are we really that scary (book review: The Armageddon Factor by Marci McDonald)

At the end of this month my husband is going to visit the National House of Prayer in Ottawa with other members of a prayer group from our church. As a preparation for that trip, one of the organizers suggested members of the group read Marci McDonald's The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism In Canada. Hubby borrowed it from the library and that's how the book happens to be in our house (a book I intentionally avoided reading when it first came out last year, suspecting it would be a downer).

After hubby finished it and we discussed it, I decided to read it for myself. I was right to avoid it in the first place. It is probably the most disheartening, yet heartening, book I've ever read.

In it McDonald seeks to show how the Christian religious right (she calls them "theo-cons") is making inroads into public life in practically every department. She depicts this as a sinister thing, especially where it appears they are following in the vanguard of the religious right in the US (as in Moral Majority, Focus on the Family, activist Washington lobbyists etc.). The motivation behind this new activism, she explains, is based on Bible prophecy with Christians attempting to establish a type of theocracy in Canada and thus hasten the second coming of Christ and the Battle of Armageddon.

She discusses the gamut:
Ch. 1: The history of the Conservative Party, their coming to power, and courtship of theocons (Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day)

Ch. 2: The rallying of Christians across the country in organizations such as the EFC, CFAC, IMFC and others (Brian Stiller, Charles McVety, Brian Rushfeldt etc.)

Ch. 3: The Manning Centre and its role in training conservatives for political life (Preston Manning).

Ch. 4: The National House of Prayer and its roots in the early 1970s revival in St. Margaret's Church, Vancouver (David Demian, Rob & Fran Parker etc.).

Ch. 5: The young hip movers and shakers who have gained influence in Ottawa (Ron Luce, Faytene Kryskow etc.)

Ch. 6: Creationism and Intelligent Design, Drumheller's Tyrell Museum vs. the Big Valley Creation Science Museum (Harry Nibourg, Denyse O'Leary etc.)

Ch. 7: Battles in education, especially parents versus homosexual-advancing curriculum, homeschooling, TWU, The Laurentian Leadership Centre (Heather Stilwell and the Surrey banned books controversy and much more).

Ch. 8: The media, the CRTC, 100 Huntley Street, The Miracle Channel (David Mainse, Dick Dewert, Willard Thiessen).

Ch. 9: The legal profession and human rights commissions (Ezra Levant).

Ch. 10: Foreign policy—McDonald is highly critical of the PMs support of Israel.

This is not an objective book. McDonald does't credit Christians with making any positive contributions to Canadian society (with the exception, of course, of socialist heroes like Tommy Douglas, who was also a minister). Rather, she's a conspiracy bloodhound, detecting power-seeking motives in everything Christians do. Here, for example is her account of a meeting with Dave Quist, at the Institute of Marriage and Family Centre (IMFC), an initiative of Focus on the Family, Canada:

"What was unexpected, during my quick tour of the institute's Ottawa offices, was a telling omission in its decor: no photos of the avuncular Dobson stared down from its walls and his countless books and publications were nowhere in sight. So eager is the IMFC to distance itself from Dobson's controversial political role in the U.S. that, shortly after its opening, Quist made a point of telling me that he had never met the Focus founder nor had he visited his Colorado Springs lair where nearly a thousand employees dispense Dobson's wares..." p. 86.

Of course if Quist's office had been decorated with Focus stuff, no doubt she would have seen something equally sinister in that.

The entire book is dyed with a similar sarcastic, disparaging tone. McDonald seems to especially rejoice in making jibes, through her choice of language, at the people involved (people who gave her interviews in good faith, it would seem....one wonders how she represented her project to them).

Describing a pastor's interest in creation science: "Creationism, it turns out, is Pastor Mike's shtick" - p. 190.

Dr. Margaret Helder, head of the Creation Science Association of Alberta is described as: "...an Edmonton grandmother with a Ph.D. in biology" - p. 191.

Author Denyse O'Leary is "...a birdlike wordsmith known for her omnipresent hats and prolific output" - p. 198.

MP Vic Toews "...spent years railing against 'these radical liberal judges...'" - p. 282.

Ezra Lavant is "...a relentless noise machine..." p. 300.

Of course sky-is-falling alarmism is never far from the surface and comes out full-force in the final chapter. Here is her incendiary salvo of warning:

"Waving their bright flags on the lawns of the Parliament Buildings, extolling the country's Christian roots to a compelling soft-rock beat, they might seem to offer a refreshing recipe for morality and national pride, but their agenda—while outwardly inclusive and multi-racial—is ultimately exclusionary. In their idealized Christian nation, non-believers—and those in violation of biblical law, notably homosexuals and adulterers, would merit severe punishment and the sort of shunning that once characterized a society where suspected witches were burned. Theirs is a dark and dangerous vision, one that brooks no dissent and requires the dismantling of key democratic institutions. A preview is on display south of the border, where decades of religious-right triumphs have left a nation bitterly splintered along lines of faith and ideology, trapped in the hysteria of overcharged rhetoric and resentment" - p. 359,360.

We want to burn witches and shun homosexuals and adulterers? I've never heard of such a thing! Thankfully McDonald restrained herself from sic 'eming the white-masked, pointy-headed lynch mobs on us. As I said, this book is disheartening in that it is negative and hate-filled.

But it's also heartening in that Christians in Canada are making a difference. Who knew that the evangelical church was awake and active on so many fronts in our nation?

Reading this book has made me see again that this is a spiritual battle. It will be won with spiritual weapons. One of them is prayer.

People in the many organizations working on the political front need our prayers: the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, organizations like the EFC, CFAC, IMFC, educators and parents, Christian media outlets and personalities, lawyers, judges and the list could goes on. Let's join them in the trenches—on our knees.

Regent College professor and historian John Stackhouse provides more insights on the book's reliability and the issues it discusses. His three-part review is here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

For more book reviews, visit Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books (where this review is linked, along with dozens of others)

HRC plot about to thicken?

Some news raises my BP. Such was the case when I read the post "The Scary Liberal agenda to expand CHRC" on Deborah Gyapong's blog last night. These are the HRCs I wrote about here.

But the Federal Liberals are obviously planning to expand HRC powers if they get in power. Here's the skinny straight from their 2009 policy book (page 26):

(click on image to enlarge)

a disturbing warning

A disturbing warning comes to Americans from an African pastor ("Fire In My Bones" newsletter from Lee Grady, Charisma Magazine - emphases mine):

Mbijiwe Mwenda (The Kenyan pastor, founder of Glory Cathedral Church in Nairobi) says we are being naive to ignore Barack Obama’s ties to a dangerous Kenyan politician....

Mwenda’s main concern: That Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister. Obama, who made taxpayer-funded visits to Kenya in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigned for Odinga in 2006.

During public appearances in Kenya, Odinga introduced Obama as his cousin. But later a family member denied that claim, saying that Odinga and Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., simply came from the same village. Both Obama Sr. and Odinga are from the Luo tribe, Kenya’s third largest.

When Odinga ran for president of Kenya last year and lost by a slim margin, tribal violence erupted amid claims of voter fraud. About 150,000 people died (many were killed in machete attacks), hundreds of churches were burned and 600,000 villagers were displaced. The international community had to broker a peace deal, allowing Odinga to serve as prime minister while his opponent, Mwai Kibaki, was named president.

Today, Odinga hopes that Obama will win the White House on Nov. 4 to boost support for his bid to become president of Kenya in 2012.

Pastor Mwenda says he is amazed that Americans don’t seem concerned that Obama is tied to Odinga. He rattled off a list of facts that Charisma has verified:

Odinga was trained in communist ideology in Europe and holds Marxist views. “He even named his son Fidel Castro,” Mwenda says.

He has obvious ties to Muslim interests and even received funding for his presidential campaign from Libya. Although he officially claims to be an Anglican, Mwenda says, “[Odinga] has been very sympathetic to Muslims and some say he is a Muslim secretly.”

Odinga fits in nicely with Arab leaders’ plans for Africa. When they convened in Nigeria in 2001, they released a statement indicating that Kenya is to play a key role in spreading Islam throughout southern Africa. Says Mwenda: “Odinga is a dangerous man. A dictator.”

Odinga has promised to enact Sharia law in “Muslim declared regions” of Kenya—meaning that pork would be outlawed, women could not drive and crimes would be punished according to Islamic tradition.

Read entire...

pray for India

Pray especially for Orissa State, where there is unprecedented persecution of Christians.

This from Earned Media:

India, Orissa's Christians Flee Genocidal Violence

Contact: Dr. Joseph Chavady, 306-684-2527

INDIA, Sept. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Orissa State has continued to bleed and burn for the past eleven days. Thousands of innocent people have fallen prey to diabolic insanity.

Since independence (1947 Aug 15), this is the first time such a massacre has been let loose on Christians. "It is a national shame", said Mr Man Mohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.

1. Thousands of Christians (the number could be 50,000) have fled to the thick forests for protection. They are managing without food, water, or shelter in the heavy monsoon. These forests are also home for wild animals like tigers, bears and elephants.

2. Hundreds of houses have been burnt after looting whatever could be looted.

3. No one knows exactly how many are dead.

4. Christians have been killed and their bodies been thrown into fire and evidence has been destroyed, the exact count is not known, over a hundred have died.

5. The State Government is hand in glove with the radicals and has not done anything to stop them.

6. The media is biased or hushed up. There are a lot of lies propagated.

7. Business establishments and shops were systematically destroyed.

8. Christians have been forced to bow before idols, and have been compelled to reconvert to Hinduism. Those who have refused to have been brutally attacked and killed.

9. Leaflets have been distributed urging Hindus to kill Christians. Their slogan is, "Become Hindu or else face death. India is for Hindus".

These are a few stories that have reached us:

* Mrs Kamalini Naik's husband was asked to become a Hindu otherwise the fanatics threatened to kill his mother. Seeing his mother under their grip, Mr Naik denounced his faith. Then they called his wife who was 7 months pregnant. She strongly stood for her faith in Christ & they immediately cut her and her 18th month old son in pieces in front of her husband and the other Christians.

* A Pastor was asked to become a Hindu, but he refused and declared his faith in Christ. His two hands were chopped off and he was given a second chance to deny his Lord. He refused right away and his two legs were cut off. His body was then thrown into the fire!

"There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood, stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless- the world didn't deserve them!- making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world"
The Message, Heb.11:36-40.

*************
More stories:
"Two more killed in new clashes in India State" - September 5

"Police do little to protect Christians in Orissa" - Compass Direct, September 9

"On the feast day of Mother Teresa, 3 camps opened for refugees’ from Orissa" - AsiaNews.It, September 9

hrc's* - canadian freedom's no.1 enemy

*hrc's: Human Rights Commissions

ONTARIO

From an August 18/08 National Post article.

"If the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) gets its way, Ontario's doctors will soon be stripped of their right to follow their moral convictions or religious beliefs when treating patients. In other words, doctors will risk losing their licenses if they run afoul of Ontario's human rights police.

If, out of moral conviction, they refuse to perform abortions, refer patients for abortions or prescribe morning-after and birth control pills, or if they refuse to help same-sex couples conceive children, their own governing body will take away their right to practice medicine.

- read entire Forcing our doctors' hands.

From an August 23/08 National Post article:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario recently released a draft document on a potential new code of conduct for physicians.

Among other things, it states physicians will have to set aside personal beliefs "to ensure that patients or potential patients are provided with the medical services they require." It also said doctors who restrict medical service based on moral or religious beliefs may contravene the Human Rights Code and could be committing professional misconduct....

Don Hutchinson, legal counsel for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said he believes the proposed document was heavily influenced by a letter sent in February this year to the college from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

In it, the commission said it has concerns that the "religious or moral beliefs of health-care providers can have a discriminatory impacts on [Human Rights] Code rights relating to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status and disability, among others."

It goes on to advise the college that the protection of one right cannot "be based on the total disregard of another."

"While the expression of their religious beliefs is essential for religious officials in the performance of their duties, secular service providers cannot claim that the performance of their job function is an expression of their deeply held religious beliefs."

- read entire OMA fears intrusion into MD's beliefs.

From a September 2/08 National Post article:

Will Ontario doctors be forced to ignore personal beliefs just to please a pompous human rights commission?

The sheer arrogance of human rights commissions will be their downfall (let's hope - and may they fall soon!!): their conviction that they have a superior understanding of rights compared to anyone else and that once they have pronounced how rights shall be interpreted, the rest of us should fall in lockstep with smiles on our faces and cheery tunes on our tongues, content that our intellectual betters have shown us the error of our ways and revealed the path to true enlightenment.

- read entire A handmaid's tale.

SASKATCHEWAN

From a September 2/08 National Post article:

Should a man be forced to pay $17,500 to four individuals who felt offended by the flyers he distributed?

[...] Like the human rights complaints against Maclean's magazine for having published excerpts from Mark Steyn's book America Alone, this case pits Canadians' historic right to freedom of expression against human rights legislation that attempts to prevent hurt feelings.

- read entire There's no monopoly on truth.

Welcome to Canada where political correctness is the greatest virtue - no, it's the only virtue.

editorial symposium on morgentaler order of canada appointment

Editorial opinions from across Canada:

National Post:

Conferring this award on Dr. Morgentaler was a mistake - one we expect will be greeted by many long-standing Orderholders returning their medals and pins. One wonders whether the Order of Canada will ever reclaim its former prestige.

***********

Winnipeg Free Press:

Recipients should not be people whose views are anathema to half the country. They should not be the kind of Canadians whose conduct alienates and offends some of the best citizens and institutions in the country.

***********

The Montreal Gazette:

Almost all members of the Order have accomplished things that are uncontroversially worthwhile. . . . By this measure Morgentaler does not qualify.

**********

Regina Leader Post:

. . For its part, the public should consider the possibility that this controversy will so galvanize pro-life groups that they will mount a renewed political offensive to end the public health-care system's coverage of abortion.

Given the new strength of conservative forces in Canadian politics, the eventual outcome is anything but certain.

************

The Calgary Herald:

Anecdotal evidence suggests the advisory council was not unanimous. That the award was made anyway is itself a departure from customary practice, and is suggestive of heated discussions behind closed doors, and the fierce determination of those who insisted on it. They have their victory, and Morgentaler has expressed his satisfaction with it.

As they have returned the A-word to the public agenda, they must now expect those who don't agree with them to resume their own advocacy.

*************

Read the entire article as it appeared in the Vancouver Sun, July 2.

To make a formal request for the termination of Appointment to the Order of Canada of Dr. Henry Morgentaler write:

Ms. Emmanuelle Sajous, Deputy Secretary,
Order of Canada Chancellery, Rideau Hall,
1 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1

canada honors abortionist

Canada is abuzz with the newest appointment to the Order of Canada. Henry Morgantaler (champion of abortion rights for women) has been selected to receive that honor. Along with thousands of others, I'm outraged -- but not that surprised. After all, abortion has been legal in Canada since 1969. And politicians of every stripe refuse to revisit the issue knowing that this is one issue which still has enough traction to jettison their political futures.

The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) is attempting to change the public perception of abortion. In a June 30th open letter to Fellow Pro-life Laborers, Stephanie Gray, Executive Director of CCBR says:

To give Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada is simply to be consistent with what's going on in this country....

We can look at Morgentaler's award and blame the selecting committee. We can blame the government and its politicians. We can blame others -- because that's easy. But what's difficult is to blame ourselves....

Know this: abortion advocates have made "choice" look good and as a result that makes pro-lifers look bad. We as pro-lifers ultimately make ourselves look good by exposing the deception of the pro-choce claims. Rather than directly changing what people think of us, we need to change what they think of abortion. The effect of that shift will be a change in their perception of pro-life organizations.

Think of it this way: did social movements in history (such as those led by William Wilberforce, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.) focus on changing how the public perceived their organizations or on how the public perceived the injustices? It was the latter. And when that transformation occurred, people naturally gravitated towards these people and their movements.

CCBR is exposing abortion in a multi-pronged way.

1. With their web site. Study the site and you will begin to understand the horror and immensity of this state-funded 'medical procedure' - even first trimester abortion.

See photographs of what a first trimester fetus looks like. Why as early as seven weeks tiny fingers and toes are discernible.

Watch a video of an actual abortion being performed. (Disturbing images!)

Find out how to get active. (Note: CCBR condemns all abortion-related violence against property or against persons).

Learn how to defend the pro-life view.

Be encouraged by the success CCBR is having - evidenced by the testimonials of dozens of real Canadians (many of them women) who have changed their minds about abortion.

2. CBBR runs public awareness programs like the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) and the Reproductive Choice Campaign (RCC)

Could Dr. Morgantaler's appointment be a blessing in disguise? For once again Canadians are having conversations about abortion. As people who are pro-life, we have a powerful message of which we do not need to be shy. CCBR helps us communicate that message.

As Stephanie Gray says at the end of her open letter, "Abortion may be legal, but you and I have the power to make it unthinkable."

(Thanks to Joyce for forwarding the CCBR open letter to me.)

HRCs and the new canadian fascism

The following is fallout over a letter a Rev. Boissoin wrote to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate in 2002, in which he denounced homosexuality. A local teacher, Darren Lund, not a gay man btw, complained to the Albert Human Rights Commission. Several weeks ago the Alberta HRC ruled on the case.

Lori Andreachuk, the human rights commissioner who issued the order, started off by acknowledging that “there is no specific individual who can be compensated as there is no direct victim who has come forward.”

But since the complainant "did expend considerable time and energy and suffered ridicule and harassment as a result of his complaint" she ordered Boisson to pay him $5000.

[...]Her order continued: “Mr. Boissoin … shall cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.”

Boissoin can never communicate anything “disparaging” about gays again. It’s a lifetime ban — and it applies to every conceivable medium, including his private e-mails and public sermons.

Nothing “disparaging” means nothing critical. She didn’t order him not to communicate anything “illegal” or even anything “hateful.” She ordered him to say nothing disparaging. For the rest of his life.

Read the whole article: Ezra Levant on the human-rights show trial of Christian pastor Stephen Boissoin.

Complainant Darren Lund's take on the hrc's ruling:

"The spirit of [the remedy] seems to me completely in line with what I was requesting,"

Lund's past muddled thinking on respecting religious views.

**************

From a June 2/08 editorial in the Catholic Insight:

Fascism has come to Canada

The January 2008 article, “Civil rights war in Canada” (pp. 11-16), quoted from REAL Women’s magazine Reality (Mar/April 2007) in saying that “adoptions, social services such as nursing homes, religious-based schools, marriages, employment conduct, etc., carried out by religious organizations will be held to secular standards, not religious ones.” One reason for this development, it was pointed out, is the demand of homosexual activists that everyone conform to their vision of equality rights. So much for the argument that legalizing same-sex “marriage” (SSM) would be of no concern except to homosexual activists.

In September 2008, the Department of Education in British Columbia intends to introduce the mandatory teaching of SSM from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in provincial schools. It is a first for a province in Canada to claim the right to determine moral teaching in schools when the vast majority of its citizens reject it as unscientific and contrary to the common good. So we move from Trudeau’s 1967 slogan “there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” – falsely used to destroy traditional morality – to the new slogan that the state will determine people’s moral thinking.

Read entire.

*****************

and the plot thickens:

"Human Rights Commissions to review how to best police 'hate' on the internet..."


I don't recognize this Canada. And yet I do. Given the Canadian social climate, the left-wing media and the timidity, apathy, lack of leadership and general limp-wristedness of Christians, these developments are entirely predictable -- and were predicted. We should not be surprised.

hrc free speech sideshow in vancouver

This week Andrew Coyne has been liveblogging the proceedings at the B. C. Human Rights Commission in Vancouver, where his employer, Macleans Magazine, is before the HRC beaucrats to answer Naiyer Habib's complaints about "The Future Belongs to Islam," an article by Mark Steyn published in Macleans, October 20, 2006. Naiyer Habib is the BC board director for the Canadian Islamic Congress, and filed the complaint on behalf of all Muslims in British Columbia.

In an interview with National Review Coyne says:

My hope is that it will go to appeal — in other words, I’m hoping that we lose this at the hearing level and that we appeal it to a proper court of law, as opposed to these quasi-judicial tribunals, and at that proper court of law that we make the constitutional argument that this is an infringement of our charter rights to freedom of the press. I believe that’s what we’ll do if we lose the case.

Other observations by Coyne:

...they have mystifying rules of evidence, if any. They make it up as they go along as to what gets allowed into evidence and what doesn’t. And I’m sure they’re not used to having such scrutiny, with many high-powered lawyers in the room. It’s pretty much a travesty.

For more buzz in blogland about this, see Free Mark Steyn!

After browsing a few links from FMS, my only comment would be that by challenging Canada's tradition of free speech in this HRC way, Muslims have done themselves way more harm in the Canadian public than an article like Steyn's would do in a dozen years.

(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry writes, on the CIC website about "Smart Integration." I've guess they've just given themselves a lesson in how NOT to do it.)

christian morality vs. HRCs

Christian morality and Canadian Human Rights Commissions come to blows again. This time in Ontario, where the OHRC has come down hard on Christian Horizons, a mission to the developmentally challenged. A condition of employment at Christian Horizons is that staff sign the mission's code of conduct which includes a ban on unbiblical sexual behavior such as adultery, sex before marriage and homosexuality.

This was challenged when a former lesbian employee took the matter to the OHRC, alleging that Christian Horizons had discriminated against her (whether she resigned or was fired is not clear).

The result, as reported by Nigel Hannaford in the Calgary Herald:

The OHRC... order(ed) Christian Horizons to pay her money. And to change its culture. "Christian Horizons shall develop and adopt an anti-discrimination and an anti-harassment policy as well as a human rights training program for all employees and managers . . . [and] shall cease and desist from imposing the Lifestyle and Morality Statement as a condition of employment."

read entire...

This ruling despite the fact that Canada needs Christian organizations to help deal with the poor, destitute and marginalized. Michael Coren (Toronto Sun):

Quite simply, without Christian groups and Christian people the social welfare network of Canada would collapse. This is not hyperbole. Walk along almost any main street and look at the names of the houses, associations and institutes that care for the poor, the abused, the marginalized, irrespective of their gender, race, religion or sexuality.

Christian welfare groups tend to be the most successful in dealing with the needy, much of their work is performed by volunteers and most of their money comes from donations.They are motivated by their faith -- the same faith that leads them to sign morality statements and not to lie, cheat, be promiscuous or, sorry, engage in homosexual sex. Goodness, this isn't brain surgery. If people want to be homosexual, that is their business. If people want to be Christian, it should be theirs.

read entire...

Aside from wringing our hands, what can Christians do?

1. We can pray. "If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

(Personally I've taken to praying against HRCs in an imprecatory Psalm way - using words from Psalm 40: "Let them (HRCs) be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion, Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor. Let them be confounded because of their shame.")

2. We need to get used to the idea that the days of the state and church working together are pretty much over in Canada. For far too long we've been silenced by the fear that our speaking out will compromise our church's tax-exempt status. Personally, I think we should repudiate that status and refuse to take any public monies, even though this would have huge ramifications, especially on Christian schools. And it probably wouldn't stop the HRCs from coming after us. But at least they would no longer have the "public money" reason to bully us on matters of morality.

silencing christians

Janet Parshall (U.S. Christian broadcaster) is doing an interesting new TV series called "Speechless: Silencing the Christians." The premiere episode launched Saturday night on the INSP channel and was webcast simultaneously on AFA.net.

Episode 1 description:
Renowned author and commentator Janet Parshall takes you on a journey across the country to meet citizens who have been arrested for speaking out at a public rally, students who are being forced to attend classes that require them to recite verses from the Koran and to stage their own jihad and activists pushing social tolerance to such an extreme that the Bible itself is being labeled “hate speech.”

A series trailer and Episode 1 are available to watch on the Silencing Christians website as well as on AFA.net. (It looks like a sign-up is necessary; I hope it's not one of those shows that's blocked to Canada!)

Janet Epp Buckingham doesn't get it

In a recent column "Abolish human rights commission? Not so fast" Janet Epp Buckingham - a lawyer who frequently represents Christians in court - says:

Some people are using the mere fact that the commissions are considering the complaints to argue that they should be abolished. That is like saying that the courts should be shut down just because someone has sued me! Sure, it is a pain and can be costly if you hire a lawyer to defend you. But that is what happens in a country where you have laws and courts. You may have to defend yourself against someone whose claim has little merit. Everyone deserves their day in court.

She doesn't get it. Human Rights Commissions are not there to enforce the law. There are defamation, libel, slander laws and hate crime laws controlling criminal speech in Canada. Such cases are dealt with in courts of law. The complaints people bring to HRCs are about activities and speech which are entirely legal but which hurt feelings and are perceived as insults. The function of HRCs becomes one of controlling thought (and its expression) and making political incorrectness a punishable offense.

And punished you will be, whether you're found guilty or not. Because, on top of the fines levied by the HRC if found guilty, the defendant must pay all lawyer bills while the complainant gets his/hers paid by the government no matter how the case ends up.

And that's another dodgy thing -- predicting how the case will end up. These commissions are arbitrary. If you're dragged in front of one, even your lawyer can't guarantee which way your case will go. It's up to the commission, made up of bureaucrats and lay people and who knows who else to decide if the complaint is worthy. And on the basis of what? The depth your opponent's outrage? Your seeming lack of contrition? The color of your socks? It sure isn't on the basis of the law.

On the other hand the Canadian Association of Journalists does get it:

CAJ urges changes to human rights laws

OTTAWA, Feb. 22 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists is calling on federal and provincial governments to amend human rights legislation to stop a pattern of disturbing attacks on freedom of speech.

Two recent cases spotlight the dangers of allowing state-backed agencies to censor speech based on subjective perceptions of offensiveness - MacLean's magazine, which is facing complaints in two provinces and nationally for an article by syndicated columnist Mark Steyn, and Ezra Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard who is now before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for his decision to publish the Danish cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

"Human rights commissions were never intended to act as a form of thought police," said CAJ President Mary Agnes Welch. "But now they're being used to chill freedom of expression on matters that are well beyond accepted Criminal Code restrictions on free speech."

Read entire

Denyse O'Leary, author of By Design or by Chance? and The Spiritual Brain,gets it too.

So does Ray Wiseman.

"A system part Kafka, part Stalin"

Words Ezra Levant used in his opening statement to describe Canadian Human Rights Commissions.

In the YouTube he makes his opening statement, then goes on to answer the commission examiner's questions.



Hat tip: Muslims Against Sharia Law

Sign petition "A Free Dominion Against HRCs"

ezra levant before kangaroo court

Human rights commissions are quasi-judicial government bodies that have taken it upon themselves to regulate Canadian freedom of speech and religion in ever more intrusive ways. Yesterday Ezra Levant appeared before such a commission in Calgary, Alberta. This was because of a complaint by an imam for Levant's decision to publish the Danish cartoons in the now-defunct-in-print Western Standard.

Before the interrogation began, he delivered an opening statement which lays bare many of the problems with these kangaroo courts and illustrates why every Canadian should be concerned. He may be bloody, but he is not bowed:

"When the Western Standard magazine printed the Danish cartoons of Mohammed two years ago, I was the publisher. It was the proudest moment of my public life. I would do it again today. In fact, I did do it again today. Though the Western Standard, sadly, no longer publishes a print edition, I posted the cartoons this morning on my website, ezralevant.com.

I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state.

It is especially perverted that a bureaucracy calling itself the Alberta human rights commission would be the government agency violating my human rights. So I will now call those bureaucrats “the commission” or “the hrc”, since to call the commission a “human rights commission” is to destroy the meaning of those words..."

Read his complete statement here.

Related:
-Bishop Henry calls for overhaul to human rights commissions
- Liberalism its own worst enemy

school

School mural - art with a dose of propaganda

**************

Thursday Challenge

Next week: PURPLE (Grapes, Plums, Red Onions, Cabbage, Flowers, Leaves, Clothing,...)

i love my country but...

I'm sick and tired of the way it panders to criminals .

(thanks, E., for the heads-up)

batty neighbors

Q. When does reverence for nature turn to lunacy?

A. When it's against the law to remove a colony of nesting bats from your house!


That's the batty world a West-end Vancouver couple of living in right now. As a Wednesday Vancouver Sun article explains:

A Vancouver couple with as many as 80 bats living in the walls of their West End condo are going to have to live with them for now because the bats are protected under the B.C. Wildlife Act.

They can't be disturbed during their breeding period from May to August. Anyone caught capturing bats may face fines of up to $345 per animal.

Miles Nurse, who co-owns the $509,000 condo with his girlfriend Jennifer Plomt, has been told by a pest control company it may take until the end of August for the bat pups hanging around the place to be mature enough to move. - Read entire

When the couple found a baby bat in their bed they began to get really worried. Bats are the No. 1 rabies carriers in our province. They and their dog are now getting a series of rabies shots.

Help may be on the way, however. B.C. Environment Minster Barry Penner in a show of common sense, said his ministry could issue a permit for the critters to be removed sooner.

Besides being a rabies risk, the bats are also messy (condo owner Nurse said he has cleaned "buckets of bat feces from inside the third floor penthouse walls") and noisy (Nurse:"We've been hearing them at night a log --high-pitched squeals-- and if we leave our bedroom blinds open, it's a bat show"). Mother bats leave their young in the condo at night to go out and feed.

Though the condo bats have not been identified, the most common species in B.C. are little brown bats, big brown bats and Yuma Myotis.

More about bats:

- Bat pestpage
- British Columbia Bat Resources
- Bats of British Columbia (features interviews with various bat species)

Photo Credit: Bat Photos

chaplains

Every time more Canadian soldiers are killed in Afghanistan, a brouhaha erupts in the news with questions being asked, mostly by politicians and some media types: "When have too many Canadians died? When is it time for us to withdraw?" Since there have been many casualties lately, this discussion is happening a lot and it is getting tiresome. This is, after all, war. And this isn't this what the terrorists are counting on us to do - wimp out when the going gets tough? Did the same thing happen, I wonder, during World War II every time deaths were reported from the front? I wonder too how this attitude affects the morale of the soldiers stationed there.

That's why the presence of Major Pierre Bergeron, a Canadian Forces chaplain, in church yesterday morning, was so refreshing. For once we heard from someone who is not out to question our presence in Afghanistan, but to support the troops.

He was visiting family in the area and spoke only briefly. But I found what he said encouraging.

He described eight church services happening at the chapel in Kandahar every Sunday -- accommodating every worship style from liturgical to Black Gospel. He told us of a dream he has of bringing these various 'congregations' together in a joint prayer and fasting meeting one day a month. He spoke of chaplains providing a presence on the base as well as at the front, where soldiers want to talk to them before they go out on missions, and after they return from them.

Major Bergeron was first sent to Afghanistan in December '06 for several weeks. Now he will be returning in two weeks for another nine months.

Our pastors and people from the congregation gathered around him and his wife, laid hands on them and prayed for them. As I looked down from my seat in the balcony at him and his wife back in their seats, and saw her place an arm around his waist, and then saw how he took her hand, I thought of the months ahead for them.

Sending someone off to a place like Afghanistan, no matter how noble the cause, must be terrifying. It made me want to renew my prayers for the soldiers there and add to them the chaplains. They also go into harm's way, not to do direct fighting but to support our soldiers, bringing an eternal perspective to the men and women who represent our nation in its stand against repression and terrorism, and for freedom and democracy,

euthanasia debate

Conjoined-at-the-head twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan-Simms are now seven months old. Should they have been allowed to be born, debate Michael Coren and Dr. Ken Walker (alias Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, who writes a medical column carried by about 500 newspapers).

Michael Coren says "YES":

"...There is an absolute that we have to tackle. Life is either sacred or it is not. If it is, preserve it at all costs. If it is not, we might as well destroy it at will. It is terribly expensive to keep the sick alive and wholly impractical to prolong the life of an ill person who will die anyway.

No civilized person or society, however, considers expense and practicality to be more important than goodness and humanity. If it did, it would immediately wipe out, for example, drug addicts, the homeless and people with AIDS.

Gifford-Jones says "No":

"...They will never walk, joined at the head in such an abnormal position. Physically they are destined for ill health, lying on their backs forever. They will become obese and develop the myriad of diseases that accompany this problem. Their lives will be a living hell.

This should be a wakeup call for us to prevent unimaginable future cruelty of this kind. We are a compassionate nation and we routinely remove children from parents who abuse them. I would ask this question. Is there anyone among us who would want to be born this way or willing to trade places with these conjoined twins?

...Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, believes that children with major deformities of this kind should have life terminated within 28 days of their birth. But in my opinion it would have been a greater kindness to terminate this pregnancy in the early weeks of gestation.

Chilling stuff, coming from a doctor! (The family of the twins thinks so too.) When someone else's parameters about quality of life become the measure of whether we live or die -- are any of us safe?

a letter to little people

To my fellow humans who are entering that most precarious stage of human development.

Let me begin by congratulating you on making it through the embryonic stage. Too many of our fellow humans don’t even make it as far as you have now. Many died of natural causes. Others were cut down prior to implantation by an abortifacient. Still others are trapped in the freezers of IVF clinics, in suspended animation awaiting their fate.

You have made it to the second stage of life. But you're not out of the woods, as they say, until you're out of the womb...

That's how Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost begins his "Open Letter to Fetal Humans." Click on "check it out" below to read entire.