FREE ESSAY ON CHRISTIANITY: BRITISH COLUMBIA REPORT

CHRISTIANITY: BRITISH COLUMBIA REPORT

The subject of Christianity is a world wide issue of controversy. Thereseems to be a
constant war of opinions and rights between atheist andreligious peoples. By stating
one's beliefs, one takes the risk of publiccriticism from the opposition. This does not
seem to bother the periodicalpublication, British Columbia Report, which is a weekly
provincialnewsmagazine. Organized with different topics of interest, each issue ofthis
magazine contains various sections such as law, schools, the province,books, crime and
calamity, and surprisingly even includes segments onfaith and orthodoxy. But this
publication does not just keep its religiouspoints of view on the designated sections.
Although British ColumbiaReport is a publicly distributed provincial newsmagazine, many
of itsarticles reflect a viewpoint supporting Christianity. In a letter from
thepublisher, Ted Byfield writes on the Globe and Mail's war with God. Thearticle
dicusses how the Globe, sometime in the last three decades, begansniping at God, "a
little dig here, a snide comment there, deploring this,viewing that with alarm, until
today 'Canada's National Newspaper'reads like an agnostic tract." (44) The article is
written with sarcasm asByfield cleverly uses words such as lurid, gibberish and revolting
to makethe Globe and Mail columnists appear foolish. The B.C Report publisheralso fills
his letter with facts supporting Christianity, contradicting anyissues and opinions
brought up by the Globe writers. Overall, the articleclearly shows the publishers strong
opinion advocating Christian belief.British Columbia Report also presents their positive
opinion of thecreation theory in an article placed in the 'books' section of one of
theirweekly issues. The article addresses how "it's getting harder to keep Godout of the
creation story" (36) Beginning by explaining the many scientifictheories and facts, Neill
Brown, the author of this column, does not pointout scientific theories disprove
creation, but shows how these theoriessupport it. Brown presents facts such as, "the odds
that the requiredproteins would assemble by random chance are one in ten to
theforty-thousandth power," to say that "such balmy extremes as thesedoubly underline how
very cogent and convincing is the cosmologicalevidence for the existence of God." (36) By
pointing out theimpossibilities of several science theories, the article shows that in
fact,"every signpost points to a universe made for us by One who planned itso." (37) An
article titled 'Punished for a Sodomy-free Campus' talksabout how "Trinity Western
University is denied the right to certifyteachers," (18) Author, Jerry Collins explains
how TWU prohibits theirstudents from cheating, stealing, smoking, drugs, and sexual sins
such aspremarital sex and homosexual behaviour. So on June 29, 1996, theChristian
University was denied the right to certify teachers by the B.C.College of Teachers
(BCCT). This was mainly due to the fact thatTWU's application policies are offensive to
gays. Collins presents anopinion on this issue by using support to show that the
University'sstandards are good Christian morals which are needed in today's
erodingsociety. Even the title of the article makes one feel sorry for the
studentsbecause they are being punished for their bravery to take a stand against"worldly
ways". The newsmagazine, British Columbia Report, is notafraid to clearly state their
opinion on controversial issues. Although onewould expect this publication to have
secular feelings, this magazinestrongly presents its Christian beliefs in articles
ranging from evolution toeducation. Nevertheless, B.C. Report still remains a widely
distributedand commonly read newsmagazine throughout British Columbia.