John Baglow 2010.  Used by permission. All rights reserved

McDonald’s recent book on the relationship between the Religious Right and the Harper government, The Armageddon Factor, may have been unclear on finer points of theology, and it contained a small handful of solecisms over which the Usual Suspects snorted and slobbered. But in general it was a competent dissection of the influence that certain elements of the “faith community” would like to have on governance, and a government (Stephen Harper, that is) that has provided them with unprecedented space—while falling far short of attempting to turn Canada into the Republic of Gilead.

But at least one significant omission should be rectified: the attempts of the government to work with reactionary religious elements amongst the First Nations.

Relations between the Harper administration and First Nations have been fraught almost from the beginning. From attempting to foist Maurice “Starlight Tours” Vellacott upon the Aboriginal Affairs Committee, to its shameful rejectionof the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ; from its refusal for years to build a children’s school in Attawapiskat to its appointment of Chuck Strahl as Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, whose visceral contempt for the First Nations is a matter of public record. (Chuck has now moved on to become Minister of Transport.)

As for Harper’s much-vaunted “apology” to residential school survivors, he followed that bit of self-serving puffery with deep slashes in funding to aboriginal groups:

But with apology and self-congratulations still echoing, his government cut off funding in its March 2010, budget to the very aboriginal groups set up to administer to survivors. The Ottawa-based Aboriginal Healing Centre loses its last federal money — and with it, some 147 national centres and projects — in 2012.

This past June, however, I watched that same Chuck Strahl receive high honours, in person, from a gathering of First Nations people in Ottawa (actually, outnumbered in the audience by those of the European persuasion). But this was no ordinary meeting. Strategically organized to take place a week before the hapless, hobbled Truth and Reconciliation Commission was due to hold its first hearings in Winnipeg, the National Forgiven Summit, organized by Canada’s Aboriginal Religious Right, gathered to accept Harper’s empty apology.

The master of ceremonies was one Kenny Blacksmith, a former Deputy Grand Chief of the Cree nation, already rewarded earlier this year for his devotion to the Conservative cause by being appointed to the little-known Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

Kenny is a protégé of the noted young Christian Dominionist Faytene Kryskow, who featured heavily in MacDonald’s book. Indeed, she helped him set up his more recent Facebook page.

He is devout and pentacostal—not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the subversive wedding of his beliefs with the aims of our government (the Ottawa meeting featured a video clip from Harper on a big screen, and various Conservative notables were in the VIP section) is something else again, particularly given the harm that this government has visited upon First Nations people.

Now, what is wrong with this picture? A group claiming to speak for Aboriginal people, making close links with a government that, despite a so-called apology for the shameful legacy of residential schools, has thwarted them at every turn, even balking at building a school for kids, while providing major funding for a Christian private college, and a Christian youth center in Vic Toews’ riding? NDP MP Pat Martin’s riding, over his objections, after the vigorous intervention of Vic Toews?

The only thing the government and Blacksmith have in common, it seems, is Jesus. But one wonders whether the Latter would approve of these goings-on. Does Blacksmith work for his people, or for the government?

Jesus said, “A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows. And a slave cannot serve two masters, otherwise that slave will honor the one and offend the other.” (Thom 47:1-2)

And is he building unity or dividing his people?

“These 6 things doth the Lord hate . . . a proud look, a lying tongue . . . and he that soweth discord among brethren.” (Prov. 6:16-19).

So much for the chant of Kenny Blacksmith, a biddable man who reminds me a bit of Prufrock in T.S. Eliot’s eponymous poem:

[O]ne that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse…

So far, I suspect, little real damage has been done–Blacksmith and his following are just more people waiting in the wings, along with the other folks described in McDonald’s exposé. But a Harper majority could change everything.

We might recall that the current government is not the first to play this game. The Lubicon Cree, still desperately trying to settle a land-claim, their ancestral lands progressivelydespoiled, their population ridden with tuberculosis, suffered grievously under the Liberals. And one tactic used by Jean Chrétien, was to invent two Indian bands out of thin air, hoping to lure away Lubicon members. The people of one fake band, the “Woodland Cree,” were promised $1000 each if they voted for a federal offer of a pitifully inadequate reserve. They later found out that this would be deducted from their welfare payments.

But the deliberate courting of an idiosyncratic Indian leader as though he actually spoke for First Nations as a whole marks a new and dangerous political departure. The Assembly of First Nations, unsurprisingly, is none too happy with this initiative: “Forgiveness,” said AFN president Shawn Atleo, “is an individual choice and a personal decision. No one can forgive on someone else’s behalf.”

Precisely. But this government will take what forgiveness it can get. All that’s missing is repentance.

Dawg’s Blog
Dammit Janet

This summit took place on June 25 -27 and is old news, but since it failed to make it into U.S. media, I think it is worth noting. Also, the blurring of the lines between end times prophecy and foreign policy will continue with the CUFI Summit in Washington D.C.  on July 20 -22.  This follows Hagee’s release of his new book Can America Survive:  Ten Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation,” which includes the graphic description of the end of Judaism and the forced conversion of the state of Israel. Nevertheless, Jewish politicians (Democratic and Republican), Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, and other Jewish leaders will speak at the event.

Grant Jeffrey is author of Shadow Government, How the Global Elite Plan to Destroy your Democracy and Freedom, also made into a “documentary” film by Cloud Ten Pictures in Ontario, the producers of the Left Behind movie series and John Hagee’sVanished: In the Twinkling of an Eye. I’ve written previously about Cloud Ten Pictures and Hagee’s portrayals of the Antichrist as the head of the European Union inVanished and other media.

Jeffrey is also one of the featured speakers on God TV’s series “Apocalypse and the End Times.”  Link to trailers for the series including interviews with David Ray Griffin, Mike Bickle, Paul McGuire, Tim LaHaye, Gary Kah, Mark Hitchcock, and Larry Bates.

Marci McDonald, author of Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada (published 2010), wrote the following in a Canadian magazine article in 2006 titled “Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons:”

“McVety’s ideological muscle-flexing has provoked charges that he’s financed by the US Christian right. ‘We haven’t seen one American greenback,’ he retorts. Still, his critics could be forgiven for leaping to conclusions. Canada Christian College houses nearly two dozen evangelical tenants, including Oral Roberts Ministries, and just down the hall from McVety’s own office he runs John Hagee’s Canadian command post, dispensing books and DVDs that he claims brings in $1 million a year.”

McDonald continues,

“Then last December, still smarting from their failure to stop Bill C-38 [Civil Marriage Act], McVety and Ben-Ami [Joseph Ben-Ami] launched the Institute for Canadian Values with a gala dinner tutorial from Ralph Reed, the boyish tactical wizard behind Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, which succeeded Falwell’s Moral Majority and helped mobilize the South for Bush.”
- Walrus Magazine, 2006

Karl Rove’s speech at the “Faith and Business” summit is not available, but he did provide a separate interview with the press and one Toronto reporter described him as “confidently declaring the Democrats would soon suffer a ‘whupping.’” Afterwards, Rove wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “Obama and the Fiscal ‘Road to Hell.’” However, there was no mention of the end times prophecy aspects of this road to hell.

The ongoing blurring of the line between policy and end times prophecy will continue this week as John Hagee hosts his CUFI Summit in Washington D.C. on July 20 -22. Hagee’s latest book Can America Survive: Ten Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation was released at the end of June and soared up to #2 on the Wall Street Journal’s “Best Selling Books” in the non-fiction category. As in other books, Hagee describes current events through the prism of end times prophecy and claims that the end of the natural world is imminent. The ultimate purpose of all this end times horror and bloodshed, including the death of one third of the world’s population, is to convince Jews to accept Jesus.

“There is comfort and consolation in Ezekiel’s prophetic portrait of the world tomorrow. The message is that God is in total control of what appears to be a hopeless situation for Israel. He has deliberately dragged these anti-Semitic nations into Israel to crush them so that the Jews of Israel and the nations of the world will know that He is the Lord and there is no other. America and Europe will not save Israel… God will!”
(Page 146)

This is Hagee’s description of the end of today’s world as we know it and the horrific events that will force the surviving Jews of the world to repent of Judaism. This forced conversion of Israel is the trigger which begins the glorious 1000 year Christian Millennium. In the chapter titled “Armageddon: The Final Battle for Planet Earth” there is a subsection titled “The Jewish People Turn to God.” This is slightly veiled code language for rejecting Judaism and accepting Jesus as messiah.
“Note carefully that the Jewish people at this point in time do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. The Bible is very clear that this will happen at the end of the Tribulation, when the Jewish people…
“will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for his firstborn.”
-Zechariah 12:10

That is the day, the Scripture declares, when ‘all Israel will be saved.’ (Romans 11:26)
Because of this colossal battle on the soil of Israel, the Jewish people will abandon their disastrous relationship with the Antichrist and begin turning toward the Most High God.”
(page 243)

Of course, as Hagee has pointed out in other books, such as Jerusalem Countdown, “all Israel” does not mean all Jews!  In this chapter Hagee again states that the Antichrist will be the leader of the European Union, a claim like many others in his media, that undoubtedly impact his audiences views of current world events.

Undeterred by Hagee’s continued international promotion of a graphic narrative of the end of Judaism and the forced conversion of Israel, a  number of Jewish politicians and leaders will speak at  the CUFI Summit including: Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren; Rep. Shelley Berkley(D-Nev.);  Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA);  Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations; and Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor-in Chief of U.S. News and World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News.

I wonder if any of these Jewish leaders have read Hagee’s latest book? If you are represented by, or have access to, one of these Jewish leaders, you might want to ask them.

Talk2Action

Inscribe the Bible Canada is sponsored by B’nai Brith Canada andChristians United For Israel, founded by Texas millionaire televangelist Pastor John Hagee. John Hagee Ministries rents office space from McVety at Canada Christian College, and McVety in turn is chair of CUFI Canada. B’nai Brith VP Frank Dimant chairs a department on Israel at McVety’s college, and his appointment to that position was attended by Jason Kenney.

McVety, Hagee, and Dimant have all shared the podium at CUFI bunfests. End times are cozy times.

“The Bible and Peace House will be the jewel in the crown of Bible Valley. The Bible Valley Project intends to develop an area of 25,000 acres adjacent to Jerusalem.

The Bible Valley Project will be composed of several sub-projects.
Foremost will be the handwriting of 100 copies of the Bible in various languages by two million Bible lovers from around the world. This will be done in cooperation with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Bible House is one of the elements in Bible Valley dedicated to bringing the Bible back to Israeli society and Israeli society back to the Bible.”

Bring Israeli society back to the Bible? Develop 25,000 acres adjacent to Jerusalem to look like biblical times? Rapture outreach tourism?

Take it away, Max …

Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour from huffpost on Vimeo.

Next CUFI Show in Washington DC in a month.

Alison also blogs at Creekside
Dawg’s Blog
Chris Selley: Rove sees ‘whupping’ in the offing
Joe Connor: G20: Is god at the summit?
Scott Dagastino: “Strange bedfellows in the Israeli apartheid debate

A group of religious right lawyers in Canada who received their charitable status in 2007 for their Faith and Freedom Alliance believe religion freedom is under attack. The group aligns with Focus on the Family Canada, REAL Women of Canada, The Christian Legal Fellowship, Catholic Civil Rights League and the Canadian Council of Christian Charities.
Good background here. John Carpay of the Canadian Constitution Foundation was a featured speaker at the Alliances 2010 Christian Legal Intervention Academy held the the first weekend in June in Toronto.

There is a good post on Quebecors ‘Fox News North’ centred around the Sun media chain by Rev. Paperboy. Great line. “Goodbye reasonable discourse, nice knowing you.”  Because it has done such great things for American Politics

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Thanks to the efficient Harper government, Canadians are doing both at once.

Since 2008, there has been a spike in Christian funding by the feds–using our tax money. As reported in Straight Goods this past February (subscriber wall), Human Resources and Skills Development has been ladling out dollops of cash to right-wing evangelical groups:

In the period July 1 – September 30, 2009, for instance, 22 out of 173 grants made went to faith-based organizations, for a total of $889,016. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, by contrast, there were no grants to faith-based organizations meeting the search criteria (including in their names the word “Christ,” “Christian,” “Church,” “Pentecostal,” or “Baptist”).

While many of the faith-based organizations that received funding do not fall into the religious conservative category, most do. The Word of Truth Christian Centre in Pickering, ON, for instance, received $192,033 for a project last year. (Shouters) National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith International Centre of Canada in Toronto received $198,951. Eastside Church of God, Fresh Start Program in Swift Current, SK got $84,110.

–

For some reason, since the Harper Conservatives came to power, faith-based organizations with extremist views suddenly have become responsible for delivering local employment programs in many Canadian communities. [emphasis added]

Wycliffe Bible Translators slurped up a hefty $495,600 of your money and mine. But that was dwarfed by the $3.2 million awarded to an outfit called Youth For Christ–and, while children living in poverty on a reserve in Attawapiskat have been denied a new school for years, Edmonton’s Newman Theological College was recently awarded $4.2 million of Harper’s largesse.

We’re all tithing in spite of ourselves. And you needn’t take my word for it:

For Christian universities, “It’s a historic change, and nothing short of amazing,” says Justin Cooper, president of Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont., which received $2.9 million. The funds will help cover costs of increasing research and energy sustainability initiatives across campus.

Education funding is a provincial mandate, and Christian universities generally aren’t eligible, so they welcome the change. (Alberta and Manitoba are the exception: private colleges there have long been eligible to receive about half what a public institution might get for capital costs).

Christian universities that benefited from (the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program) include: Redeemer and Tyndale University College and Seminary in Ontario; Trinity Western University in British Columbia; The King’s, Concordia, Canadian, St. Mary’s and Ambrose University Colleges plus Newman Theological Seminary in Alberta; Providence College and Seminary and Canadian Mennonite University in Manitoba; and Atlantic Baptist University in New Brunswick.

Here’s blogger Dennis Gruending, making connections:

A story that the mainstream media both covered and missed was the Prime Minister’s promotion of two individuals to senior positions in the PMO in March 2009. Darrel Reid became chief of staff and Paul Wilson replaced him as PMO policy director. Reid and Wilson have deep roots in both religious and political organizations. Reid was chief of staff to Reform Party leader Preston Manning while he was leader of the opposition. Later he became the president of Focus on the Family Canada, a conservative Christian lobby group that has worked against public childcare, same-sex marriage, and against adding sexual orientation to a list of minorities protected from hate crimes.

Wilson has worked for Trinity Western University, which is based in Langley, B.C. and is one of the largest evangelical educational institutions in Canada. Trinity established an Ottawa “campus” in 2001 in an old mansion near Parliament Hill. It houses the Laurentian Leadership Centre, which places students as interns with Ottawa-based organizations, predominantly with MPs. Wilson co-ordinated that internship program but when the Conservatives won election in 2006, he left Trinity Western to become a senior policy advisor to Vic Toews, then the justice minister. Wilson later served in a similar policy role for Diane Finley, the minister of human resources.

Of course, we’ve been watching this shoddy theocratic drama play out for months in microcosm at Rights and Democracy. And–not to belabour the point–we’re paying for it.

Meanwhile, women die, while Harper’s conservative base celebrates. Welcome to Gilead.

No Apologies found the error in The Toronto Star excerpt May 8, 2010

Click here to read what appears to be a lengthy excerpt from Marci McDonald’s book, “The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada,” due to be released Monday. One of the many illustrations of the absurdity of Ms. McDonald’s conspiracy theories is her labeling of the Canadian Constitution Foundation as a “Christian advocacy group.” One of CCF’s leading representatives and in-house lawyers is outspoken atheist libertarian, Karen Selick. How much credibility is Random House Canada going to get for publishing this book?

Book author Marci McDonald responded:

You were right about the mistaken reference to the Canadian Constitution Foundation as a “Christian” advocacy group in the Toronto Star’s excerpt of The Armageddon Factor. The book itself states no such thing and, in fact, describes the foundation as “legal advocacy group,” which has occasionally acted on behalf of Christians such as Stephen Boissoin. The error occurred when the newspaper was editing the text for excerpting and in no way reflects on the accuracy of the book. – Marci McDonald No Apologies comment May 8, 2010 Marci McDonald May 8, 2010

The Canadian Constitution Foundation’s Litigation Director was not convinced and responded:

Marci, that’s not a very convincing explanation. The Star’s reference to the CCF arose in connection with a reference to Shona Holmes, the plaintiff in litigation challenging the Ontario government health care monopoly. Shona’s case has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or any other religion, so why would you have mentioned her at all, except because you wanted to introduce some tie-in to the allegedly Christian advocacy group, the CCF?

Would the Star not have let you proof-read the “excerpt” before they publish it? The National Post always lets me proof-read any changes they propose to make to my op-eds.

I’ll be checking your book when it comes out to see what you really said.

Karen Selick, Litigation Director, the Canadian Constitution Foundation (and atheist)

Perhaps we can help clear this up.
On pages 342-343 The Armgeddon Factor in the chapter Here to stay:

Moreover, pundits who predicted those networks would vanish in the wake of the same-sex marriage defeat have instead seen them proliferate. Amid the stormy U.S. health-care debate of 2009, most Canadians were stunned to discover that one of their own was the star of a 2- million-dollar television campaign warning Americans about the perils of this country’s publicly funded medical system. Shona Homes, the poster girl for that attack, turned out to be fronting a lawsuit against Ontario’s health ministry spearheaded by a Calgary-based legal advocacy group named the Canadian Constitution Foundation. Orginally created by Conservative MP John Weston, the Foundation was at first not considered part of the Christian Right, but one of it’s board members, Dr. Will Johnston, is president of Canadian Physicians for Life, and Weston himself is an evangelical who once told christian law students that what set his Vancouver law firm apart was ” the regularity and informality of prayer practised by the partners.”  Although Weston’s initial focus was on pet libertarian peeves like medicare, since he stepped down to run for Parliament, the foundation has devoted many of it’s resources to defending evangelicals like former Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin, in freedom-of-speech cases against another perceived incursion of the state: human rights commissions.

Nor is the foundation the only new presence on the evangelical political scene. In 2008, it was joined by the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) founded by Mark Penninga, a Laurentian Leadership Centre alumnus and former spokesman for Focus on the Family Canada, whose mission is to ” bring a biblical perspective to  civil governments.” Both ARPA  and the Canadian Constitution Foundation are working with more established evangelical groups in a new push to co-ordinate their campaigns for greater effect. Nowhere has that joint strategizing been more evident than on the issue that has been pegged as the next flashpoint in the values wars: the de-criminalization of assisted suicide, or, as the religious right prefers to call it, euthanasia.

I commend No Apologies for bringing this to the public’s attention and the swiftness of author McDonald in providing an explanation and correction.

Note: Joe Gunn is executive director of Citizens for Public Justice, an Ottawa-based ecumenical group advocating for social justice. He has worked for churches and church organizations, mainly Catholics, in Canada and Latin America, and he was director for the Social Affairs office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). In March 2010, he delivered the Sommerville lecture in Christianity and Communications at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario. I am, with Gunn’s permission, providing here an excerpt from that speech.

On October 17th, 1996, Canadians turned on their evening newscast to hear CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge begin with these words: “Good evening. A blistering attack on governments across the country today, from Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops. The issue is poverty. The bishops accuse governments of using the most vulnerable people in society as human fodder in the battle against deficits. And the bishops weren’t the only ones speaking out…”

The bishops were holding their annual plenary gathering in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Before they began the meeting, however, the bishops of the Social Affairs Commission gathered with a roomful of local activists, including the president of the National Anti-Poverty Organization. To the assembled media, the bishops released their pastoral letter at Hope Cottage, a church-run soup kitchen in the downtown core. People living in poverty spoke, so it wasn’t only the bishops who got the microphone. And after the press conference, the media accompanied the men in black to serve lunch and eat together at the soup kitchen.

Today there seems to be a big change in terms of the public voice of the churches. The Catholic Church has not been totally silent, but if you go to the “Documents” section of the website of the Social Affairs Commission of the bishops, only one text has appeared since March 2008. Today, the capacity and determination of the churches to work for social and ecological justice seems weak. Service to the world now seems less of a concern than doctrine and maintenance of a shrinking membership base among the largest, historical denominations. Economically, the mainline churches are suffering, with unfortunate cuts to church staff and budgets becoming widespread. Is this change happening in all the Christian churches? Is there still a role for conscientious Christian leadership in public justice in Canadian society today? And if so, how might it best be done?

Should Christians be engaged?

Citizens for Public Justice [the organization that Gunn leads] believes that “if religion is understood to be one’s ultimate commitment or life orientation, then it cannot be confined to private life, particular rituals or institutions.” After all, why argue for keeping Christianity or Islam out of public life, when other “religious” value systems like capitalism, liberalism or humanism are not restricted? To ask a person of faith to leave their beliefs behind as soon as a political discussion begins is like asking a lung to refuse to breathe in air. The real issue is how people of faith can and should contribute to a hopeful citizenship.

Not only do Christians have to get involved in public justice, then, but the proper way to advance on this path to holiness is by addressing the causes of suffering of the poor, the disadvantaged, and the Earth community.

Status of faith-based work for justice

A month ago I contacted the social ministry offices of Canada’s nine largest Christian churches and asked if they’d answer a few questions about their social ministries. Eight of the nine were more than pleased to do so: only the CCCB refused to respond. I received helpful replies from the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church in Canada, the Christian Reformed Church, Mennonite Central Committee, the Canadian Religious Conference, and the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC).

Among the nine church groupings in the survey, more than two-thirds have fewer staff resources today as compared to five years ago. Several organizations now use short-term internships filled especially by students. Increasingly, volunteers are mandated to serve on committees where staff once served. One respondent expressed disappointment that there were “few, if any” justice educational resources for church use in congregations, and expressed disappointment that there is “no capacity to draft briefs or make presentations to government committees.” When asked what had happened to budgets for this work of social ministry over the past five years, five of the groups reported that they had suffered decreases (some of even up to half), and two had no increase.

When asked about future expectations, six of eight churches that responded to this question expect decreased budgets in the short term future, with the larger groups at reductions of 9-10%, which are levels that could mean losing staff. One church office gave staff a week off without pay as a cost saving measure.

Finally, I asked the most difficult question: “Do you feel that your church office has increased, decreased or enhanced effectiveness in social justice ministries over the past five years?” Seven respondents answered. Three mentioned greatly decreased effectiveness, while two said things remained about the same. One respondent felt his church had “in practice, essentially abandoned its work on social justice” spending most of its time on internal issues and sexuality. This person added, “I suspect those who are passionate are working outside the formal church structures.”

Another revealing commentary was that, “With the sequential decimations of church office staff in all the important member churches of the CCC, there is nothing like the capacity there used to be to undertake substantial joint work compared to five years ago. We continue to rely on sister organizations for substantial policy work: Project Ploughshares, Citizens for Public Justice, KAIROS. . . but unfortunately, those partners are also vulnerable.”

The case of KAIROS

The situation of KAIROS having its funding cut by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has been in the news recently. What has not been well-covered is that official Catholic support for ecumenical social justice work through KAIROS has been curiously muted. Although both Development and Peace (D&P) and the Catholic bishops serve on KAIROS’ board, their financial commitment to the organization has diminished over the years. The Catholic bishops now give KAIROS $100,000, and all of that comes from D&P. Six years ago, they gave over $250,000. It is the faithful and generous contributions from religious sisters that maintain the Catholic contribution to this ecumenical social justice ministry today.

Not only financial support, but also political support has been waning. In early December, a memo sent to all the bishops reported, “the CCCB executive committee unanimously agreed that the Conference of Bishops will not embark on a campaign to pressure the government of Canada to reconsider its funding decision” concerning the cuts to KAIROS. The executive gave two reasons for inaction: “The international program of KAIROS has always been secondary for the CCCB,” and “The CCCB is not convinced that such a campaign will result in success.”

Contrast this response with that of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who stated on December 9 that, “The world needs more of KAIROS Canada. It would be an unparalleled setback for the poor, vulnerable and disenfranchised if the voice and work of KAIROS in the global South is muted.” The board of Citizens for Public Justice echoed this concern in their letter to the prime minister, stating “CPJ is concerned that this decision may be another in the trend to discontinue funding of groups who raise questions about current policies, thereby silencing some of the diverse voices that are essential for a healthy public debate about international issues of justice and stewardship.”

New tone needed

While the recent voices of the Christian churches in Canada have been muted and maligned when they have engaged in the public sphere, public dialogue and political advocacy are still constitutive elements of what it means to be a person of faith. But it seems clear that this must now be done differently than in the past.

First, there is still a role to play in defending ecumenical social justice ministry in the churches – I see no reason to cede hard won ground now occupied by the organizations like KAIROS that represent almost 40 years of struggling to live the Gospel faithfully in action. We cannot spend all our strength in attempting to maintain church structures for social ministry if these efforts make such demands upon our energy that we are not free to address the real social and ecological challenges that history places before us.

Secondly, lay people will have to lead the way in defending ecumenical social justice ministry in the Canadian churches, and even start new movements. We should get over any assumption that the churches’ social witness has to be further clericalized in order to be valid. Laypeople of all sexes should be able to reclaim their social mission as well as their contribution to the emerging non-white church’s more inclusive voice.

Thirdly, the way we’ve designed the process of preparing and delivering church statements must change. Have you ever been asked your opinion on an issue, or invited to help develop an opinion in dialogue, study and debate with your church leadership? If we don’t involve more people in these processes, we can’t expect them to fully accept any eventual stances as their own.

Fourthly, we need to walk the talk before we squawk. The example of the 1996 pastoral letter on poverty suggests how a process was developed to draft a message with others, and deliver this text with the only people who could be the architects of their own liberation: people with a lived experience of poverty. Otherwise, the message would have lacked authenticity and credibility.

Fifth, it is important to ensure that the spoken word of the churches is delivered to defend the poor and vulnerable. It is crucial and not always easy to ensure that these words do not arise in order to promote the churches’ own interests and reputations, instead.

Sixth, any pronouncement has to be delivered with appropriate humility. Polls tell us that Christianity is the affiliation of 77% of Canadians, but only 17% attended a place of worship in the previous week. As some say, “Canada is a nation of believers, but not belongers.” A Christendom view of the world is no longer prevalent. A whole new role, perhaps a smaller role, for organized Christian religions is emerging.

Perhaps the situation offers possibilities for groups like Citizens for Public Justice and other lay associations to be more collaborative and helpful to churches that are desirous of recovering their voice on public justice issues. And perhaps we need to remind ourselves that large, unwieldy institutions don’t always have the genetic make-up to be prophetic. The cutting edge seems to flourish more easily on the margins, in smaller groupings that are more nimble, responsive, and enjoy fewer organizational constraints. Perhaps the Christian voice in public affairs today should best be presented in new tones – but we should not accept that voice being either muted or maligned.

One minor beef, Charles McVety being referred to as Dr. McVety.

Taken together, all this news gives heart to Canadian conservatives who vote on other matters besides budget balance. Of course, some of the biggest fights of old—over abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty—remain far outside the bounds of ordinary political debate in Canada. Social conservatives have had to content themselves with incremental victory. But it had been many years since they could expect even that. Conservatives who vote on faith, family and criminal justice felt so left out by Brian Mulroney’s governments that millions of them fled to Reform and smaller groups like the Christian Heritage party. Now they are back, rubbing elbows with power, not always running the show but never ignored. They have not had so much good news from Ottawa in half a century.

I have reported previously about the National House of Prayer (NHOP) in Ottawa. As I write this, Rob and Fran Parker, the husband and wife team who lead NHOP, are planning what they describe as a prayer walk to Israel in late March into April. On March 13-14th the Parkers are also guest speakers at a Calgary conference of a group called the International Christian Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Parker has written on the NHOP’s blog in recent weeks about his plans. “Recently God has confirmed to me it is now time to Prayer-Walk Israel,” he wrote in February. “It seems that everywhere you turn these days you are hearing that there’s a growing sense of acceleration of God’s purposes. Many Christian leaders are preaching that we have entered into the ‘Signs of the Times’ that Jesus referred to around his Second Coming. In different ways in Canada we believe we are ‘touching’ things for God’s purposes that are massive in light of the days we are living.”

This is not the first time that the Parkers believe they have been called by God to undertake a project. Ron Parker has a long association with Watchmen for the Nations, a pro-Israel Christian right group based in the U.S. and Canada. After a Watchmen gathering in 1996, Parker organized a prayer-walk from Calgary to Ottawa. He and his wife felt they were being called to set up an intercessory house of prayer in the nation’s capital. In 2004, they purchased a former convent not far from Parliament Hill for $900,000. They’ve added staff and volunteers and regularly host groups, including youth, from across the country to engage in formation as prayer leaders and also to visit select MPs. The NHOP personnel appear to have ready access to Parliament Hill. They attend Question Period, sit in on parliamentary committee meetings and lead parliamentary prayer groups. The people who organize the National Prayer Breakfast, held by parliamentarians once a year, have invited the Parkers to lead workshops following the meal.

Parker, in his blog postings, described the focus of the upcoming Israel walk in the following ways: “To pray for a preparation around the events of the Second Coming of Christ. For a blessing on all those who live in the land and on those who labour for God’s kingdom in Israel. To pray for the safety for the people of Israel as they face any possible threats of war from nations hostile to them.” There is no mention, however, of praying for those in the region who are threatened by hostile actions at the hands of the Israeli military.

The NHOP exists within a fundamentalist and charismatic network known for its emotional and enthusiastic forms of worship, including speaking in tongues, holy laughter, and a belief in powers of prophecy and healing. Many in the movement are Christian reconstructionists who believe that “God governs” and that government and all of society must submit to the bible’s moral principles. There are those who call this a recipe for theocracy. A good part of the ardour on display arises from a millenarian belief that we are approaching end times, when Christ will return to reward the righteous and punish sinners.

Reconstructionists believe that the return of Jews from around the world to Israel and establishing an Israeli state in 1948 were the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, and a foreshadowing of the second coming. This unfortunate merging of biblical mythology about chosen people and nations with current political events explains the unyielding support for any and all Israeli state policies among Christian reconstructionists in the U.S. and Canada.

The NHOP first came to my attention in 2006 when it was advertising a tour to Israel in September-October of that year. The advertisement invited potential tourists to: “Ignite your passion and intercession for Israel, the land, the people for God’s end-time purposes.” The advertisement quoted Psalm 102, saying, “The appointed time to favor Zion has come.” The tour had to be cancelled because hostilities broke out between Israel and groups in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

The Conservatives were elected in Canada in January 2006, and certain Christian groups made common cause with Canadian Jewish organizations in lobbying the Harper government to take a pro-Israel position in the conflict. The prime minister did not disappoint, when he described an Israeli campaign that took 1,000 lives as a “measured response” to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. The Canadian government has since 2006 jettisoned Canada’s previous role as an honest broker in the Middle East and has tilted our foreign policy entirely in Israel’s favour, including unconditional support for the deadly invasion of Gaza in January 2009.

Canada’s pro-Israel support has now worked its way back into our domestic politics as well, in the most unpleasant of ways. Late in 2009, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) abruptly withdrew funding and severed a long-standing relationship with KAIROS, an inter-church human rights group. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem in December 2009, Jason Kenney, Canada’s immigration minister, accused KAIROS of being anti-Semitic and of supporting an economic boycott of Israel. KAIROS and its members, including Catholic, United, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, the Mennonite Central Committee and Quakers, hotly denied those claims.

Then, early in 2010 Canada’s respected Rights and Democracy organization imploded after new board members appointed by the Conservative government forced the resignation of the organization’s president Rémy Beauregard at a particularly nasty meeting. Mr. Beauregard died of a heart attack later that day. Conservative appointees to the board of Rights and Democracy accused the organization of being anti-Israel. Senior staff members have now been fired and Rights and Democracy has closed a Geneva-based office that which worked in proximity to several United Nations agencies.

The government’s ham-fisted actions against KAIROS and Rights and Democracy have sent an intended chill through Canada’s church and development communities. Question the policies of the Israeli government and you are called anti-Semitic. Question the policies of the Canadian government and you will be punished. These attacks have led others, including former Canadian diplomat Harry Stirling, to question why the kind of debate that occurs regularly within Israel about the country’s policies toward its neighbours is labelled as anti-Semitic when it occurs in Canada.

A common analysis is that in its policies and practices the Harper government is attempting to win the support of Jewish organizations and voters in this country. It may be, however, that an even more important reason for the government’s one-sided policy is its desire to appease its base among the Christian right – those who actually believe that a biblical prophecy of end times will be fulfilled by the Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

Some of those people will gather at a weekend meeting sponsored by the International Christian Chamber of Commerce at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary on March 12-13th. They will talk about God’s plan for Israel and Rob and Fran Parker are featured as guest speakers. The ICCC advertisement invites registrants to: “Come and hear about our unique relationship with the government of Israel. Come and hear how you can stand in a practical way with Israel in Her call to be a blessing to many nations.” The ad quotes the bible’s book of Genesis regarding Israel: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.’’

Interestingly, Christian reconstructionists believe that only those who have accepted Christ as their personal saviour will be saved in the Last Judgement. Others, and one assumes this includes people of Jewish faith, will be damned if they have not accepted Christ. This is, to say the least, an odd basis for a pro-Israel coalition.

Pulpits & Politics

From Dawn thot :summary. The full 20 page .pdf can be downloaded from the link. The chart at Dawn thot is interactive. Clicking on each organization will give you a quick summary of what the organizations beliefs are.

I think many Canadian Conservatives would be dismayed if they knew the extent of the economic and ideological ties to religious right influencers in the US. The assumption is often made that Christians, particularly evangelical Christians, adhere to the rigid theocratic and dominionist beliefs of men such as James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Fawell. The harder core messages out of the US religious right is softened and fed to the Canadian public by Canadian leaders in bite size pieces under the guise of social conservatism.

While this 2006 document needs an update as key players move around, the bedrock and ties have not been broken.  Some of those named have moved into more influential positions in Canadian federal and provincial politics.

In 1997, Stephen Harper was invited to speak to the tri-yearly Council meeting being held in Montreal. His speech is one of the few to this group of about 500 which has been made public.

During the CNP appearance, Mr. Harper made a number of statements denigrating Canada and Canadians: “Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the word,” said Mr. Harper;31 “In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance,” continued Mr. Harper.32 Mr. Harper was also critical of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “[W]e have a Supreme Court, like yours, which, since we put a charter of rights in our Constitution in 1982, is becoming increasingly arbitrary.”33

On specific policy issues, Mr. Harper demonstrated his contempt for ideas at the heart of Canadian society, including public health care and international cooperation. For example, the Charlottetown Agreement, he explained to his audience, included “some [things] that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights.”34 Mr. Harper also showed dissatisfaction with Canada’s strong support for the UN, and the pride Canadians take in their country’s status at the UN: “This distresses conservatives like myself quite profoundly, but I will warn you, it’s a widespread view, and I will always say, one that could only be maintained as long as [Americans] basically provide us with military protection.”35 Mr. Harper also provided the CNP audience with a glimpse of his opinion of future political reform in Canada. He called the Reform Party a “conservative Republican” organization that espoused “a constitutional agenda that challenges the way our entire political system operates.”36 Most revealingly, Mr. Harper shared his view that the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties would ultimately merge and “[o]ne party is going to win out….And Reform is not going to lose that contest in the long term.”37

…“[t]he individual views of Conservative candidates matter very much in a party that promises to hold more free votes in Parliament on social and moral issues.”179 – David Laycock, Simon Fraser University.

As conservatives in Canada move to entrench their grassroots organization through social conservative leadership training initiatives like those undertaken by the Manning Centre, Canadians should remain vigilant lest social conservatives already supported by a vast network of American organizations turn their influence into government power.

Other background – US

CNP – wiki
CNP – Seek God
CNP – People for the American Way

Groups in Canada