Canada’s big right turn?

French paper La Presse has summed up my fear all along…. that the Canadian general public is making a right turn in social and political stance after 4 years of conservative leadership.

In a La Presse column Monday, Alain Dubuc argued the Harper government’s stance on abortion funding is just another example of a “profound” shift to the right in Canadian society. “It’s not just that the government is very far to the right,” Mr. Dubuc wrote. “That, we already knew. What is more significant is that the support for its conservative ideas is much bigger than we could have imagined.”

Mr. Dubuc observed that when Mr. Harper panders to his “Reform base,” he doesn’t necessarily rise or drop in opinion polls, nor do his action solicit any significant amount of “popular indignation” from citizens. He went on to argue that the “wave” of conservatism that has swept across Canada since the election of the Harper government “has been strong enough to transform the political debate” and “shift the Canadian consensus” away from a traditionally more liberal approach to abortion and other controversial issues.

We all know that Stephen Harper et al are evangelicals. What we rarely see is Harper letting his religious self to appear in the public. An earlier article in the Vancouver Sun has dissected this side of Harper and why he keeps his evangelical faith under the carpet.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is damned if he does talk about his evangelical beliefs and damned if he doesn’t. If he continues to avoid answering questions about his religious convictions, political observers say he appears secretive, like he’s hiding something. But, at the same time, most Canadians do not share the moral convictions of his evangelical denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.

The Alliance Church, to which Harper has belonged for decades, believes Jesus Christ will return to Earth in an apocalypse, won’t ordain women, strongly opposes abortion and divorce, condemns homosexuality as the most base of sins and believes those who aren’t born-again are “lost.”

They believe:

The denomination also stresses that Jesus Christ’s return to Earth is imminent, says the evangelical specialist, who was raised in the Alliance Church.

Alliance Church doctrine, like those of other evangelical denominations, strongly oppose homosexual relationships, describing them as the “basest form of sinful conduct.”

The Alliance Church is also tough on divorce and holds that Christians who have been adulterous do not have a right to remarry.

The denomination’s leaders, in addition, oppose abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia, the use of marijuana and ordained female clergy.

To me, the most distasteful aspect of this belief is that they force others to become them. Otherwise, if you go practice whatever you believe in private and not meddling with others’ life, every belief is equal and should be respected.

The Canadian church’s website features a list of sample prayers “for the lost,” so members can pray for sinful non-Christians they hope Jesus Christ will save from “eternal damnation.”

Related posts

• Photos – ADS signed (1)
• Transcript – Hu Jintao meets Harper (0)
• Hu Jintao receives maple syrup from Harper (5)
• Salute to Nancy Ruth (1)
• A tale of two dictators (1)

Short URL: http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/?p=10687