Religious growth in America

An interesting factoid from the current First Things. At the Revolution about one in five Americans belonged to and regularly attending a Church. By the Nineteenth Century that number had risen to one in three. Today it is slightly more than one in two.

Certainly Lincoln said things that would be hard to imagine a President saying today:

"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."

Or this from Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823:

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors."

America has moved far from the faith of its founders -- perhaps a good thing, all in all.

This day April 17 in 1989 Polish labour unions were granted legal status

This marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Bloc.

Canadian trapped in Saudi Arabia

Jonathan Kay asks what Nazia Quazi, a young Canadian held captive in Saudi Arabia for the crime of trying to elope, thinks of Brian Mulroney's Globe and Mail OpEd praising the Saudi government.

Sadly, Kay's question fails in its premise. Quazi is one Canadian most unlikely to see a Globe and Mail -- she won't even know our former Prime Minister is such a fan of her captors.

http://tinyurl.com/y5zennb

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." -- Voltaire

Misfeasance in public

St. Elizabeth Home Society v. Hamilton (City), 2010 ONCA 280, released earlier today, outlines the elements of the tort of misfeasance in public office:

 

[20]         Misfeasance in public office is an intentional tort.  The tort is meant to provide a measure of accountability for public officials who do not exercise their duties of office in good faith.  To make out this tort, a plaintiff must prove four elements:

 

·                    The public official deliberately engaged in unlawful conduct in the exercise of public functions;

 

·                    The public official was aware that the conduct was unlawful and was likely to injure the plaintiff;

 

·                    The public official's tortious conduct was the legal cause of the plaintiff's injuries; and

 

·                    The injuries suffered are compensable in tort law.

 

See Odhavji Estate v. Woodhouse, [2003] 3 S.C.R. 263 at para. 32.

 

[21]         At its core, the tort targets officials who act dishonestly or in bad faith.  As Iacobucci J. said in Odhavji, public officials who deliberately engage in conduct that they know to be inconsistent with the obligations of their office risk liability for the tort.  Conversely, public officials who honestly believe their acts are lawful, and do not intend to cause harm or know that harm would likely result from their actions, fall outside the ambit of misfeasance in public office.  In this way, the required mental element achieves a balance between curbing unlawful, dishonest behavior and enabling public officials to do their jobs free from claims by those adversely affected by their decisions.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Today marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail. Here is the full text of the letter:

http://tinyurl.com/47u7qm


"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon passaway and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."