Tag Archives: Politics

The Anglican Church of Canada and politics

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This is on the website of the Niagara diocese:

The current Canadian Government has called an election for October 14th 2008. The Church does not take any positions on the various parties and candidates that are running. Obviously each ballot that is cast, must be done so according to the conscience of the individual.
However, as a Christian community and as an Anglican Church we can at least pose questions that should be addressed during the upcoming weeks.
The first thing that we would like to do is encourage every citizen in this country to exercise their responsibility to vote. We all must contribute to the future of Canada by exercising our vote.
Secondly, we will place some resources as they come available in the column on the right. These are for discussion and they are guides.

There is only one entry on the ‘Resources’ sidebar: Eight Ways to Make Poverty an Election Issue
Which, when you click on it, takes you to the website of Make Poverty History.
Now, gently reader, take a wildly haphazard guess as to which political party endorses Make Poverty History?

Why, the NDP, of course!

“The NDP will continue to work with progressive parliamentarians from all political parties and civil society efforts such as the Make Poverty History campaign dedicated to ending poverty around the world and here in Canada, to make 0.7 by 2015 a reality,” said McDonough.

I bet that comes as a shock to everyone. And, of course, it makes nonsense of the statement above “The Church does not take any positions on the various parties and candidates that are running”

Which brings me to the point of all this: the Anglican Church of Canada has ceased to be a Christian organisation; instead it is a political one, albeit a particularly ineffective specimen.

c/p Essentials blog

I like George W Bush. So There.

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This is why:

He is an evangelical Christian.

He is anti-abortion. Although single issue politics might be a Bad Thing, this holocaust of innocents needs to take centre stage.

He acts on his convictions even when they are unpopular.

He thinks freedom is better than autocracy.

He fought the war in Iraq for the right reasons; see the previous point.

His English is better than the average left-wing North American television news reader.

Michael Moore hates him.

From the National Post:

The Strongest Tribe by Bing West is a masterpiece of battlefield reporting. West was on the front lines when American troops beat insurgents back block-by-block in Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad. He describes the failures of planning and strategy that pushed Iraq to the brink of anarchy in 2004 and again in 2006 – and the strategic changes that brought the nation back to some semblance of normalcy in 2007 and 2008.

Critics of Bush often use hysterical moral language to attack the man: evil, Nazi, warmonger, monster, tyrant. History, I believe, will judge him in more nuanced terms. Bush is, in a phrase, a reckless optimist. His unwavering faith in the goodness within human beings and the redemptive power of freedom led him into a bloody and unwise adventure, one that resulted in the slaughter of untold thousands of innocent Iraqis. Yet that same sense of moral courage also led him to stand by the unfinished project when the lives of millions more hung in the balance. But not for Bush’s bold January, 2007 decision, there is no telling what sort of hell would by now have engulfed Iraq.

When we consign this man to the history books, let’s be sure that both sides of the story get told.

The Idiot

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Stéphane Dion is a 21st Century Canadian version of Dostoyevsky’s Idiot, Myshkin in his novel, The Idiot. Admittedly, Dion only exhibits one side of Myshkin’s personality: a naivety that renders him incapable of dealing with or understanding the world, particularly a fallen world. An unusual quality for a politician. Regrettably, Myshkin’s finer qualities – his saintliness – are absent in Stéphane. In fact, his ignorance of worldly matters seems to be exceeded only by his nescience – perhaps in a rather charming way – with things of the spirit. He was recently interviewed by Michael Coren; here are some observations on the interview from the National Post:

He was, for example, anxious to “reconcile people with God’s environment” and was committed to the planet “given to us by God.” Which is somewhat surprising. The deity is not a popular debating point for Liberal leaders. Actually, the Supreme Being is mentioned by ambitious Liberal politicians about as often as Brian Mulroney’s good points. So I was rude enough to ask Mr. Dion if he was doing this — sounding religious — because he had been told that the station on which my show appears each night, CTS, was faith-based. Frankly, I expected him to deny, obfuscate or simply lie. It says a great deal about the man’s integrity as well as his innocence that he replied on air with a simple, “This is true.” A pause, then, “I have been told that this is important to the people who watch this show.”

His words seemed so naive, so vulnerable to critique, so — forgive me Mr. Dion — callow and such a product of inexperience. Goodness it’s hard not to like him but it’s equally hard to imagine him being tough with our enemies and careful with our friends. He listens to well-meaning but weak advice and then admits that he’s been moulded for the moment. Canadians generally expect more from their political masters and that God chap expects more — even from Liberals.

I can’t see how someone like this could run a country – even one like Canada.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee

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Well, we used to stand on guard; now we import terrorists and send them to live in Brantford. The obvious question springs to mind: is Brantford being punished or Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad?

This is what it takes for Brantford, Ontario to be noticed by the US.

BRANTFORD, Ontario — Once home to inventor Alexander Graham Bell and hockey great Wayne Gretzky, the small Canadian city of Brantford is now home to a terrorist — and the Canadian government might not do anything about it.

Forty years ago, Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a former teacher, joined the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

On Dec. 26, 1968, Mohammad and another gunman launched an attack on an El Al airliner at Athens International Airport. The two ran up on the tarmac firing guns and, throwing grenades at the passenger jet, wounded a flight attendant as she opened an emergency exit and killed a 50-year-old passenger, Leon Shirdan.

The gunmen were captured, tried and convicted in Greek court, and they were sentenced in 1970 to serve 17 years in prison. But they were released just months later after the PFLP hijacked an Olympic Airways flight and demanded their release as part of a hostage exchange.

In 1987, when a much grayer Mohammad arrived at Canada’s doorstep, his entry visa made no mention of his terrorist act. Canadian authorities later determined Mohammad was a convicted terrorist, and they ordered him out of the country.

Yet Mohammad, having repeatedly appealed government orders for his expulsion, has extended his stay for 20 years. He still resides in the same house in Brantford.

Fake Olympics

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We know that the fireworks were faked, the little girl singing actually wasn’t and the ethnic minorities on display weren’t – ethnic minorities, that is. The smiles are fake, the ages of the Chinese athletes are fake, the audience is fake, freedom of reporting is fake and the Internet access is fake.

I am half expecting to wake up to the morning headline that the whole thing was computer generated; no such luck, I fear. Instead, we have given one of the most repressive, societies on earth a means of trumpeting forth its sordid and transparently ridiculous propaganda.

Much of the government hatred is directed against Christians:

China’s human rights record is one of the worst in the world, with a system of “re-education through labour” which detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps without even a court hearing. There are more Christians in prison in China than any other country in the world. The only legal churches are those strictly controlled by the government of China. Those who do not wish to follow government policies on religious practice and beliefs must meet in homes and risk being labeled as “evil cults.” Such a designation can result in closing down the church, confiscation of property, and charges against the leadership, often resulting in torture, imprisonment and death.

When was the last time you heard one of our illustrious Western Anglican bishops express his concern over this? Do they find it Deeply Troubling™, I wonder? We will probably never know.