Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

WHERE DO I COME FROM?

My grandparents on both sides were elders in the “Christelijk Gereformeerde Kerk in Kornhorn, Groningen. If in the afternoon church service a nap was more seductive than the sermon, my grandfather whose name I share- a dairy farmer- would resolutely stand up so not to succumb to an unholy bit of shut-eye. Yes, my parents, my wife – a minister’s daughter!- and I have our roots in what here is called the Netherlands Reformed Church, better known as the heaven-fanatic, very conservative, black stocking church. The last words my late older brother –who kept the faith of the fathers – said to me “We will see each other again in heaven.” Indeed, my background is convincingly pious.

I was slated to become a minister, and was sent after grade school to the minister-doctor-lawyer preparatory school, the Christian Gymnasium, 6 grades with some 100 students in total, almost all male. I still have a picture of the grade 5 class: 13 young men 18-20 years old, all in suits and ties. Besides Latin and Greek – Hebrew was the only option, which I now regret not taking- and four European languages and six mathematical subjects, it taught me discipline.

No, I did not become a minister. Instead I moved to Canada in 1951, after serving a short time in the military. I could have become an air force pilot, but my father refused to give his approval.

Independence categorizes me. Within a year in Canada I was my own boss, selling insurance. Formed my own agency in 1957, became a real estate broker in 1965, the same year I was chairman of the Young People convention in Niagara Falls with the motto “Alive for Christ in ’65.” Always active in something: school boards, Ontario Alliance, an elder. In 1959 when I saw a client die of lung cancer I decided to quit smoking and take up running. Ever since then running has been part of my life.

1972 was for me a turning point. Three books changed my life: Lappe’s Diet for a small planet, Teller’s Sterven,,,, en dan? (After death….what?) and The Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth.

Lappe’s book convinced us to become vegetarian. Telller’s book made me see the importance of the earth as our eternal destination, and the Club of Rome taught me that we live in a finite world.

The church?  I still love it, but had my disagreements there. I remember speaking at a chapel service at Beacon Christian High School in St. Catharines right after I had seen the Light about creation and wanted to share that not heaven but the earth needed our total devotion. My minister was also in the audience, disagreeing so much that he sent a letter to all parents. Later he wanted to discipline me. Fortunately he left the denomination.

He was one reason why in 1975 we sold our house and business and moved to Tweed, far away from it all. I also wanted to use less of earth’s resources. We bought 50 acres from friends and built into a southerly slope an energy efficient house, two storeys on the south side with large windows on both floors, and one storey on the north with only one small window there. I even made insulated shutters for the windows as glass is a very poor insulator.

Again I created my own job. Living on savings, I used my time to qualify as a real estate appraiser, taking courses at Trent, Queen’s and York Universities and preparing three master appraisals of more than 100 pages each, one on a single family dwelling, another on apartment complex and a third on an industrial building, all required to become an accredited appraiser. In 1978 I had all my qualifications and launched Hastings Appraisal Services, subsequently hiring residential appraisers, one for South Hastings County, one to cover Central Hastings and another for North Hastings. I did all the commercial stuff, an airport, river dams, the entire Bruce Peninsula for an Indian land claim  – 500,000 acres  – , lots of work for Public Works Canada, as well as an uranium mine with 4,500 acres and numerous summer camps, grocery stores, hotels, schools, you name it.

When I sold out in 1993 I installed 10 solar panels and expanded my garden, converting the soil from pure sand to something fertile, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, carting from a neighbour’s yard pure precious black manure and also working in our compost. I grow much of what we eat, bike to town 11 km daily – in June I ran a 10 km race in 1.05 hour-  grind our own flour with an electric mill, buying the kernels from Grain Processors, where we also obtain oat flakes and other bulk foods, bake bread.

I try to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, fully realizing that this path is different for each person.

September 2012

Was that “The Global Swan Song?”

I don’t like mega churches, but I loved it when 400 million people world-wide heard an old-fashioned sermon at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics. It happened at the end of the show recalling the sinking of the Titanic, a name now synonymous with disaster. The ‘lesson’ was delivered by a regal-looking Emeli Sandé who sang all five verses of Abide with me, the hymn supposedly played while the ship slowly sank into the icy seas. She projected into the planet such biblical truths as:  “Change and decay in all around I see,” but also beamed across the globe the glorious gospel of “I need your presence every passing hour. What but your grace can foil the tempter’s power?”

The Titanic reference couldn’t have been more up-to-date. In 2012, one hundred years after its sinking the entire world is in a Titanic mode: drowning in an ocean of debt. The phrase fast falls the eventide reminded me of Oswald Spengler`s famous book Der Untergang des Abendlandes, the Demise of the Evening Empire: our Western world, yet few, if any, of the 400 million viewers realized that then and there they may have witnessed “the global swan song”, when she intoned Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day, earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away. It may seem farfetched but to me it meant that Brazil’s preparations, already underway for 2016, may well come to nought, because the London Olympics could well have been the final one.

Do I really think that the 2012 Olympics could be the last of the global games?

Here’s what could very well happen. Today a four year term is like a century, that’s how fast events are happening. Just look at the speed of Climate Change. Next year millions will starve as harvests are down everywhere, with worse to come. The most e-mailed article in a recent New York Times issue was: “Hundred – Year Forecast: Drought.” Imagine no rain year after year!

Staging the Olympics depends on a growing world economy, generous governmental support and global stability. Instead everything points to negative growth, budget cut-backs and climate-induced universal bedlam. At work are two opposing trends: expanding populations and rising expectations versus fast fading food – and water supplies, perfect recipes for food, water and resource wars.

Then there is the debt bomb which will affect us all, even those who are rich and debt-free. It used to be that large government borrowing would stimulate growth, but that is no longer true. It now takes an unsustainable $20 of government debt to produce $10 of GDP growth.

A long time ago the Roman Empire was in a similar situation, also highly dependent on expansion to maintain its structure. Its growth came from slaves and treasures taken from ever more distant territories. However when these resources declined and were too remote, the outcome was contraction and implosion.

Today, no matter how fast we dig, debt keeps piling up more than twice as fast. All debt comes at a price, that’s why Psalm 15: 5 and Proverbs 28: 8 warn us against lending at interest, because interest must come from continuous growth, simply impossible in a finite world.

God created the world with organic growth in mind- greater faith, love, wisdom – not exploitive excess. Usury lending works only in ever expanding economies; once growth stops – as is the case now- the balloon pops. Also all paper money relies on trust, trust that tomorrow will be better. This is no longer true, not in a world full of peaks: peak population, peak food, peak water, peak minerals. The real scary scenario is that after the peak it’s downhill, perhaps quite steeply.

We are in a real quandary: we have based our society on continuous growth, allowing large pensions, expensive medical and educational structures, libraries and museums, but in a shrinking world all these will become millstones around our necks, sinking the economy as sure as the Titanic. Put the blame on money and its lenders. No wonder Dante in his Inferno consigned usurers to the lowest pit of the seventh circle of Hell.

July 27 was a memorable day: then, it seemed to me, the Global Swan Song echoed through the cosmos. Multitudes of many millions heard the message: Abide with me, fast falls the eventide, the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide. Change and decay in all around I see.” But also “Who like yourself my guide and strength can be? In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”

Matthew 11:15 comes to mind.

Does the church still remember “semper reformanda?”

On a hotter than usual day for early June I was running on the Bruce trail in a cool tunnel of green growth. Tiny sun-spots made the dark path resemble a star-studded sky. I was thinking.

Physical exertion always lubricates my brain. My mind was busy with climate change, visualizing Eve and Adam at that tree, full with good fruit. I imagined them absorbing that bitter bite, and experiencing a world-altering event: climate change. They needed clothes not only because their thoughts had taken an erotic twist but also because flies, mosquitoes, bees, formally solely agents of pollination, were stinging them all over.

Climate change is more than temperatures rising. It also causes cancers and withholds wisdom, evident especially in political, ecclesiastical and financial circles. Take Perpetual Growth. Every day we hear economists and politicians, in unison, laud its miraculous merits as if a constant repeat will make it come true, and so lower deficits and create greater prosperity.

But… perpetual growth is impossible. These same people in essence deny Climate Change which necessitates fundamental changes as motor vehicles, all industrialization, generate CO2 , the hot weather maker.

I was there when Climate Change was debated at the Christian Reformed Church synod. It was a fascinating US congress-resembling  scenario. In other words I heard a lot of nonsense. The proposal passed with a reluctant majority: one vote on a minor matter went 98-68, a 40 percent disapproval. Earlier I had attended a combined delegate / young adult service. The singing there was interspersed with bible readings and a quote from the Belgic confession: “We know God first by the creation, as the universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book”, based on Romans 1:20 where it says that contemplating our wonderful world alone should convict us of God’s eternal power and divine nature. Believe it or not, creation is God’s holy primary word.

Once the communal part was over, the audience was asked to form small prayer circles. In my group were some important movers of the denomination. When I suggested that, based on what we all just had recited, creation too is God’s holy word, this was met with stony silence. Even though the bible and our songs – This is my Father’s world –   state that God made the cosmos which makes it holy, it’s much easier to ignore that part because it entails a drastic reversal of our daily doings, requiring constant forgiveness as driving a car or even switching on a light causes pollution.

Will the church ever make God’s holy primary creation-word an active part of the liturgy? Liturgy literally means “the work of the people.”  Has ‘semper reformanda’ become an empty slogan? Is the church still capable of ‘always reforming?” I love the church.  I am often moved to tears by the singing and praying (I am an emotional sob). By and large the sermons, based on God’s secondary Word, are mainly monologues of which only 10 percent is retained. Church services would be far more effective if the original meaning of liturgy was implemented, if preachers act as coaches to involve people, elicite testimonies, having them share practical energy-savings, food-growing tips, and walks in the woods to learn about God’s created word. With direct participation the learning index increases to 90 percent.

As a Christian community, in the prelude to the Lord’s return, we must unflinchingly face the current situation, and integrate scriptural insight with cosmic concerns, use the Bible as a lamp for our feet while becoming much more knowledgeable about Creation, God’s ever valid direct Word.

Frankly I don’t think church denominations can still change. At the CRC Synod I noticed that many are still caught up in the Greek philosophy of nature and grace, where the church is in the soul business and has nothing to do with stuff out there. It seems to me that changes are up to clusters of people – “where two or three are together” – or perhaps a “small is beautiful” congregation.

Reforming means a radical departure from the centuries’ old format of church services, which is losing appeal everywhere. Reforming means implementing what 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us: “When we are in Christ the old has gone, the new has come.” That new is outlined in Revelation 21 which reveals a new creation – God’s holy primary Word – without a temple or church or synagogue or bible. I believe that we slowly must move that way, especially for the sake of the young people, many  of whom no longer feel at home with the current set-up. When we dare to worship in an integrated way, they will remain with us and even teach us a thing or two.

Bert Hielema lives in Tweed, Ontario, 200 km from both Toronto and Ottawa.

April 2012

Collapse

Collapse happens all the time. Come to think of it, the Bible starts with collapse right in the Garden of Eden, when the good life there suddenly turned sour. Both the Flood and the Tower of Babel triggered collapse, also happening almost overnight. The Bible also ends with it, when our present world order, Babylon, goes bankrupt.
God was directly involved in Noah’s rescue and in thwarting communication when humanity sought to dominate the earth by erecting a skyscraper. Later God started a hands-off policy – see Deuteronomy 32:20 “I will hide my face to see what their end will be,” heralding a drastic divine departure by allowing humanity to go its own way, thereby  acknowledging that mankind has come of age. This new approach is especially evident today in the re-built Tower of Babel, now in the form of the World-Wide-Web and Everywhere English.

Jared Diamond, a professor of geography in L.A. wrote a 575 page book simply called Collapse, subtitled:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He devotes one chapter to Easter Island, discovered by Jacob Roggeveen on April 5 1722, Easter Sunday. There that globetrotting Dutchman saw something most astonishing, a landscape with huge stone statutes, but devoid of trees and inhabitants. Apparently the native religion required these immense images, which came at the expense of the native trees, used for transporting logs and scaffolding. Writes Diamond: ”What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say? Like modern loggers, did he shout “Jobs, not trees!”? Or: “Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we’ll find a substitute for wood”? He also devotes a chapter to the Maya realm with flourished in Mexico from about 800 A.D. for some 700 years. A few weeks ago it was discovered that a 25-40 percent reduction in the rainfall – resulting in famine – was a deciding factor in Maya’s demise. Will an ultra-dry season in North America, the world’s bread basket, have a similar result?

Late last year Niall Ferguson in Civilization: The West and the Rest, confirms that civilizations do not rise, fall, and then gently decline. No, its shape is more like a steepening slope that quite suddenly drops off like a cliff.Harvard History Professor Ferguson, focusing on the Roman Empire, points out that it collapsed within a few decades in the early fifth century, tipped over the edge of chaos by barbarian invaders, internal divisions and energy shortfalls. In the space of a generation, the vast imperial metropolis of Rome fell into disrepair, the aqueducts broken, the splendid marketplaces deserted. The Ming dynasty’s rule in China also fell apart with extraordinary speed in the mid–17th century, succumbing to interior strife and external invasion. Again, the transition from seeming normalcy to anarchy took little more than a decade.A more recent and familiar example of precipitous decline is the 1989-91 collapse of the Soviet Union. And, if you still doubt that collapse comes suddenly, just think of how the dictatorships of North Africa and the Middle East disappeared last year. Twelve months ago, Messrs. Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Gaddafi seemed secure in their gaudy palaces. Here yesterday, gone today. What all these collapsed powers have in common is that the complex social systems that underpinned them suddenly ceased to function. One minute rulers had legitimacy in the eyes of their people; the next they did not. This process also happens quite often in financial markets.

We do well to reflect on our own situation. Don’t think for a moment that our present state of bliss is permanent. History suggests that one day everything smells like roses, the next day we experience a death spiral when the cozy familiar fades away like a figure in the fog.
With everything now having global implications, one catastrophic event – think bombing Iran or the banks owning up to their debts – could quite well result in a global commercial collapse and accelerate the coming of Judgment Day, when we all will appear before Jesus, charged with crimes against creation in whatever form, and especially guilty of greed, the root of all evil, both the result of us worshiping our very own idol: infinite growth in a finite world.

Jesus’ primary mission – and the church’s task as well- has always been the coming of the Kingdom, the New Creation, with the redeemed of the Lord as agents of organic innovation. (John 3:16-17). Since we have totally failed on that score, have actually done the exact opposite, the old has to go before the new appears: collapse has to occur. Welcome it.

Bert Hielema came to Canada in 1951, had an insurance agency from 1952-1975, sold out, moved to Tweed, took off a few years to become an accredited commercial appraiser, sold out again, and retired- sort of -in 1995.