Most Revealing Moment at a Trump Rally: The Opening Prayer

The media pays a lot of attention to the things Donald Trump says at his rallies. But not much is said, if anything, about the prayers that are invoked at every rally before he speaks — prayers that are quite revealing about the state of the Republican Party today. 

McKay Coppins decided to rectify that omission. In an article in The Atlantic (paywall) titled “The Most Revealing Moment of a Trump Rally,” Coppins, a staff writer at the magazine, wrote: “For all the exhaustive coverage of Trump’s campaign rallies, even before the assassination attempt at one of them in July, relatively little attention has been paid to the prayers that start each one.” 

These invocations typically don’t attract the interest of journalists, Coppins noted. But they “illuminate this perilous moment in American politics just as well as anything he (Trump) says from the podium,” he said, adding they also “help explain how the stakes of this year’s election have come to feel so apocalyptically high.” 

Read my column about this illuminating feature of Trump’s rallies in the Free Press. (Photo above from Getty Images.)

Roman Catholic church in Winnipeg wants to do more than just feed spiritual hunger; through their Harvest Ministry, they want to meet local food needs, too

 

At St. Gianna Beretta Molla Parish in Whyte Ridge, they don’t only want to meet the spiritual hunger of people in Winnipeg — they want to provide food for their physical hunger, too. 

That’s the thinking behind the parish’s garden, which is in its first year of providing fresh produce for five local charities in the city. 

“It’s a way to share our blessings with those in need,” said Rod Cantiveros, one of about 30 members of the parish looking after the garden. 

Read my story about the garden, and the non-profit groups it helps, in the Free Press.

Photo above: Father Darrin Gurr (from left), Brenda Van Walleghem, Rachel Banmann and Rod Cantiveros of St. Gianna's pairsh check out the produce at the community garden, Photo credit: Mikaela Mackenzie, Free Press.

"I knew our church was gone." Church leaders in Jasper minister to congregants, respond to losses due to wildfire

If you search for news in the mainstream media about the Jasper wildfire that destroyed a third of the town, you will find lots of articles—but only one (that I could find) about one church that was destroyed (two were burned down). There are none about how churches in Jasper are coping with the disaster and ministering to their scattered congregations. 

So I contacted three church leaders in that community and wrote about it for Canadian Affairs.

“We are asking the Lord to be of service." Hare Krishnas celebrate Festival of Chariots in Winnipeg

When I got the email, I was surprised: There are Hare Krishnas in Winnipeg?

The email came from Komal Sharma, who was organizing the annual event Rath Yatra, or Festival of the Chariots, on behalf of the local chapter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). 

This year’s procession would be the first to take place on a city street, she said, and would involve the largest chariot ever to be pulled by devotees. On the chariot would be images of Lord Jagannath, a form of Lord Krishna, and his siblings Lord Baladeva and Lady Subhadra. The chariot would be adorned with colourful drapes, flowers and ornaments. 

Right away, I told Sharma I had no idea Hare Krishnas were still around. So I was delighted to spend a morning with hundreds of devotees, learning more about the movement today and enjoying the festival. 

Read about Hare Krishnas today in my Free Press column. Also read more about the Festival itself from a news story I wrote for the paper.

Why are people leaving religion? Researchers in the U.S. and Canada offer some answers

Earlier this year, I surveyed people about why they attend religious services and reported the results in this column. (Community was the No. 1 reason.) But why do some people stop going, or not consider religion as an option at all? That was the question on the mind of researchers in the U.S. and Canada recently. 

And what did they find? For Americans, it was religious hypocrisy, the idea that “religion doesn’t make sense,” religious bigotry, the harm caused by religion, the role of science and prejudice by some religious groups against LGBTTQ+ people. 

For Canadians, it was the belief that religion is anti-modern and anti-intellectual; too conservative, strict, inflexible and intolerant; the impact of the American Christian right; and the mistreatment of Indigenous people by the Christian churches in the form of the residential school system. 

Read more in my recent Free Press column.

Photo from Universal Life Church Monastery.

 

Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism: The interfaith life of Kamala Harris

In Canada, the faith of political leaders is no big deal. We know that both Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre were raised Catholic, Jagmeet Singh is Sikh and Elizabeth May is Anglican. But beyond that, there’s little interest in how often they go to religious services or what role faith plays in their political decisions. 

Not so in the U.S., where the faith of politicians is a very big deal. Which prompts the question: Now that Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for president, what is her faith background? 

Read more in my Free Press column about how Harris combines Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism in her life and family—and how that may represent the growing character of American religious life today.

Photo: Kamala Harris at First AME Church of Los Angeles, 2020. U.S. Senate photo. 

Questions on my mind: Should Joe Biden follow his faith about staying or leaving? Do Canadian faith groups have anything to say about hate? How long should a sermon be?

Should Joe Biden follow the example of Pope Benedict XVI when deciding whether to stay or go? That’s one of the questions on my mind this week, along with wondering if faith groups have anything to say about the increase in hate in Canada and how long a sermon should be. (Hint: Much shorter than you might think.) 

Read my latest column in the Winnipeg Free Press.