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Religion - Forward and Backward It is Easter Week. Christians around the world are preparing to affirm their faith in the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. : Easter is the most important Holy Day in the Christian calendar, and it falls in 1979 at a time when there are strong spiritual forces working in many parts of the world. We have been witness to some of the more recent results and upheavals. The following is an "'unchurched editorial' from the United Church of Canada, a statement about religion and values. k The doomsayers who have been telling us for years that religion is fading away had better take another look at the world. For regardless of economic and social factors that may have contributed to the revolution'in Iran, that revolution was brought about by an exiled religious leader, seeking to re-establish an Islamic state based on the age-old provisions of the Koran. Saudi Arabia has a similar Islamic state. So does Pakistan. They are far from marvels of leniency and compassion -- their laws demand such penalties as death by stoning for adultery, and amputating a hand for theft. But they are states that have been -- or are being -- rebuilt on a foundation of fundamentalist religion. Many other countries, including Canada, are experiencing the same phenomenon, though much less obviousy and less violently. Here in Canada, our educational systems are being changed by religious groups who seek to control the content of English courses. Others want editorial poge to impose a particular religious morality on our criminal code, as it relates to abortion or capital punishment, for example. But there is a grave danger in all this. This kind of religious perspective, whether in Iran or Canada, looks backward rather than forward. It attempts to impose on the complex issues of modern life the moral, cultural, and religious standards of a former time.Assuming that past solutions were right, then any more recent developments, no matter how sincere or well-intentioned, must be wrong. It may indeed be that those who march confidently forward towards a God already in the future are too tolerant of diversity and deviation, and dissent. But we should be wary of those who clutch desperately a God of the past to solve their problems in Canada or in Iran. They dare not tolerate dissent, without undermining their own convictions. And they fail to recognize that the religious convictions they hold today are a heritage handed down from the past by others who had the courage and opportunity to dissent. "How % 1H14 FOR A Snappy 5106AN IT ---- FOR OUR UNITY PLANK 7 ---- BEYOND TREASON. I bill ONE OF THOSE DAYS Right from the first, I knew it was a day, "I shooda stood in bed," as a third-rate pugilist, Kingfish Levinsky, once said after being flattened by the great heavyweight Joe Louis, in round one. - Got up, took a tug at the strap of my wristwatch to take it off and wash; broke the. strap. Nothing serious. Cheap plastic junk. But it turned out to be applied to the watch by one of those unseen geniuses who lose one of your socks in the wash, and produce four extra beer bottles when every case of empties is full. I'll probably never be able to wear the watch again, unless I glue it to my wrist. Serves me right. I hadn't a watch for 30 years, and never felt the need for one. But my wife bought me this one last summer, in the duty-free shop at London airport. And now I find myself neurotically flipping up my cuff and glaring at the hair on my left wrist, like all the other anxiety hounds in the country who are not going anywhere, don't need to know the time, but are constantly flipping up their arms like trained seals and looking at their watches. Who needs a watch? Life is going quickly enough, without the evidence on a little dial. smiley The very word has nothing but unpleasant connotations. 'Watch, what you're doing there. Watch out. Watch your step. Watch the late movie. Watch your wife. Watch that guy hanging around your daughter. Watch what you say in mixed company." 0.K. Ishrugged off the watch. Went down and got my breakfast. Usually, it's toast and tea. This particular morning, I had more time, so I fixed the works: real coffee, bacon, fried bread and a nice sloppy fried egg on top of the bread. A drooly great breakfast. Thought I'd eat in my favourite chair in the living room, and read my morning paper in the spring sunshine pouring in the window. So I put my grub on the kitchen counter and started cutting the fried bread and egg into bite-sized pieces, so that I'd need only one hand to eat. Something skidded. The plate slipped off the counter, sprayed grease all over the front of my pants, and smashed to smit- hereens on the floor. I emitted a most unlady-like few words, salvaged the bacon from under the sink and started cleaning up. Have you ever tried to wipe up just one lousy semi-fried egg from a kitchen floor? It reminded me of the old days, when I'd drop n AY a quart milk bottle and sponge up what seemed like a gallon of milk. And it was the first time I'd had to change my pants since 'I was about two. Well, I should have stopped right there, stripped to the skin, and gone back to bed for the day. But, as faithful readers know, I believe that bad things come in threes, and then you have a good streak. As it happened, I was going to buy a car from a chap that day. With impeccable logic, I reckoned one more minor disaster would occur, and I'd been home free for a while. If it didn't, the car would be a lemon, to complete the trio, and I wouldn't buy it. It did. The minor disaster. I sailed out of the house, figuring I'd slip and break an elbow, or the car wouldn't start. Nothing of the sort. Stuck my hand in my coat pocket. No keys. no car keys. No house keys. And I'd left the latch on. Stood at the back door, ding-donging like crazy for five minutes. Blasted if I was going to climb in the cellar window and wreck my second pair of pants. Finally, the Old Lady appeared. She was not ecstatic with our marital state. Grease all over the kitchen, my watch busted, and "the second last set of plates also busted. She felt like busting me. Anyway, I finally set off with a light heart. The three baddies had happened, and the rest of the day would be glorious, the car a winner, everything golden. Well, you probably know the rest. Late for work. Thirteen decisions to make at the same time. A hair in my grilled cheese at lunch. Lukewarm coffee. Banker who had promised me the loan out to lunch for two hours. Tried to sneak in a quick visit to doctor for allergy shots; and he forgot I was there for an hour. Late for my appointment to meet car seller. We'd both forgotten to pick up the safety check certificate. Rushed off to the garage, telling car seller and wife to wait for, me at licensing bureau. » Arrived at garage breathless, but still time. Nobody home but gas pump jockey. Mechanics out jogging. Jogging! Phoned license bureau to tell short, ill-tempered seller with beard to hang on. They hadn't seen him since I left. Wait 25 minutes. Sweaty, gasping mechanics arrive, sigh certificate. Rushed back to license bureau. No sign of car seller, inside or out. Got all papers ready. Waiting, fuming, inside, them outside. '"'Turkey's probably gone to the bank or something." At five to five, phoned his apartment. hg was there. He and his wife had waited OUTSIDE the license bureau (not brains enough to stay in and keep warm), had decided I'd changed my mind and wouldn't be back, and were at the moment packing to go to the city for a week. With my car. And the license bureau closed at five. Tottered home in a daze, expecting td house to be burned down and my wife pregnant. Or vice versa, the way things were going. And then I started to laugh. And laugh. I had to be administered a strong dose of cough medicine to cool me out. Somebody once said that the Lord works in mysterious ways. He sure does. Wondeng what He had against me that cold March day? Maybe it was a lousy car, and He was trying to warn me. a