I’ve been waiting for the Anglican Church of Canada to say something about the protestors congregating in Ottawa. The church has no hesitation lobbing opinions into the ether to support BLM, Indigenous rights, LGBT activities and so on. Even in the face of universal uninterest. Why the reticence here? It can’t be that hard to pick a side since the bishops’ mentor, our illustrious Prime Minister has already blazed the path of righteousness by denouncing the protesters as racists, misogynists, homophobes, Nazis and probably a few other things I’ve forgotten. Surely the church should find itself prophetically harmonising with this wave of heady invective?
At least one clergyman has finally stepped into the fray. The ex-Catholic, ex-Evangelical Rev. Michael Coren.
“At the trucker protests, the political hard right is co-opting Christianity” blazes the headline, omitting the fact that anyone to the right of Joseph Stalin is “hard right” in Rev. Coren’s book.
What seems to upset Coren most is that the protestors recited the Lord’s Prayer. How dare they! They aren’t allowed to because they are not making obeisance to Coren’s idols of inclusion and tolerance – which makes as much sense as the rest of Coren’s analysis.
There is a video circulating on social media of a group of truckers in Ottawa discussing their plans. They exchange views in a quite heated manner, and then suddenly one of them begins to recite the Lord’s Prayer. In direct obedience and observance, all of the others remove their caps and follow suit. It’s being posted by supporters of the convoy who see the enterprise as God’s work and want to emphasize the piety of all concerned.
[…..]
I’ve no idea of what was in the hearts of those men who suddenly turned from bellicose plotting to telling God they “forgive those who trespass against us,” but judging by the ubiquity of vulgar anti-Trudeau signs and images of nooses, I’m a little cynical. I’m a priest – the Lord’s Prayer is central to my very being – but it’s more than just a collection of words. It’s what Jesus taught us to say. Jesus – who owned nothing and lived communally – reserved his harshest words for the wealthy and legalistic, redistributed food and preached tolerance, inclusion and grace. He could be as gentle as a watercolour in his love and compassion, but fierce as a lion of Judah in his demand for social justice.
There’s nothing new of course about the politicization of Christianity; it’s been happening ever since church and state began to mingle 1,700 years ago.
Admittedly, the Anglican Church of Canada does not politicise Christianity. It can’t because it has ceased to be Christian.
Criminalization of Christianity is the Justinfied charge against the PRC aligned Trudeau Regime, their mutual admiration society about to take an even darker turn on March 1, 2022,
after the ‘Berlin’ Games run their genocidal course.
Italy’s Archbishop Carlos Maria Vigano
(also of his public ‘Testimony’ August 25, 2018) embraces the Canadian Truck drivers’ push against the New World Order. V. ‘Gateway Pundit’. F. Feb. 11/22
Be not anxious! No depression! Have no fear, COVID-19 restrictions will be gone, possibly by Easter, if everybody cooperates. This will have nothing to do with any anti-restrictions protests in our beloved Canada.
Even if the Anglican Church of Canada isn’t Christian, we must take notice of a truly remarkable fact that emerged this week. That is, state-sanctioned violence was kept as an absolute last resort. Non-violent means were tried first. Non-violence and a peaceable end to the protests were urged by Doug Ford and Trudeau. Now, make what you will of their policies and appeals, but I find this utterly remarkable. It seems hardwired into Canadian laws and practices. With the authority of the government under threat and the livelihoods of thousands of people under threat, I for one would find it easy to give the order to crush the protesters underfoot. After all, if the government and police can’t show their authority and power, what hope is there for order, stability, productivity? That arrest and potential violence were the last resort might just have something to do with a Christian understanding of non-violence being part of Canada’s ethos. Worth a thought.
At least we have one thing to be thankful for in all this: you are not in charge.
To place Ontario Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau, whose Regime invoked Closure in the House of Commons today, he again absent, on the same plane of moral equivalency fails on the fact that the former was forced to exercise his governmental authority; while the latter studiously failed to do so, now enabling him to invoke the Reichstag Emergencies Act, never used in the democratic history
of the Canadian Confederation.
“Public order” is the seeming raison d’etre for invoking it:
But within the same day White House Press conference context of Communist China’s endorsement of Russia’s
invasion of the Ukraine, that is one power that this PRC aligned dictator does not need – that is not a conspiracy theory; but it is a Christian one.
+ He does not qualify under + Romans
ch. 13. Amen.
“I for one would find it easy to give the order to crush the protesters underfoot.”
Orwell was right that many seemingly-innocent suburbanites easily identify themselves with large power units and fantasise not just of authoritarian power but how they would personally exercise it to eliminate the rights and freedoms of others. Clothed, of course, in the camouflage of the “greater good”.
A person who would find it “easy” to “crush” a protest, and can casually use the language of brutality in this fashion with a thinly disguised desire for the application of violence, has absolutely no business being anywhere near the institutions of influence in a democracy, and should not, I would argue, even be permitted to run a small-sized cake shop or raise a child.
An utterly disgusting comment, the soapbox sophistry notwithstanding, and one that I hope would be universally condemned by whatever side of politics or theology one hails from.
On the ACC doctrinal front, this is precisely the intent and action towards ANY opposition to the anti-Scriptural false doctrine being advanced as “inclusion” and “diversity”, unfolding as it ought not, all dressed up as “dialogue” and “conversation” in the otherwise anti-Canonical/Scriptural Diocese of Niagara’s “local option”;
exercised by a ‘democratic’, secret ballot vote to confirm it
in readiness for July’s General Synod.
But one very current case in point, St. James’ Pictou, Nova Scotia blessed with a former Diocesan Chancellor and, added blessing, retired Lawyer.
Lawless.
“Beware of the Scribes”, thus The King and Head of His Church warned in His WORD.
Most Canadians probably think that our government is moving too slow in ending the hostility of some people towards public health measures. To end weeks of occupation around Ottawa’s Parliament Hill and other blockages without bloodshed will not be easy at all.
Actually, it is extremely easy: end all the vaccine and mask requirements now and everyone will go home.
The only thing that seems to be standing in the way is Trudeau’s inflated ego.
As is said in the House of Commons, ‘Hear, hear!”
Politicians can make decisions without listening to others. Or, they can make decisions based on careful consultation with our medical experts and scientists. Overall, Canada has stricter public health measures than the U.S. Last month, the number of Americans in ICU peaked at nearly 79 per million when Canada’s was 32 per million (“Was Canada’s COVID response more effective than the U.S.?” by Bernd Debusmann, Jr., BBC News, Washington, February 14, 2022).
On what authority did the Prime Minister of Canada. absent throughout the crisis and absent from Parliament on critical date, take his directive from the President of The United States to invoke Federal powers to counter the rights of lawful protest and civil disobedience of Canadian Citizens, as has happened?
This, in the Constitutional objections of 7 Provincial Premiers to Trudeau’s Order in Council yet to be debated in the House of Commons!
Two Premiers Kenney, Alberta, and Moe, Saskatchewan, along with 16 US Governors have requested in writing a lifting of all mandates on both side of the Border.
At his in House representation today the PM accused/J’Accuse the Opposition of endorsing
“swastikas” among the Protest: a brazen lie on both counts; while he has been discovered having given tax payer dollars to BLM who sport them with impunity. (v. ‘Rebelnews’).
If there is war in the Ukraine, this PRC cabal will expand their present unConstitutional powers to full fledged wartime measures, the fourth provision under the Act.
The Leader of HM Loyal Opposition having set out legally WHY the steps leading up to invocation of the Act have not been met; and what provisions of the Charter already have been violated, renders it unlawful: by three days now……
For the radical middle NDP to assure they, if certain ‘protections’ are assured, will “reluctantly support” its implementation;
For Minister of ‘Justice’/AG to attempt similar assurances knowing his lawless Regime have the overriding protection of Section 32 – yes, for “all of Canada”!;
both akin to handing that other lawless Dictator of “swastika” notoriety his Nuremberg Laws.
Russia, having bombed a kindergarten in the Ukraine, just has ordered all USA troops out of Europe. War. This Trudeau Regime positioned for absolute power: compliments of President Joe Biden’s directive to PM Trudeau to invoke
Federal powers: which he has done.
Why? Ask the PM.
As the Trudeau Regime continues to smear the Conservative Opposition with
“swastikas” , read the February, 22, 2022, Open Letter of Canadian Dr. Eli David, et al., to the Prime Minister expressing “mounting concern” that he is “weaponizing” the oldest hatred by his unjustified because false attack on the Truckers;
whose civil right to protest they uphold. Shalom.
It is interesting to see that some parents are deploying their own small children as human shields during the current occupation around Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. What a smart idea!
That is nonsense, Michael.
Perhaps, it is an opportunity for the children to observe their parents in active employment, occupying the land outside our Parliament, the seat of our democracy.
Or perhaps it is an opportunity for the children to observe their parents attempting to put a stop to the antics of an egotistical petty tyrant.
It seems to me that the “Freedom Convoy” occupiers have won the battle, since Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario have started easing COVID-19 restrictions. Other provinces will be following their examples soon.
If one lawful Protester is not free ( free to refuse the Trudeau Regime’s mandatory vaccine, or to refuse any other violation of The Charter ), the whole Nation is bound.
Why was Parliament not in Session to continue vital debate re. the legal threshold, or lack thereof, of the the Act?
Especially DURING the stand-off now under way in the shadow of The Peace Tower?
It was one year to today’s date, the 18th of February, that the House of Commons was debating the Motion to condemn the PRC’s genocide of its Uighur
minority:
A Motion that was Carried by the Opposition, but “abstained” from by the PM and his Cabinet, all in absentia!
How does that square ethically with the PM’s newfound Muslim PMO; and the NDP who have advanced Indigenous rights; both of whom are supporting the unlawful Emergencies Act?
As Munich 1938 II is unfolding in Munich, the PRC Regime cum NDP in the House debate allege “extreme” elements among the Truckers:
What has been a more extreme threat to Canadian security than the PM having the PLA on Canadian soil for three years to train “in winter conditions”?
When will Liberal Party bank sources be frozen?
The 2002-2004 outbreak of SARS, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov or SARS-Cov-1), resulted in 811 deaths worldwide. Then, in late December 2019, SARS-Cov-2 has started to upset our world. The ongoing global pandemic has killed over 5.9 million people worldwide.
COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Canada on January 27, 2020. Then, Canadians have been subjected to so many COVID-19 restrictions for the past two years. Since January 22, 2022, the “Freedom Convoy” has been protesting about all COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. This movement inspired similar protests in 34 countries including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Cyprus, France, New Zealand, U.K., and the U.S.
COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon. The “Freedom Convoy” will not disappear for good either. What are we going to do? Perhaps, at future provincial and federal elections, voters can replace all our current provincial and federal leaders by electing others who will promise not to impose any COVID-19 restrictions. Canadians really don’t like these restrictions.
For context, I live 35 minutes from Parliament Hill. I have visited the area, as an observer, not as a protester. If you are watching CBC, CTV, or reading the Star or Globe and Mail for your ‘news’, what you are hearing/reading is about as objective as the report you would hear from the World Socialist Web Site reporting on a PPC convention.
A good friend of mine took four of his grandchildren to Parliament Hill on Feb. 5 (not for a ‘human shield’, Michael), but rather to have them be ‘part of an historical Canadian moment’, as he put it, and to teach them media discernment. These kids (aged 10-12) were ‘shocked’ at the difference of what they saw and experienced in person, and what was reported on the ‘news’ when they got home. They were treated with respect by everyone there – the police, the protesters, and the trucker families. They had lots to eat, games to play, and made new friends. There were several churches present sharing food, encouragement, and the Good News of the Gospel. This was a peaceful, albeit loud, protest until the rhetoric and decisions of the PM escalated the situation. Were these done on purpose? Hopefully the myriad of lawsuits will reveal the truth.
I have been thinking over the last couple of days about what we are experiencing, and I think this quote from American Poet James Russell Lowell expresses my thoughts best.
“What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? Is ours a ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”
(Kakistocracy is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state’)
We need to pray daily for our Country and for our leaders. This is a watershed moment.
Lord, Have Mercy!
Thank you for that perspective.
“Once to every man and nation,
comes the moment to decide
in the strife of truth with falsehood
for the good or evil side…”
+ Prayers in JESUS’ Name. Amen.
James Russell Lowell,
December 11,1845
We can all agree that citizens of Ottawa’s downtown area can now have a good night sleep. More and more countries in the world are easing their COVID-19 restrictions now. There were about 318 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people in Canada on February 18, 2022. We are not doing too bad in comparison to some other countries, e.g. 18,460 active cases per 100,000 in Norway; 13,458 in Netherlands; 9,517 in Switzerland; 8,573 in Belgium; 8,366 in the U.S. as of February 18, 2022.
We have said good-bye to weeks of occupation of Ottawa’s downtown. There are no winners here except the citizens of Ottawa who can have a good night sleep for now.
I have read your comments and would state that while I definitely am NOT a fan of Justin Trudeau as his interest is solely on his own financial benefit I do believe that the actions of the so-called Freedom Convoy are completely wrong. The reason for the mandates is quite clear and fully justified and the fact that some do not want vaccinations or having to take safety precautions should not allow them to infect others. From a Christian standpoint you need to read and review Romans 13:1-7. The advice of the medical community resulted in the actions of the government and there is nothing to suggest any political motive.
Justin Trudeau has clearly shown his colours in the matter of the WE CHARITY program that financially benefited his family and friends and for these actions he clearly should NEVER be allowed to govern. However, taking the stand his government has done with respect to the ongoing and seemingly never ending CORONAVIRUS is a sensible approach. Standing for freedom is indeed correct but in this matter I must disagree. The actions of the so-called convoy has caused significant damage to our economy with the lower income class bearing most of the costs and there is no justification for taking the actions they have done.
Frank:
Mandates would only be justified if those who are vaccinated did not carry and transmit the virus to others at much the same rate as the vaccinated. All recent studies show that they do. I can provide references if you wish.
On Romans 13:1-7, please read the following by N.T. Wright and Michael Bird respectively:
And we have numerous accounts of Christians engaging in acts of civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws, not to mention Dietrich Bonhoeffer attempting to murder Hitler.
In Canada, no doctors or nurses can give me any medical treatment without my permission. Nobody can force me to get a COVID-19 vaccine either.
Dr. Alberto Giubilini, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, wrote: “COVID-19 vaccination should be mandatory – at least for certain groups…. Mandatory seatbelt policies have proven very successful in reducing deaths from car accidents, and are now widely endorsed despite the (very small) risks that seatbelts entail. We should see vaccines as seatbelts against COVID-19. In fact, as very special seatbelts, which protect ourselves and protect others” (“Should COVID-19 Vaccines be Mandatory? Two Experts Discuss”, The Conversation, November 25, 2020).
I do understand that some Christians do not want to take an abortion tainted vaccine. Others do not get the vaccine because the long-term effects of the vaccines are still unknown. Perhaps, Christians may be willing to consider taking Novavax – the first vaccine without links to fetal-derived cell lines. Novavax uses protein-based technology. The animal cells employed in its development come from moths (Jack Jenkins’ “New Novavax Shot could appeal to Pro-Life Christian Skeptics”, Christianity Today, February 18, 2022).
Michael,
It depends on what you mean by “force”. A person who is given the choice between taking a vaccine or being deprived of his livelihood is being subject to a level of coercion that qualifies as “force”.
Dr. Alberto Giubilini should know better. That is a false analogy for the following reasons:
Seatbelts are external to the body, temporary and can be removed when not in use. A vaccine is internal, permanent and cannot be removed.
Seatbelts have long-term safety data freely available. COVID-19 vaccines do not.
Seatbelt testing data is freely available for anyone to inspect. Pfizer’s vaccine test data has been sealed for 75 years.
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have been indemnified against lawsuits in the event of a vaccine causing harm. Seatbelt manufacturers can be sued.
That is untrue: Christianity Today’s Jack Jenkins didn’t research this properly. Novavax used the HEK-293 cell line in testing its vaccines in exactly the same way as Pfizer and other vaccine merchants. This is from Novavax/Medicago’s own documentation:
The Anglican version of Coren is borin’.