scottish writer William Dalrymple says that Syria has been a kind of oasis for Christians in the Middle East. But Syrian Christians are now faced with a painful choice. They can offer support to a brutal dictatorship that, generally, has protected them but has killed 5,000 of its citizens since calls for change and... Continue Reading →
Writer Christopher Hitchens has died at age died at age 62. One of his most popular and controversial books is God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. In a guest column for this blog, Eric Schiller, a Quaker and a retired University of Ottawa professor, writes about the book and analyzes Hitchens' attack on organized... Continue Reading →
About 130 people attended an Ottawa launch on November 2nd for Dennis Gruending’s new book, Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life. The event took place at Southminster United Church and was co-sponsored by Kingsley Publishing and an Ottawa-based group called Canadians for Democratic Renewal. Veteran journalist Juliet O’Neill, who is now... Continue Reading →
A number of Canadian newspapers have carried an excerpt from my new book Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life. I was asked to choose the excerpt to be used and decided upon a piece that I had written about Murray Thomson, a Quaker and pacifist who was, in his youth, an air force pilot. He... Continue Reading →
You can read reviews of my new book Pulpit and Politics at Amazon.ca:
Normally there would be little reason to compare and contrast Karen Armstrong, a wildly popular writer on religion and Tim Flannery, the Australian palaeontologist and author. The random occasion to do so was their appearance within half an hour of each other recently at the Ottawa WritersFestival. Armstrong is a rarity, someone who has actually... Continue Reading →
Dennis Gruending recalls a 2008 visit to the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi. The museum was dated but the message profound
Each year the Rotary Club sponsors Adventures in Citizenship, a program where high school students drawn from across Canada spend time in Ottawa to see how our government works. I participated on a panel of former MPs speaking to 200 students and I talked to them about dreams they might have of one day sitting in... Continue Reading →
Introduction The Canada School of Public Service provides leadership, training and development skills to public servants. Dennis spoke to a group of about 60 in Ottawa in what is called an Armchair Discussion. His topic: "Throw away your script: speech making redefined." Bill Clinton does it. You can too. Speech making redefined Good morning everyone. I... Continue Reading →
Introduction Dennis was elected to the House of Commons in a by-election on November 15, 1999 to represent Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar. He made his first speech in the House of December 16, 1999 and it it he paid tribute to MPs who had preceded him in the riding, and he promised to work for equality and social... Continue Reading →
