Last night while I was watching the 2012 Presidential election debates, Mitt Romney made a comment about how the government should not control a woman’s right to contraceptives. And it got me thinking about something I’ve thought before. People use condoms for a variety of reasons. Last night I posted the following on Facebook: […]
Category archives for Religion
The next book I am going to write is going to be on a Middle Eastern student who is torn between a Chinese girl and Canadian girl. He goes to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to go to Saint Mary’s University where he is going to major in Commerce so that he can work for his father […]
The false Christ sees only with one eyes, his left eye, not both eyes. The Quran teaches that our hearts can see and hear; it is not just our eyes that can perform these tasks. If we have faith, we could be blind but we could still see. We could be deaf, and we could […]
Dr. Jerald F. Dirks, a Christian scholar who graduated from Harvard Divinity School, says that Christianity did not exist at the time Jesus Christ lived. Jesus was a Muslim because the word ‘Muslim’ means someone who submits or surrenders to God. Jesus submitted to God; therefore, He was a Muslim, according to Dr. Dirks. A […]
The United States was founded on Christian ideas and principles. Most of the Founding Fathers were self-professed Christians, and one of the issues they were most concerned about is a very Christian principle: that of freedom from tyranny. They did not want to be tyrannized by Britain and unfair tax laws. They wanted to be […]
There are a lot more similarities in how women are viewed in the Bible and the Quran than people might think at first. A lot of people in Canada, mainly because of the media, think of Arab men as obsessed with sex, very controlling of women, and far behind in the area of women’s and […]
Many people confuse between supporting the Palestinians’ right to Palestine with being anti-Semitic or anti-Jew. For me, this is not true. I am anti-Zionism, the movement founded by Theodor Herzl, not anti-Jew. I am not racist, and do not appreciate racism in others. The average Jewish person is the same as the average Canadian, the […]
How can we love our homeless neighbour? We can look directly at them and smile when we pass them on a crowded city street. That doesn’t cost anything. How can we love our Muslim neighbour? We can read the Quran and try to understand their religion better. How can we love our black […]
My second book, He Talks To Me Too, found at https://jaclynhollandstrauss.com/my-writing/canadiannorth-american-culture/, has just been started, but it is going to be a look at organized religion. The metaphor of an island is going to be used to suggest a church that has a lot of rules and regulations. A young girl, Catherine, joins a community of […]
Prayer is one of the greatest gifts that we have been given as human beings. We can ask God for anything we need but more importantly we can thank Him for blessings we have already obtained. Many people aren’t sure of what to pray about. Are there some issues that are too trivial to pray […]
I believe very deeply in God even though my actions do not often correspond with my beliefs. I have strong beliefs in what His character is like. I might be wrong, but here are some of the characteristics I believe He possesses. I believe He is very practical. He knows we are not perfect. […]
Since Ramadan is ending over the following weekend, I thought I would take this chance to talk about fasting, and its spiritual implications. When I was Mormon, I used to fast once a month and I gave my testimony of my belief in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So I know […]
Not every sin has the same negative consequences. The fewer sins we commit, the happier we are, but some sins are worse than others. Sexual sin is very serious because the consequences are so enormous. The simplest life is the happiest. That means someone grows up, gets married at a young age, say 18, has […]
One popular philosophy states that we should do whatever we want as long as it does not hurt anyone else. However, along the lines of what I was saying in this week’s religious section, what about hurting ourselves? I define sin as searching for happiness in the wrong places. We all want to be happy […]
There are three more reasons why I think Canadian girls should date Middle Eastern guys. One is that they are religious. As I have shown in other blog entries, there are a lot of similarities between Christians and Muslims. I have noticed among my many Mormon (and Muslim) friends that people who have strong religious […]
Every day we make tons of decisions. What I think we tend to forget in the rush of everyday living is that even the smallest of decisions we make is guided by a certain power. That power can be good or it can be evil. Some decisions are obvious in their potential to do harm. […]
Some people who are not interested in religion say that religion is one of the main reasons for why wars are fought. This is manifestly not true. The main reason for why wars are fought is land, and arguments over who owns particular land. Even World War II was fought because of Hitler’s ambition to […]
Recently, ABC News conducted a survey, the results of which focused upon how many people believe they will end up in heaven. Almost 9 out of 10 Americans think they are going to achieve that wonderful reward. Muslims believe in Heaven. Mormons believe in Heaven. Mormons believe that there are 3 levels of heaven, in […]
In the New Testament of the King James version of the Bible, I believe it is Paul who admonishes women to keep their heads covered. So that is a similarity between Christianity and Islam. It is interesting to note that many people view Paul as a chauvinist, someone who does not respect women. Some people […]
I have noticed something interesting in my discussions with various Muslims. In contrast with Mormons, with whom I also have a lot of experience, Muslims do not aggressively try to interest people in their religion. Although of course it partly depends on personality and how comfortable someone is approaching others on matters of deeply personal […]
Does a person have to be part of an organized religion in order to have a strong spiritual relationship with God? Or can it be a private thing? There are definitely advantages to being part of a group that worships God each week at an established Church. In fact, one of the criticisms is that […]
Why is the United States the greatest country in the world? There are many reasons. It is the country that was founded by citizens who loved freedom. They resisted the colonial power of England and fought to create a country of their own where class meant something you exhibited at parties. They believed, as did […]
Prayer is one of the greatest gifts that we have been given as human beings. We shouldn’t take it lightly and should pray multiple times a day. That might even be a cliche by now, but it is true, as cliches tend to be. Since prayer is such a gift, we should share it with […]
The Bible says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven. What does this mean? Does it mean that being rich is bad? I don’t think so. I think that God loves us all so much that He wants […]
The Chinese believe in two concepts called yin and yang. They are opposing forces, and they believe that both are necessary for a person to be their healthiest. Christians believe in both the existence of good and evil. We believe that Jesus and Satan were brothers. Each son gave God the Father a plan for […]