The Diary – Keep religious right out of my government

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/06/2010 (5546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you please, put on your thinking caps and prepare yourselves for a little mental exercise: first, I want you to read a column, and then I want you to give me your opinion.

The basis of all this is a new book, "Armageddon Factor," by Marci McDonald. As a writer and investigative reporter, this scribe’s reputation is impeccable. She has won more awards than anyone else in her field of whom I have ever heard, so this story has a solid foundation.

For that excellent Canadian magazine "Walrus", of which too few of you are aware, McDonald wrote an article on the growing influence of the ‘religious right,’ which is so vigorous in the United States, on Canada’s prime minister and his government.

From what I can gather, McDonald’s exposure to new information whetted her interest in this topic, which she expanded into her new 400-page book. That book is controversial.

OK, there you have an introduction, nothing more.

What now follows are opinions of others on this topic, and on the McDonald conclusions. It all ends with my own opinion, much of which is based upon my own experience in Medicine Hat. There, I made my own introduction to the ‘religious right’ in a community that is the northern boundary of the Kansas Bible Belt.

OK, what’s McDonald’s point? That there are two Canadians, located in Toronto, who are expressing in Canada the beliefs of evangelicals in the United States who want to turn democracy into theocracy. They are Rev. Charles McVety, of the Canada Christian College, and Faytene Kryskow, of 4My Canada, which urges young Canadians to become active in public life.

A CBC writer, Brian Lilley, wastes no time in getting to the nub of his argument; he says that in her endless research, which he describes as ‘inordinate,’ she became a paranoid on this topic. He says that when she is in pursuit of what she views as a conspiracy, she fails to make her points.

Slightly more conciliatory are the opinions of Molly Worthen, an American writer who specializes in evangelicalism. She is currently on sabbatical pursuing her PhD at Yale.

Worthen describes the McDonald book as "an attempt to startle secular Canadians into vigilance. She says that Stephen Harper has opened the way for conservative evangelicalists to play an unprecedented role in Ottawa . . ."

A strong supporter of Marci McDonald and her argument is Susan Riley of the Ottawa Citizen. She names four prominent members of the Prime Minister’s Office who are rated as active, conservative Conservatives, who want more right-wing action than Harper’s occasional utterance of "God Bless Canada." She also reports on MPs and members of cabinet and Senate who are described as inclined toward evangelical action.

All of which leads up to me and my 10 years in the Bible Belt.

This was my introduction into fundamentalism. My previous connection was with clergy from the mainstream churches, all of them university-trained theologs.

For the first time I met men — always men, no females need apply for admission to this group — whose common connection was a belief in the Bible as Holy Writ. These were decent, civil citizens, bound together by their religious belief.

Here’s an example. A man I knew tended a machine at Dominion Glass. He took a correspondence course from an American Institute. They gave him a licence to open a parish. He coaxed a dozen of his workmates to join him in the new congregation he formed, and within a few years he had a full-fledged church, small but active. He expressed his activism through support for Social Credit, E.C. Manning, and the "Back to the Bible" broadcasts every Sunday.

While my exposure to the religious right admittedly was limited to 30 or 40 members of their clergy, I do not want them to have influence on my government. Their minds appeared to be closed to all new ideas.

Now it’s your turn: opinions, please.

Drop them in the box at the front door of this newspaper, or at mcguinne@mts.net.

 

Fred McGuinness is a well-known local writer and ‘editor emeritus’ of the Brandon Sun.

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