TOLERANCE NOT FOR CHRIST

No reference to Christ In the name of tolerance

Calgary Sun - November 18, 2001
Military gives Christ heave-ho
Banning people from expressing their faith is something the Taliban would do
By LICIA CORBELLA

As Canadian troops prepare to head off to Afghanistan to protect our liberty, the Canadian military brass has dreamed up a new way to chip away at those very freedoms and rights. In what is being described, politely in my view, as an "unprecedented" move, the Canadian military is directing its chaplains to avoid all specific references to Christianity during public services. The policy change, which came down from the so-called chaplain general in Ottawa on July 24, has left Canadian Forces chaplains unable to use such phrases like "Father, Son and Holy Spirit," the name of Christ and even the Lord's Prayer.

The reason given, of course, is to be sensitive to other minority religions by offending the majority. It is - or at least is becoming - the Canadian way and while their intentions may actually be honourable, what they are in fact doing is jeopardizing this country's very foundation.

It's important to remember that back in 1993, Maclean's magazine conducted a massive public opinion survey of 4,510 Canadian adults and concluded that 78% of Canadians at that time - almost four out of every five – define themselves as Christians.

More astonishing yet is the fact that just slightly more than 2% - that's right, 2% - of Canadians are Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or adherents of cults or New Age philosophies - 2%! After Christianity, the largest group - about 20% of Canadians - describe themselves as having no religion, half of whom are atheists.

Why then do our legislators trip over themselves banning the word Christmas and Easter from our schools and treating the name of Christ as though it were a four-letter word? What, pray tell, ever happened to majority rule? In 1993, Jean Chretien's Liberals formed a majority government with 42% of the popular vote and then ruled like a dictatorship - yet 78% of Canadians can't attend a Remembrance Day service and hear the name of their God uttered.  Isn't that pathetic?

Why Canadians have allowed our politicians to continually deny that Canada is a predominantly Christian country and that the very bedrock or foundation of this great land is based on Christian principles is puzzling. In countries where Christians are in the minority and where their very lives are at risk if they proclaim their faith - like in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran - they are often bolder than we, the majority, are in this country.

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there were close to 164,000 Christians martyred for their beliefs in 1999. These people were often tortured and killed because they refused to deny Christ. My husband is currently reading the book In God's Underground, by Richard Wurmbrand, who spent 14 years in squalid prisons in Communist Romania. All he would have had to do to get out and join his wife and son was to deny Christ. Many like him were tortured to death because they refused to do so. If these army chaplains follow this directive, they will be spitting on the graves of those 164,000 fellow believers and the millions who came before.

The maddening thing here is, it's not the minorities who are demanding this.  My bet is no complaint was made to warrant this directive, rather some paper pusher with too much time dreamed up a new way to be noticed by his superiors.

Christianity and the tolerance it produces is ironically what has allowed this kind of double standard against itself to exist. We all need to ask ourselves this question. How many people are trying to immigrate to Iran, Sudan or Iraq? How many are risking their lives to emigrate to mainland China, Afghanistan, Syria or Libya? Preposterous questions, right?

Every day, countless people give up everything - status, wealth, family, educational degrees and, in many cases, their lives - in an effort to escape from such countries. Where do they try to escape to? Do people from Malaysia desperately try to get into Indonesia? Do oppressed Libyans risk it all to break down the door into neighbouring and like-minded Algeria or Sudan? Do people in communist China sneak across the border into Pakistan? No, they don't.

Invariably, those people who face death, torture or prison if they are caught trying to flee their homelands try to get into countries like Canada, the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Australia, Spain, Switzerland and others. Besides being, for the most part, industrialized, wealthy nations, the other common denominator of the countries people want to move to is the religion - they are all Christian-based.

With the exception of Israel, there's no other country on this planet that is not Christian-based that has more people wanting to move to it than wanting to leave it. This is not a mysterious coincidence. As stated in II Corinthians 3:17, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty." And liberty is what draws people to these countries - freedom and tolerance based on the laws and cultural foundations built upon the Christian bedrock.

In Canada's rush to be "tolerant" and "accepting," we are being intolerant of the majority and trampling upon the very thing that makes people want to come here. Banning Christians from expressing their faith sounds remarkably familiar. Oh yeah, now I remember, it's what the Taliban does.

Licia Corbella, editor of the Calgary Sun, can be reached at 403-250-4129 or by e-mail at licia.corbella@calgarysun.com. Letters to the editor should be sent to callet@sunpub.com.