Every day, we’re bombarded with the virtues of technology — from quantum leaps in health care to helping police solve crimes to simple conveniences enjoyed by holding more computing power in our hands than what was used to put humans on the moon.

As we near the end of the election campaign, many comments on social media remind me of something Mark Twain wrote 112 years ago: “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”

Church attendance is waning and religious non-affiliation is waxing. That’s hardly news. Observe the empty pews.

Over the Labour Day weekend, there sure were a lot of U.S. politicians conveying their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families of the latest mass shooting, but no visible action on doing anything about the American gun epidemic.

Scores of Catholic nuns bought, sold and bartered enslaved people in 19th century America, The New York Times unveiled in a fascinating in-depth account written by New York University professor Rachel Swarns.

At a recent barbeque, I was telling a long-time friend about a Colombian bishop who planned to exorcise his crime-ridden city of demons by dropping holy water from a helicopter.

Invited to the Ideacity conference in June, I was listening to an eclectic string of interesting speakers, from a British historian describing what Jesus really looked like to the rise of anti-Semitism in Canada and around the world.

As proud parents, we basked at the Queen’s University convocation ceremony earlier this month where our son received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History.

Throughout the Bible, much is said about money. From “the love of money is the root of all evil” to “give Caesar what belongs to Caesar” to “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Less than a month after Pope Francis warned about the perils of misinformation and “fake news,” new research unearths some rather disturbing findings about the issue in Canada.