From here:
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda told Parliament Monday that she was the person who directed that a recommendation from her staff be altered to deny funding to a church-backed aid group.
The minister was backtracking on previous statements in which she said Kairos had lost its funding because the group’s work no longer fit with the Canadian International Development Agency’s objectives — suggesting she was acting on her department’s recommendation.
What can one say?
Bev Oda for Prime Minister – after a decent interval of ritual shaming.
And she should be fired!
But what about the separation of Church and State. Many people feel that the government should not be funding a Church run organization in the first place.
The fact is Oda denied knowledge of who “doctored” the grant letter in a parliamentary committee and in the House. The fact that she lied is the issue not who the recipient of funds is.
If we were to force all politicians who have lied to resign or be fired than we would not have a Liberal Party of Canada, and only a shadow of the NDP. Probably most of the Conservative Party would be gone also. Point is that if you are going to have such a high and demanding standard for one political party than you should have the same high and demanding standard for all of them. But I don’t see any demands for Liberals or NDPers to resign whenever they are caught in a lie.
Eph 3:20, I agree. I think that even many of those who are angered at the denial of funding to Kairos are even more dismayed at how it was denied. I know I would be.
From the CBC
And for all the posturing by the Liberals, cast the first stone and all that.
Personally the bolded groups are the only ones I would trust with taxpayer money.
That is not what was the original intent of the phrase “Separation of Church & State”, which is what so many people ignorantly ape. The intention was that the Government would not mettle in the affairs of the church. However if you really think that the church and government should have complete separation, ie, not provide any sort of funding to church run aide organizations, careful what you wish for. Then any funds donated to the church should also not be taxed at all. Also these aide organizations, ie World Vision, Samaritans Purse, and most other major aide organizations should withhold aiding any non-Christian people, and only care for their own. Let the government step in where churches are doing the heavy lifting. Is that what you are suggesting?? Christians in our country donate far more to charity then non. Careful what you wish for, you may get it.
Not quite.
In the US, the concept originated in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists Association. He said:
The intent was to avoid an established church and allow freedom of choice in religion. It was later enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution:
All Canada has is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which provides (or used to – it has been largely eroded now by maniacal political correctness):
So whether the government should force tax-payers to contribute to Kairos or not has more to do with common sense than it does with a supposed separation of church and state.
And World Vision is free to give aid to whomever it chooses as does any other independent charitable organisation.
Oda put “not” in the document to reverse its meaning after the people from CIDA signed it, to make it look like it was CIDA who denied funding, not Oda’s dept. or the PMO. This is no simple lie, it is a major scandal.