In 2006 well known journalist Marci McDonald wrote a definitive piece on the Canadian religious right for The Walrus Magazine. The premise and birth of religious right alert is based on her interest, research and information.
Covering religious issues in Canada is difficult for seriously stretched and economically beleaguered media; Canadians are passive and trusting about religious institutions and the various charities which operate under religious faith. The book is inspired by The Walrus article and religious right alert as a lead up to this book is beginning a series which will start to identify the issues of religious media/taxes and CRTC regulations. We hope to trace the family trees of fundamentalists in media who have flown under the radar of the majority of Canadians, learn how to collect information to pass on to regulatory Canadian bodies, and religious right alert will be asking bloggers and readers to compile research and make connections. Our tax payer money is going to religious media.
I’m looking forward to Ms. McDonald’s book and will be asking Random House if they can help this site get the book into the hands of those who want to research and educate all of us on the mechanisms and funding of religious media and groups which have worked to network with parliament to push their agenda.
Please take a minute to look at our sections: The Religious Right in Canada; What is The Religious Right?
From Random House:
About this Book
An urgent wake-up call for all Canadians who think that this country is immune from the righteous brand of Christian nationalism that has bitterly divided and weakened the United States.
In her new book, Marci McDonald documents the startling extent of the influence that the religious right already wields in Canada and shows how, quietly, often stealthily, it has provoked far-reaching changes in Canadian policies and institutions, including our public service, our schools and our courts.
In four short years, galvanized by their failure to stop same-sex marriage, not only have conservative Christians developed a permanent infrastructure in Ottawa, designed to outlast whatever party is in power, but they have done so by borrowing the rowdy style of the American religious right to which most of their leaders boast close ties. Their rise has been tied to the election of Stephen Harper and it is no secret that evangelicals have already re-shaped Harper’s foreign policy in the Middle East, guided by what McDonald terms the Armageddon Factor. But few Canadians are aware that a militant band of conservative Christians with a direct pipeline to Harper’s cabinet is also attempting to reshape the country’s social, cultural and even scientific policies, driven by a belief that Canada has a biblically ordained role to play in the final days before Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.
An Islamist terrorist murders 13 plus a unborn baby at Fort Hood.
The warning signs were ignored because no one wants to be called a Islamaphobe.
Its so easier to go after the real culprits…..Christians.
TJEERD:
You’ve lost me. What does the Fort Hood shooting have to do with Canadian fundamentalism?
Our politics, our laws, our regulations and the use and misuse of them are some of what appears will be addressed in this book.
While I share some of the concerns of the religious right regarding such things as gay marriage and abortion, I do not believe that the attempt to create a so-called “Christian nation” will or can work. When any brand of Christianity from Constantine’s time to the present has attempted to enforce “Christian values,” it has become autocratic, doctrinaire, and cruel.
JP
Religion and politics must be kept separate.
As a Unitarian Universalist Canadian, I am a strong, ardent supporter of Section 2a (freedom of freedom) of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, I do however also ardently and strongly believe in freedom of religion that is also includes accountability and responsibility.
It greatly infuriates me greatly when I hear about some fanatical adherents of any Christian or non-Christian religion who despicably and wrongfully infringe upon and abuse the rights of other people; be it people of their own faith or others not of their faith. And, I’m greatly outraged when these same rights abusers engage in perniciously evil violent means against others.
I do strongly recommend Dr. Charles Kimball’s highly informative book, “When Religion Becomes Evil.” It quite rationally outlines the very things that make a particular interpretation of a specific religion and particular adherents’ actions and belief systems particularly evil and heinous.
I just listened to this author on the Charles Adler show and I was a bit stunned at what she said. Apparently, Christians should not be elected to politics. The reason you may ask? She wants to keep Canada religiously tolerant. Say what? Contradiction alert! Then she says that Christians do not care about the environment. I thought I was a Christian but I guess I am not since I care about the environment. (although I am critical about the current environmental movement, I am in no way critical of the environment)Religion has indeed become evil in practice yet so has humanistic systems of governance, such as communism. So by the same logic we shouldn’t let communists be elected, or fascists, or used car salesmen. (Probably the most evil people ever)If we are not to elect religious people, and people who hold to humanistic values, who are we to elect? Social-paths? To be honest, as I haven’t read this book I am commenting on the interview. If this is her level of thinking however, I do not hold any hope for this book. She might be good a getting a scoop yet she fails to interpret the data in any logical way, if her interview is an indication.
I caught the author on The National last night. What strikes me about Ms. McDonald is how much she and people like her are to the very people they fear.
I stopped going to church regularly 15 years ago. My reasons are many but a lack of belief is not one of them. I was tired of Evangelical paranoia about the “Secular World” and the “Liberal Agenda”. I was tired of the rhetoric about the need to put Canada back on track and make it a Christian nation again. While the religious contributions through the history of this country (bad but especially good) are often ignored, Canada was never a haven for Christian principle and the attempt to assert that it was a nation completely founded on Christian principles is an act of myth building. (unconscious or not)
Yet on the other side, the so called “liberal elites”, we have the same attempt at myth building towards the opposite. Canada is and was a nation of secular reasonability, build on enlightend non-religious principles – a land of opportunity and equality for all. Utter bunk as the social, ethnic and class inequities faced by my forefather and mothers could demonstrate.
Yet both sides claim to be under attack, that their valued way of life is threatened by the other side. Each the other demands the right to speak freely and equally but fears what each other has to say and desries to dominate each and every discussion.
It is so tiring.
It is unfortunate that Ms. McDonald is doing the exact thing she is supposedly opposed to, without even realizing it.
After listening to her interview yesterday, she came across as a passionate and committed author, determined to present her case – which is all great! Unfortunately, it also came across that her theories are based on very limited exposure to and interviews with small sects of the “religious right” – not at all representative of reality. Had she researched this book and her theories with more depth, she would have realized that:
Christians are not anti-environment. Christians are told by God to have dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to tend to it. We are told to exercise the principles of good stewardship. Which in practise looks like this – we recycle, we use our resources responsibly, we take care of our possessions and our money and we plan for our kids’ future.
Canadian Christians don’t subscribe to some off-the-wall theory that Psalm 72 refers to Canada. Ms. Mcdonald is the first person I have EVER heard use that reference. Sure, it’s poetic and sounds nice in a song – but a climactic role in the end times? Hardly. I have heard more people actually point out that Canada and the US are conspicuously ABSENT from ent times prophecy – indicative of our lack of impact on anything in the world and the high likelihood that we will have been overshadowed by Europe and the UN.
“Christian Zionists” is the only sect I heard her refer to. One can hardly take the opinions and beliefs of one small denomination and use a wide brush to apply the same to ALL right-leaning religions.
Frankly, Ms. McDonald seems ardent but ignorant. It is unfortunate that she will now have the celebrity status and perceived authority that goes with being a “published author.”
What a surprise…!
A Christian doesn’t want to read a book.
Guess you’ll stick with the Bible, eh?
This book that these ‘Christians’ give so very much credit to…it was written when again? So…did the people who wrote it believe the world was round or flat? Did they believe the earth revolved around the sun? Or did they believe the sun revolved around the earth?
It’s part of what I like to call the Build Your Own Christianity Syndrome—given the inconsistencies in the New Testament, Christians pick and choose exactly what to believe. A sect of Christians may even decide another sect of Christians is heathen, even though both sects fully believe they have Truth. The result is often very bloody. Once you pick one piece of scripture over another, anything is possible. Just ask the family of an abortion doctor who’s been shot dead by the Pro-Life Movement.
I’m not sure I’d call Christian Zionism a sect as much as a belief system melding Darbyism and politics which crosses denominational borders.
Ms Mcdonald is a hateful hateful bigot!
Listen to her interview and substitute “Muslim” or “Native” for “Christian”….
she should be brought up on hate charges with the Human Rights Tribunal
That’s your contribution to discussion?
If you are that upset, why don’t you file?
I’m heading out the door to pick up my copy today. (I’m hoping there are still copies at Chapters!)
I’m looking forward to what the author has to say, and will be back to post my thoughts after I’ve had a chance to read.
Christ’s peace – r
Ms McDonald a very necessary wake-up call to all of us who live in secular, tolerant Canada that our nation is very much in jeopardy.
I disagree with Magnus that the Left is exxagerating the threat from the Christian right. They certainly do hate us (non-Christians, secular, Muslims, Sikhs, etc.) and could do us harm if they get enough power. Try being a religious, racial or social minority in the US South (where a white-Christian majority dominates) to see the threat.
The Christian Zionists are the worst. They- along with rightwing Jews- have hurt Canada’s reputation, hurt Palestinians, encouraged Israeli apartheid and war crimes and would like to start Armageddon. They are definitely the worst segment of the Right and Harper is definitely in this corner. They really want to fight and kill as many ‘raghead’ Muslims as they can being the ‘haters’ that they are.
McDonald is a brave and intelligent ‘siren in the night’ that is warning us that we could go the way of the US- where rightwing bigots and fanatics can get to ridiculously high levels if not challenged (look at Dubya)! Underestimating the enemy has made Liberal/Left America so weak and the Right so powerful!
Hi Richard:
Good to hear from you. Would you be interested in having your review published here with full attribution? Let me know.
I picked up Marci’s book recently and have been enjoying it immensly.
Karen criticised Ms. McDonald in her post above (May 13, 2010, 9:36 a.m.) noting her “theories are based on very limited exposire to and interview with small sects of the religious right – not at all representative of reality”.
Realistically, no author can cover every angle in every possible way in a book of around 400 pages, expecially on the given topic. We should expect and accept that ‘The Armageddon Factor’ provides one author’s glimpse into the subject topic and there will be others that will cover it in other books in other ways.
Ms. McDonald does not suggest that all Christians in Canada are bad or that they have a hidden agenda; she merely points out the relationships she is aware of.
I’ve been a Christian all my life too. I’ve even attended a few evangelical congregation services to see what all the hype was about and determined it wasn’t for me.
I believe one does not need to attend any church or become part of any congregation in order to live and work in a way that respects the individual rights of others. I view faith as a personal, individual choice, and I have no need to share it with – or have it influenced by – anyone else outside of my family.
Canadians of any faith – including Christian faiths – have a right to run for office and serve in government. The Canada Elections Act makes no reference to faith as a qualifier for candidacy. However, we must not allow faith and religion to influence policy and law-making in Canada. History has shown that doing so in any society has always led to unacceptable imbalances.
I have enjoyed the book too Doug. I don’t expect perfection, what I do expect is that people prepared to criticize The Armageddon Factor actually read it. If they can’t do that, we put up audio and TV interviews they can chew on.
If that’s not enough, we linked to a chapter.
Random House has said it is aware there are a couple of errors (not of interpretation but actual errors) which will be corrected in the next edition.