Christians Capturing Tory Party

When it comes to Evangelical Christians in politics there's a clear difference between American Republicans and Canadian Conservatives. Do you know what it is? Because it's quite obvious. American Republicans are elected into office while their party maintains power in Washington. And for those of you living under a rock for the last decade, Canadians aren't overwhelming voting into office these Evangelicals and the Conservative Party.

What is it that people find so offensive? Is it that they are Christians who are heavily involved in politics or that they have ties to groups in the United States? I'm not seeing what's so offensive about this because after all these people (unlike in the United States) have no chance whatsoever at forming the next government. The person who wrote this article is hoping that you will NOT make this connection and is counting on the ignorance of the voter to buy this rubbish.

We don't hear about Sikhs or Muslims or Jews capturing NDP or Liberal races and why is that? And yet Sikhs, Muslims, and Jews either sit as Conservatives in the house or are strong supporters of the Conservative Party? Why is it that we never hear about their willingness to sit alongside these "Americanized Christians" in the Conservative caucaus? If Muslims were succesful in lobbying the government to change their position (an all too easy feat these days!) on the Israel/Palestinean conflict, would we hear about that?

Sikhs and Muslims oppose same sex marriage strongly and vehemently. We don't hear from them? Why not? Catholics and even some Anglicans are against the redefinition of marriage, and yet when they voice their concerns no one seems to mind? Is this not a double standard? Let me ask you, what if any difference is there between an Evangelical Conservative who is against the redefinition of marriage, and a Catholic or Anglican Liberal who opposes the very same thing?

In Canada these Evangelicals merely balance both sides of the arguement, although most of the time it is the Evangelical's opponents who are doing most of the talking. I disagree with not only their position in politics, but there poistion in Christian matters. However, I'm not afraid of them being involved in politics because for not one second do I believe they will sweep Stephen Harper into power as they did with George Bush in the States. If anything they'll keep Harper out of power and further show that Canada and the United States are fast becoming two different countries. This article is just Liberal propaganda that is meant to dehumanise their opposition.

Yet again this is more time, space, and energy devoted to a lesser threat (the Conservative Party). Opportunistic Liberals who would use gay marriage as a way and means of painting their opposition as extremists despite both the divisions across Canada over the issue of gay marriage and inspite of the Supreme Court ruling that redefining marriage isn't neccessary for the government to do at this stage and time, this is more of concern than a couple of Christians winning the nominations to run in an eventual election. And it would seem that there are some Liberal MP's who would agree with me on this.

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"I pick the bones of what's been done. I'm the revolution when the door is shut. I bite the hand that slaps me senseless. I am far too Canadian" -SotW

What have the Christians won especially in the last 100 years or so in Canada and the last 150 years in the US? Women have won, homosexuals have won, heroin addicts have won, Canada has even become a safe haven for some really bad war criminals from Haiti, Samolia, and Salvador, but Christians have lost every single time they were involved in a contraversial issue. I find it amazing that we fear them. They are the ones who are the soft targets of the shrill left prophets of panic. They deserve be much more afraid of us than we are of them. The record over 100 years clearly speaks for itself.

I hope you're not equating women to war criminals.

I think it is time to think of christians as being of two types. Old Testament/eye for an eye on one side and New Testament/turn the other cheek on the other. If only the NTX were more vocal...

The problem isn't evangelical christians, if you look at conservative policy it certainly isn't that radical. We still don't know whether links to the states are overblown, after all, the liberals have far more links to US policy than conservatives, because they hold government.
The above remark that there is no way Conservatives will be elected is WAY off. Last election the liberals had a new leader and the marketing ploy of getting rid of the deficit and still held on by the skin of their teeth. Go look at elections canada and you'll see that in Ontario most liberal seats were barely held onto.

The most worrying idea to me is that people are buying into this 'christian evangelizing' routine. The real danger here is what is occurring, namely that our political realm is being so compartmentalized and our government has NO power over so many facets of our lives. Look at Health Canada or Agriculture Canada and it is clear that these two former bureaucracies are run by corporations and trade representatives, NOT the government (who enact the policies but don't form them).

So what is happening is the only area where there is any significant difference is social policy. And this is only a signatory difference, the liberals have had tons of time to enact gay marriage legislation if they so desired-they never have. Somebody correct me here but do we have a national policy on it yet? The last I heard the federal Supreme Court claimed that it was discriminatory to not allow homosexuals to marry and the government was deciding whether to challenge it. Keep in mind that provinces are always free to simply ignore the feds (as New Brunswick does on abortion) or use the notwithstanding clause to simply opt out (as Alberta has done on gay marriage).

The idea that there is one social policy for Canada is an illusion. Even abortion policy will vary from one municipality to another within a province. While it may be illegal to ban them, you simply do the next thing and charge for them so that people go elsewhere.

The other thing to consider is that it is only social policy that has the organization behind it. Old people vote and old people have traditional values (generally). Polls of young people show virtually nobody against gay marriage, it increases as age does, with the marked increase after 40 (ironic since most of these grew up just after the sixties) yet it increases from there. Other studies indicate that the educated and multicultural ones environment the more open one will be. It's no surprise that rural ridings are heavily against gay marriage, however, those people don't have the option of making policy on economic matters which is really threatening their 'way of life' so they simply vocalize on issues that they ARE allowed to.

The problem with all of this is not a religious one - as people of all religious beliefs are fully free to participate in the policital process in this Dominion. The problem here is that the "evangelicals" are not coming from a traditionally Canadian point-of-view as it relates to Christianity.

Traditional Christian denominations in Canada have been Anglican, RC, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregationalists. The so-called "evagelicals" are all coming from off-shoots of Denominations that have strong roots and histories in the USA - Assembly of God, Free Evangelical, Church of Christ and various Baptist and Pentocostal sects. To their credit, these denominations have succeeded in building a base of adherents through crafty marketing of their message: in essence, they do not demand much of their congregants except belief in the particular theology espoused in the pulpit.

The traditional Churches in Canada (I am an Anglican) have failed to keep their congregations vital, because they have "demanded" too much (intellectually) of their parishoners (I am not happy about this BTW, as I think it represents the problem with the "dumbing-down" of society); as society beccomes "numbed" via the American media Empire, it becomes entranced by very simple and shiny messages, replete with Christian Rock Bands, Play Centres, and non-traditional (American-style) liturgy. Slowly, those seeking comfort in the Church find they have become part of a Cult - where total conformity to the message is part of the package. This message is not Life in Christ and Redemption in the Holy Spirit, but has instead become a set of policy statements that indicate membership, and thus acceptance, into the Cult.

It is this type of Jimmy Swaggert, 700Club, 100 Huntley Street Message that is taking over the Harper Party. That and the Calgary School of Economics, which is merely Dallas-Fort Worth Boosterism at its very basic level.

My Tory Party was peopled by moderate Anglicans, Presbyterians, United Church adherents, and RCs who were (1) Loyal to the Crown and Commonwealth; (2) Respectful of the Past Sacrficies made by our Ancestors; (3) Interested in how to maintain a balanced society with an eye toward the creation of National Wealth in the interests of the Common Good; (4) Motivated to creating an educated Culture with an emphasis on Classical Western Arts and Sciences; and (5) Driven to maintain a society where healthy families understand the clear demarcation from right and wrong (partially to apply ethical contraints upon a potentially rapacious, but necessary state capitalist economy, with a Welfare State.)

I am only 42. I took this all for granted. This is what a Conservative Party meant in Canada. Now it is all about imported US-style Chamber of Commerce low-Church boosterism.

TT

For more perspective on why some people might be alarmed by this, please see another article posted to Vive originating in the U.S. (Harpers), <a href="http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050604190416327">Soldiers of Christ II</a>. <P> The following excerpts are from the article, written by Chris Hedges, (whom I greatly respect since reading his book <i>War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning</i>). But I highly recommend you read the entire thing to get the context and his inside look at a convention where these views were on display. <P> <blockquote>...MacDonald leaves little doubt that the convention is meant to serve as a rallying cry for a new and particularly militant movement in Christian politics, one that is sometimes mistaken for another outbreak of mere revivalism. In fact, this movement is a curious hybrid of fundamentalists, Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, conservative Catholics, Charismatics, and other evangelicals, all of whom are at war doctrinally but who nonetheless share a belief that America is destined to become a Christian nation, led by Christian men who are in turn directed by God. For someone like me, who grew up in the church and was keenly aware of the rigid lines imposed by warring sects and denominations, the new alliances are startling. I notice uniformed officers from the Salvation Army at the convention, something that would have been unthinkable in the past. Lately, the leaders of the movement have even begun to reach out to the Mormons. <P> What the disparate sects of this movement, known as Dominionism, share is an obsession with political power. A decades-long refusal to engage in politics at all following the Scopes trial has been replaced by a call for Christian “dominion” over the nation and, eventually, over the earth itself. Dominionists preach that Jesus has called them to build the kingdom of God in the here and now, whereas previously it was thought that we would have to wait for it. America becomes, in this militant biblicism, an agent of God, and all political and intellectual opponents of America’s Christian leaders are viewed, quite simply, as agents of Satan. Under Christian dominion, America will no longer be a sinful and fallen nation but one in which the Ten Commandments form the basis of our legal system, Creationism and “Christian values” form the basis of our educational system, and the media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all. Aside from its proselytizing mandate, the federal government will be reduced to the protection of property rights and “homeland” security. Some Dominionists (not all of whom accept the label, at least not publicly) would further require all citizens to pay “tithes” to church organizations empowered by the government to run our social-welfare agencies, and a number of influential figures advocate the death penalty for a host of “moral crimes,” including apostasy, blasphemy, sodomy, and witchcraft. The only legitimate voices in this state will be Christian. All others will be silenced. <P> The traditional evangelicals, those who come out of Billy Graham’s mold, are not necessarily comfortable with the direction taken by the Dominionists, who now control most of America’s major evangelical organizations, from the NRB to the Southern Baptist Convention, and may already claim dominion over the Christian media outlets. But Christians who challenge Dominionists, even if they are fundamentalist or conservative or born-again, tend to be ruthlessly thrust aside... <P> ... I can’t help but recall the words of my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. James Luther Adams, who told us that when we were his age, and he was then close to eighty, we would all be fighting the “Christian fascists.” <P> He gave us that warning twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other prominent evangelists began speaking of a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all major American institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government, so as to transform the United States into a global Christian empire. At the time, it was hard to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously. But fascism, Adams warned, would not return wearing swastikas and brown shirts. Its ideological inheritors would cloak themselves in the language of the Bible; they would come carrying crosses and chanting the Pledge of Allegiance. <P> Adams had watched American intellectuals and industrialists flirt with fascism in the 1930s. Mussolini’s “Corporatism,” which created an unchecked industrial and business aristocracy, had appealed to many at the time as an effective counterweight to the New Deal. In 1934, Fortune magazine lavished praise on the Italian dictator for his defanging of labor unions and his empowerment of industrialists at the expense of workers. Then as now, Adams said, too many liberals failed to understand the power and allure of evil, and when the radical Christians came, these people would undoubtedly play by the old, polite rules of democracy long after those in power had begun to dismantle the democratic state. Adams had watched German academics fall silent or conform. He knew how desperately people want to believe the comfortable lies told by totalitarian movements, how easily those lies lull moderates into passivity. <P> Adams told us to watch closely the Christian right’s persecution of homosexuals and lesbians. Hitler, he reminded us, promised to restore moral values not long after he took power in 1933, then imposed a ban on all homosexual and lesbian organizations and publications. Then came raids on the places where homosexuals gathered, culminating on May 6, 1933, with the ransacking of the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. Twelve thousand volumes from the institute’s library were tossed into a public bonfire. Homosexuals and lesbians, Adams said, would be the first “deviants” singled out by the Christian right. We would be the next. </blockquote><p>---<br>Now call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard, and we hit it fast, with a major, and I mean major, leaflet campaign.--Rimmer, Red Dwarf<br />

my apoligies for this long cut and paste, but felt the site will disappear soon with this info...but i believe that the christian extremists of canada who are joining the Alliance party are the same as these christian extremists of america, this editorial is by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey


The Satanic Christians of the USA
11/08/2004 12:08
Which Bible do they bash? Not mine

Between a cult of Satanic devil-worshippers and a group of Christians, which of the two would condone an act of mass murder, torture, rape, destruction of homes, wanton vandalism and acts of terrorism? The former, or the latter?

Anywhere else in the world, it would be considered that only those who walk in legion with Satan would or could support such shocking acts of butchery. Not so in the USA apparently, where the so-called Christian Fundamentalists handed George Bush the presidency on a silver platter, complete with a pat on the back and a reassuring wink. More of the same, George, more of the same.

However, what "Christians" are these and whose Bible are they bashing?

Christianity stands for the values preached by Jesus Christ, which, like other main religions, are based upon the principles of peace, love, tolerance, dialogue and fundamentally, the respect for life, property and the basic laws which govern mankind. The main religions are guardians of the
unwritten bond which defines human decency and that which is considered as unacceptable.

In simple terms, easily understood by a homo sapiens sapiens who lived in islands of civilization among the wilderness, the division between these two precepts was described as the realm of God and the realm of the Devil, Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil.

Since the writing of the Scriptures, Mankind has periodically misused, abused and disused the original objectives of the word, namely to provide an explanation of the unknown and more importantly, rules within which Mankind should live.

Few civilizations have been guiltless in this impulsive act of blasphemy, mixed with the temptation to mix Church and State to strengthen the latter, raising religious banners which in many cases were historically more powerful than national ones, due to the trans-national nature of religion.

Yet today, two thousand years after the Passion of Christ and fifteen hundred years after the death of Muhammed, we continue to see acts of depravity and blasphemy justified under religious banners on a scale as primary and warped as that used five hundred years ago by the Inquisition.

One such example was the blasphemy of the Taleban regime, which usurped the Noble Qu'ran and substituted its core message with a mixture of Pashtun lore and extremist Islamist law. The result: an insult and a direct attack against Islam itself. Similarly, the so-called Christian Fundamentalists in the United States of America, whose warped and blasphemic view of their religion supports the acts of the Bush regime.

" The Christian Fundamentalists of America are the mirror image of the Taleban, both of which insult and deny their Gods. "

How can any Christian, in whatever shape or form, support an act of murder, much less mass murder? How can any Christian turn a blind eye to acts of torture? How can any Christian accept an act of rape? Did these fundamentalist Christians in the USA know when they voted for Bush that a substantial number of sisters, wives and mothers of men wanted by the USA in Iraq were raped in custody and rather than abort or face the humility of their condition, meted out by the soldiers of Bush, preferred to commit suicide?

Did these Fundamentalist Christians know that Bush's military forces targeted civilian infra-structures so that rebuilding contracts worth billions of dollars could be handed to Cheney's friends at Halliburton without even the decency of a tender?

In targeting civilian infra-structures, we are speaking about power plants, which keep babies alive in winter, we are speaking about water supply systems, we are speaking about electricity units, we are speaking about schools, we are speaking about hospitals.

Where in the Christian faith does it state that it is acceptable to destroy such structures? Where in the Christian religion does it state that a soldier should open fire on civilians, including children, yelling "Burn, you mother-f.. Burn"?

Where in the Christian religion is it stated that a soldier can stick his automatic weapon in the face of a frightened six-year-old boy and scream: "Get ya f. hands up, now?"

No, it is no good to simply deny everything and turn to the cross. Such instances are documented and recorded. They happened and continue to happen and will continue to happen, so long as Bush and his evil regime, which hoodwinked their people with ludicrous tales of fear, which made fools out of America's good people with their lies, continues in power. The good Christians of the united States of America have just given a four-year lease of life to this Satanistic regime.

As everyone now knows and as George Bush himself now admits, Iraq and 9/11 were unconnected, wholly and totally unconnected. Saddam Hussein is not Bin Laden, indeed they hate each other and Islamism detests Saddam Hussein as being not Islamist enough. Therefore any connection between Islamist terrorism and Iraq is in plain English, and I apologize, bullshit.

Yet this bullshit sees US troops, every day, slaughtering Iraqis, including women and children and let it be said that if any Iraqi men are resisting this illegal invasion (which breaks the UN Charter and also breached the Geneva Convention, on many counts), are only doing what any patriotic US citizen would do if his country was invaded.

Therefore every time that the Christian Fundamentalists of America enter into a Church and are faced by a barrage of blasphemy connecting Christ or Christianity to Bush, may they choke on the Host if they believe it.

The Christian Fundamentalists of the United States of America are, at best, a well-meaning slice of the population which allowed itself to be misled and deceived by its collective ignorance and bloody-mindedness. At worst, they are a gullible clique of sniveling sycophants who cow-tow to authority, whatever it is and whatever its precepts, listening blindly to the criminals who burn their money every month in acts of depravity, the hard-earned money which they donate to their "churches", so often controlled by masters of mass hysteria who once again have mastered the gift of mixing religion and politics.

The Christian religion has nothing to do with what Bush is doing abroad. The Christian religion never did, does not and never will, condone acts of murder, condone acts of torture, condone acts of rape, condone invasion of property, condone acts of disrespect for human life.

Iraq is not about 9/11, it is about oil and a geo-strategic position because Saudi Arabia is becoming too unstable. Afghanistan was not about bin Laden, it was about the pipeline for gas from Turkmenistan and Iran is (or will be) about the connectivity of the oil and gas pipelines, greatly benefiting the corporate elite which gravitates around the White House, in the figures of Messrs. Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Those who wish to disbelieve and cocoon themselves in a nice, cozy, protective environment, believing that Mr. President knows what he is doing, will soon see the errors in their judgement. Mr. President, in this case, does what he is told.

And the forces behind Mr. President are not Christian or Islamic or anything else remotely religious. They are guided by greed, by the lust and thirst and quest for power, in short, they are guided by the precepts upon which Satan acts and they are wily enough to have duped the good Christians of the United States of America hook, line and sinker.

They have taken these good people, they have insulted their beliefs and they have manipulated them, through fear.

To conclude, a message from my friend of 26 years, Ali, who I spent three years with at University, whose son Rashid, six years old, was in Baghdad in the opening days of George Bush's Shock and Awe campaign.

He told me, among many tears staining the writing paper, that his son Rashid had been killed as he stayed with his grandparents in Baghdad, at the beginning of the horrific bombing campaign unleashed by the Bush regime, supported by the fundamentalist Christians of the USA.

He had been found by his grandmother in the ruins of her home, with a gaping hole in his abdomen through which blood and faeces seeped. Knowing his condition, he bravely looked into his grandmother's eyes and said: "Grandmother, please tell daddy that I was brave and didn't cry".

Then he died. Six years old.

How can any Christian anywhere on earth say that he supports such Satanistic acts of depravity? These are not the soldiers of Christ. They are the legions of Baal. And the Christian Fundamentalists of the United States of America, in voting in favour of the regime which perpetrated these evil actions, are as guilty as the demons which performed them.

Call yourselves anything you like, but do not insult Christianity and please do not insult the Christians who respect the fundamental principles of the religion, by calling yourselves Christians. Instead, call yourselves a cult of Satan worshippers, or the like.

And be ashamed of what you have done, namely supporting a regime of mass murderers and war criminals.


Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Angus, the last two US federal elections were rigged.

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Dave Ruston

Christians are so scary! The way they're always sending suicide bombers into houses of worship, killing mourners at funeral prayers etc. etc. - Oh, wait a sec! wrong religion.

Lefty 'open-minded' types don't even know who they should be afraid of they're so narrow-minded and dumb...

Anon:

The problem is not the Christian religion, but rather the problem is the exportation of foreign American values into Canada under the guise of this type of religion.

TT

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‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke)

What exactly have 'homosexuals won'????

The right to not be beaten to death because of who they choose to fall in love with? How about spousal and partner benefits? What about the ability to hold down a career without fear of reprisal or firing? Yes, the homosexual shouldn't have these rights - according to you. How very "christian" of you. Rights only belong to christians of a specific cloth so it seems.

Muslims are so scary! They always have sicko's shooting doctors and patient at clinics where they feel unjust abortions are taking place, funding extreme political agendas tied to racists and bigots, protesting and advocating the killing and abuse of homosexuals, while proslytizing and falsely claiming to be 'inclusive' and 'turning the other cheek', etc.... Oh.. Wait a sec....Wrong Religion....

The problem *is* the Christian religion and all religions.

Reason, logic and empathy are life.