Vancouver writer Susan Martinuk joined the ChristianWeek ranks as a regular (monthly) columnist last month. No doubt her name will be familiar to many readers, especially those who enjoy her columns each week in the Vancouver Sun. Or those who appreciate her contributions to the National Post. Or...

ChristianWeek readers with exceptional memories also know that Susan is no stranger to our pages. Back in 1992 she wrote a three-column series on reproductive technology for us. At the time she had recently withdrawn from a Ph.D. program at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, where she was part of an extremely successful research team concentrating on ovarian physiology and infertility.

Despite her academic achievements and brilliant career prospects, Susan was struggling on two fronts: a debilitating illness that turned into chronic fatigue syndrome, and a crisis of conscience that led her to conclude that “the use of certain reproductive technologies to alter the natural process of reproduction is wrong.” She quit the program with the conviction that she should use the work she had done as means to accomplish the purposes of God.

And that has been the trajectory of her life ever since.

For several years, Susan was affiliated with Focus on the Family and was featured as a newsmaker in ChristianWeek. In fact, in November 1993 her photo dominated the front page as the lead news story trumpeted “Focus attacked as ‘voice of hatred.” Despite pickets and protests and some cancellations, Susan went ahead and delivered several scheduled seminars on family values in Victoria, B.C.

She is not one to shy from controversy, which most editors will insist is a useful trait in a columnist.

All this is to affirm what many of our readers will already know: Susan is a gifted writer with a strong sense of Christian conviction and values. We are pleased to feature her perspectives on social, political and legal issues affecting the practice of Christian faith and life in Canada here on page three in every second issue of ChristianWeek.