Voices September 15, 2021
Religion under attack from the mob
By Paul Schratz - Life In The Schratz Lane
My friend Charles Lewis, a newspaper journalist for 40 years and long-time writer for The Catholic Register and The National Post, recently weighed in on the increasing attitude of contempt for religion in Canada.
Lewis started by quoting a priest-friend of his who remarked that Canadian society has been “turning against religion in a way that is unprecedented for a so-called free country.”
Lewis, a Catholic, is not a reactionary or prone to pushing the panic button at the slightest offence against religion. He writes, “Twenty years ago I would have thought his views were extreme. But not today – it might even be an understatement.”
Lewis then detailed multiple examples of anti-Christian bias in Canada, in particular against traditionally minded Christians. The attacks, he writes, “come from various sectors, not just government, but government sets the tone for the larger society.”
Of course, a historic list of examples of government hostility toward Christians would be long and plentiful, “especially when it comes to ignoring our views on such issues as euthanasia and abortion,” he writes.
He addresses growing anti-Christian sentiment at universities. “When I was at The National Post I wrote about how pro-life clubs were constantly decertified and kicked off of campuses.”
Lewis cites a more recent example of a university regulatory body that was drafting negative reports about Christian universities. “The reports were bogus, based on information garnered on websites rather than in interviews with professors and students.”
Then there came the attack on Trinity Western University by three law societies, successfully ending the school’s attempt to launch a law school. “The problem was not lack of academic excellence but a morals code students had to abide by,” writes Lewis.
In yet another academic assault on religion, a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt was expelled from the University of Manitoba two years ago after he made three Facebook posts with pro-life opinions. The school’s discipline committee said the student was removed for “holding conscientious and religious beliefs that abortion is harmful,” said Lewis. The student lost two appeals.
More recently the aggression has moved to new and more direct heights. Lewis offers an account of the B.C. government’s “hideous” attack on the Delta Hospice, built with private donations but taken over by the government this year for refusing to allow euthanasia on its premises.
Lewis didn’t even get into the latest instances of religious intolerance – politicians’ silence in the wake of Quebec’s secularism law which bans public workers from wearing religious symbols; more political silence following the burning of churches this summer; the B.C. government’s discriminatory closing of places of worship while allowing restaurants and pubs to remain open during the pandemic; efforts to strip conscience protection from health-care workers, the lack of religious and conscience exemptions from B.C.’s Vaccine Card ...
Lewis does end on a positive note, however. Remember that University of Manitoba student expelled for being pro-life? In August the university’s decision was quashed in the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench. Provincial Judge Ken Champagne ruled that the university had failed to take into consideration the student’s Charter rights.
“Thank God for Judge Champagne for upholding the values that not so long ago were considered the norm,” Lewis writes.
Indeed, let us thank God for every freedom we still have. And as Lewis concludes, “Let us hope there are more like him who do not fear the mob.”