A trio of Canadian bloggers promptly leaped on these remarks: Dr Dawg, RevDave of Terrible Depths, and Dave of the Galloping Beaver. The latter provides some important background:

Flanagan was raised in Illinois in a politically conservative upper-middle class family. As he was coming out of high-school the US was entering a phase of its existence which can only be described as tumultuous. Flanagan would have been subject to the US Selective Service System after his 18th birthday. Except that, like Dick Cheney, neither volunteering for US military service nor being available for conscripted duty was in Flanagan’s cards.

As US involvement in Viet Nam expanded and the US Army started demanding more troops, the young men of the priviledged conservative white community found ways to avoid military service altogether. Educational deferments bought a minimum of 4 years of time – if one’s parents could afford to keep their progeny in college, and Flanagan was a product of the social and economic caste that flocked to the universities as a means to avoid donning a uniform.

As the US draft cycled up and Viet Nam became the war of the less priviledged, Selective Service regulations were changing. As Flanagan’s educational deferment would have expired his recent marriage would have made that deferment permanent, until Lyndon Johnson issued an Executive Order rescinding exemptions for married men.

And then, if the stories are to be believed, another American, E. Burke Inlow, recruited Flanagan to the University of Calgary. And then Flanagan, a year after the draft age in the US was expanded to include married males to age 35, was on the other side of the US border.

When Flanagan came to Canada he admits to knowing nothing of the place. Yet here he was, just as the Viet Nam war was at full heat, the same place US draft-dodgers and deserters found safe haven.

Boris at The Galloping Beaver Who’s the carpetbagger?

If “religion” was going to be defined in the broad Gary Goodyear-ian sense, then it wasn’t hard to imagine what sort of trouble could result from this legislation: sexists objecting to women’s equality, atheist parents with kids in Catholic schools, or just “legal and administrative chaos.” In retrospect it’s not surprising that the government decided to cut its losses and get out of the “evolution is religion” game before things got out of control.

Even if evolution was out of the picture, though, “parental rights” – and by implication family authority – is near and dear to the religious right, so it wasn’t surprising to see a swarm of enthusiastic endorsements from that sector. The Canada Family Action Coalition is now in the game, for example. Equipping Christians has also leaped to the government’s defence.

There is, however, a deep irony here. The parental rights law is being introduced via the Human Rights Act, so presumably it would be enforced – if necessary – by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The Chumir Foundation, to its credit, has opposed the amendment for this reason. However, the Christian right is going to run smack into a wall on this issue.

The Human Rights Commissions first attracted the ire of the religious right on gay rights issues, and many organizations have more recently hitched their wagons to Ezra Levant’s public relations crusade against the Commissions. With the fallout from Shakedown, it actually looked like the anti-HRC battle was beginning to make some gains. The Commissions haven’t been totally discredited yet, but they’re probably closer than ever before. And now the religious right might have to defend the Commissions, after all!

Just this morning, Catholic right-writer Raymond de Souza was expounding on the “abuses” of the Commissions in the National Post. He also points the way to a factless but possibly effective way out of this problem for the religious right: he advances the rather paranoid notion that on the basis of “parental rights” the Alberta Human Rights Commission might be pushed by gay activists or other evil-doers into “radicalizing the curriculum.”

Cross-posted at Birchbark Bible.

• Buckets at Bouquets of Gray points out that new demographic assessments by the Wilson Centre establish that the West is not poised on the brink of “Islamification,” after all (h/t Creative Revolution)

• StageLeft takes on social conservative Kathy Shaidle’s recent remarks regarding Canada’s human rights commissions

• Another figure on the religious right, John Pacheco – along with his organization Social Conservatives United and blog SoCon or Bust – has publicly endorsed the Randy Hillier campaign for leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. (h/t Birchbark Bible)

• Dammit Janet! examines a new Pew Research poll suggesting that, at least in the U.S., churchgoers are more likely to support the torture of alleged terrorists. (See also Unrepentant Old Hippie.) Meanwhile, controversy is also spreading over U.S. soldiers apparently proselytizing in Afghanistan and being told to “hunt people for Jesus.” (h/t Canadian Cynic)

Voice of the Martyrs Canada weblog expresses disappointment at Alberta Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett toes the party line when it comes to changes he proposed to powers of Alberta Human Rights to adjudicate cases of free speech Commission.

A Canadian will be taking over the top spot for one of the best known International religious aid agencies in the world. Calgarian Kevin Jenkins will become president and CEO of World Vision which operates in 96 countries. World Vision has a staff of 40 thousand people around the world and a budget of 2.6 billion dollars a year.

How do churches cope with flu outbreaks and potential pandemics? Carefully and the same as the rest of us. Canadian Mennonites have an up to date resource and practical website for congregations, parishes and church staff from across Canada. There has also been a Canadian website and discussion forum put up by and Canadian doctor and to educate and inform churches how to be intentional.

A few days ago Pope Benedict XVI apologized to Canada’s First Nations people for the appaulling treatment they were subject to at residental schools. From the late 1800′s until the 1970′s, 150 thousand ofCanada’s indigenous children were stripped from their communities and sent to one of the 132 church run schools across the country. Better late than never from the Vatican, other churches have apologized, worked toward restitution and the federal government issued a formal apology a year ago.
The Assembly of First Nations response. Vatican Radio

We haven’t advertised or pushed religious right alert and it’s enouraging to read posts like this from Canuck Attitude:

One of the great gems I see arriving on the Canadian Blogging scene is Religious Right Alert. A well thought out consortium of intelligent people who really know what they are talking about, what a concept. This is a site I really want to see fly.

And from Dammit Janet

Religious Right Alert. It seems to be newish, this-monthish…I hope they keep up the good work.

Thanks, I hope we do to. This are about using the vast knowledge and original content Canadian bloggers post and this site welcomes your voice, your tips and your input.