Sports broadcaster Braiden Bell found his dream job when the Portland Trail Blazers hired him as their play-by-play announcer. Later that same day, Bell had that dream job taken away from him.

That’s because a reporter for KGW in Portland, Oregon went digging through Bell’s old tweets and found several from 2012 and 2013 that were quite offensive. Specifically, Bell made a racist post about Asian people and wrote several posts that were quite misogynistic. Shortly after the reporter contacted the Trail Blazers for comment, the team announced that because they had zero tolerance for racism or sexism, Bell’s contract was being terminated immediately.

At first glance, it sounds like Bell was simply being held accountable for unacceptable comments. However, there’s an important caveat—Bell was only 15 years old at the time. Apparently, the reporter thought that it was just fine to go after Bell, who is currently a 29-year-old professional, for things he wrote when he was a teenager.

Think back to when you were a teenager. Chances are that you said or wrote things that you would find quite embarrassing today. And yet, some reporters apparently think that anything you said or did in your teenage years is fair game if it helps you get a juicy story.

The Government of Manitoba has formalized a five-year strategic framework to strengthen agricultural and agri-food innovation with Europe.

The framework is between Manitoba Agriculture and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food, Europe’s largest food innovation community with more than 200 partners dedicated to accelerating innovation and business creation in the food sector.

EIT Food uses the Horizon Europe funding program, with a $151.9-billion budget for 2021 to 2027, to enable and advance innovation and entrepreneurship across the food value chain in Europe and internationally.

The agreement brings together EIT Food’s European agri-food innovation sector and international network with Manitoba’s strengths in agri-food production, value-added processing, applied research, and industry-academia partnerships.

“Christian faith, which is at its heart about self-giving - God’s self-giving and human self-giving - and not about self-imposing.” -Philip Yancey.

As our communities prepare for their municipal elections on Oct. 28 this is a good time to do a series on faith and politics. Last week we looked at how God called Joseph, Esther and Daniel to prominent positions of influence for the sake of serving people in need and to deal with corruption. We also looked at Micah 6:8 and were reminded that a politician of faith should first desire to love justice and seek mercy (kindness) for all and walk humbly with God.

Can one still serve God while exercising political power? After all, Jesus said, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Mark 10:43). In modern politics we still use the term of ‘serving in office’. It seems that servant mentality is key. Jesus is not saying we should belittle ourselves and not desire great things, it’s just that we should start with the right heart that desires great things for all. It is easy for politicians to fall into the trap of doing only what makes them look good and helps their own reputation and polling.

However, for the Christian, political leadership is not primarily an opportunity to gain power. It is an opportunity to steward power in service to God and neighbour. Religious leaders once asked Jesus a politically explosive question about paying taxes to Caesar. His response is remarkable: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Jesus recognizes a legitimate sphere for civil government, but he also establishes something much larger. Caesar has a claim. God has a bigger claim. The coin bears Caesar’s image, but the human being bears God’s image.

AI, the abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence, is omnipresent in our lives. We encounter it frequently in our everyday life and in the media we frequently see red flag warnings about the dangers of AI.

It has replaced human receptionists at many businesses. AI manages our online searches, tracks weather patterns, monitors traffic conditions in our navigation apps, translates text into other languages in almost real time; in short, AI is everywhere.

And now, AI has entered the realm of sports.

Exhibit A - If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve seen the square strike zone on your TV screen. With the help of 16 cameras, Major League Baseball (MLB) has instituted a system called ABS, where balls and strikes are called based on a player’s height that has been pre-programmed into the system.

Wednesday was the third anniversary of the horrific attack in Israel that killed at least 1,200 Israelis. The Oct.7 assault was led by the terrorist organization Hamas, and it resulted in not only the deliberate targeting and killing of hundreds of civilians, hundreds more were taken captive and held for months, and in some cases years. Those that were fortunate enough to survive the captivity have told of the horrendous conditions they were forced to endure.

It is important to remember that the attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was targeted at innocent civilians. The purpose was to instill fear in the Israeli population. In homes, at the Nova music festival, in area Kibbutz’s and on highways, innocent people were killed and captured.

Three years later it is important to remember this attack. For Israelis, it was the equivalent of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On Wednesday evening, I joined Manitobans from the Jewish community along with others from many different faiths and traditions in a walk of remembrance. Remembering is important to honour those who were killed and to also show support for the Jewish community.

And that support is needed in Canada as well, as acts of antisemitism rise sharply. Hateful acts that specifically target the Jewish community are not only on the rise in Canada but around the world. Here at home, Statistics Canada recently reported data that indicated that while the Jewish community only accounts for one percent of the population, a Canadian of Jewish heritage is 22 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than any other Canadian.

I just thought of writing to you concerning the massive economic turmoil which we are seeing in our country and worldwide.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 make it very clear and plain that we are entering the beginning of perilous times. This being so, it is easy to complain a lot and criticize our leaders.

St. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 exhorts Christians to use their lips and tongues to pray, intercede and give thanks for all people, especially for kings and for all that are in authority, that in return we may lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty.

If the Christian does not pray for the government and the state, who will?