Pushback against the trans agenda is getting creative. From The Christian Post:
Amid a corporate media blackout about the harms of chemical and surgical sex changes for children and teens, a new mobile billboard campaign is highlighting the story of Keira Bell, a young British detransitioner who won a court battle against a gender clinic that encouraged her to take puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which she wound up regretting.
Set in motion earlier this week, a mobile ad emblazoned with the message “Who is Keira Bell?” will be seen throughout the Los Angeles metro area to draw attention to the 24-year-old British woman who once identified as transgender, in hopes that passersby will be inspired to research her story. The ad campaign will run in LA for one month.
In the Toronto Sun, my friend Andre Schutten of ARPA Canada has one of the first interesting columns on COVID-19 and the churches that I’ve read in some time. An excerpt:
Ford ought to put a call out for church buildings to be used as field hospitals. Rather than flying patients from Toronto to Ottawa, or putting adults into children’s hospitals, why not ask for help from local churches to clear the pews out of their sanctuaries to make room for hospital beds? And why not ask for a volunteer corps to staff the kitchens to provide meals for doctors, nurses and patients, and to provide cleaning services, washing sheets, and so on?
Approaching the sector of society that has, for 2,000 years, been the first responder in Western civilization when responding to plagues really should not be such an afterthought. It’s time to end this strict separation of church and state. The province needs to partner with the ministry of churches to expand health-care capacity now in order to get us through this third (and hopefully last) wave. Lives may depend on it. And churches will be found willing and able to help.
According to ACN International, persecution of Christians is growing exponentially:
The Religious Freedom in the World Report (RFR) 2021, produced by international Catholic charity – and pontifical foundation – Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), notes that religious freedom is violated severely in one out of every three countries. According to this report – officially presented in Rome and in other major cities around the world today (20th April) – this fundamental right was not respected in 62 (31.6%) of the world’s 196 countries between 2018 and 2020.
As stated in the report, in 26 of these countries people suffer persecution, and in 95% of them, the situation has become even worse during the period under review. Nine countries appear in this category for the first time: seven in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Mozambique) and two in Asia (Malaysia and Sri Lanka).
The statistics reflect one of the main conclusions of the report: the radicalisation of the African continent, especially in Sub-Saharan and Eastern Africa, where there has been a dramatic increase in the presence of jihadist groups. Violations of religious freedom – including extreme persecution such as mass killings – are now occurring in 42% of all African countries: Burkina Faso and Mozambique are just two striking examples.
5 thoughts on “Religious persecution, pushback against the trans agenda (and other stories)”
Sam says:
ARPA’s suggestion here is ridiculous.
It is, with a straight face and in all seriousness, ARPA is requesting that churches hollow themselves out, completely rearrange the building, somehow achieve infection control (make all surfaces hard, institute rigorous cleaning, etc.) partition the building into rooms, provide separate power to the rooms, install all required equipment and separate the staff and patients from the rest of the services a hospital provides (oops, he needs an x-ray, so lets requisition an ambulance and drive 45 minutes)?
This suggestion is unworkable. It is much easier to set up purpose built field hospitals or move patients to a different hospital.
Honestly, this reads like a fantasy to me. More terrifying, the suggestion was to tear down the separation of church and state – that worked out well for Iran currently, and Spain/England/Holland historically, didn’t it?
And it’s not like churches can be unquestionably trusted on the infection control / cleaning end of things.
A country officially headed by an anointed monarch that has religiously affiliated government school systems doesn’t have separation of church and state.
Both of those are historical, implanted in the Constitution and not of too much effect.
First, the monarchy. This is really a rubber stamp figurehead and exists largely because Canada peacefully left the British orbit, rather than fighting, like the Americans. The monarchy has little power in Canada but deep history. This isn’t an example of the church influencing the state.
Second, the Catholic school system. This is entrenched in the Constitution (which is much much harder to change in Canada) and is a historical compromise between the French Catholics and English Protestants dating back to when the British took over Quebec. The British gave the French concessions to assure them that they could survive in the same country/colony as the English.
Interestingly, there were initially two school systems: the Protestant system and the Catholic system. However, the Protestants, being a loose amalgam of ranging beliefs, could not agree on virtually anything to do with the school system and so the government slowly took it over, making it the secular public system. This could be accomplished as, practically speaking, the Protestant system was ineffective and Canadian politicians love practicality if nothing else.
There are debates about the Catholic school system; however, the government can’t do anything about it yet.
All that said, the Catholic church really can’t effect policy in the Canadian government through the school system. The British monarchy comes for the occasional visit but has no effect on Canadian politics.
Canadian governments studiously avoid allowing the church influence in the state (as Jonathan has reported here with the Federal government denying funding to prolife causes pre-pandemic).
Having control of how children are educated seems pretty influential – much more than would be considered appropriate in a country that actually has a church-state separation precedent (like the USA). And much more than having churches help out with COVID relief, the original topic at hand. That it’s actually written into the Canadian Constitution is even stronger evidence that Canada doesn’t really have separation of church and state.
The government denying pro-life groups access to the summer jobs program had nothing to do with separation of church and state. Secular pro-life organizations (CCBR, NCLN, etc) were ineligible for funding, while religious pro-abortion organizations were eligible. It had more to do with a relatively unintelligent prime minister letting a couple of cat ladies with way too much time on their hands dictate his policies, because supporting abortion was one of his pet causes. The decision was widely considered a mistake (even by the likes of the Toronto Star), and the government later quietly removed the pro-abortion loyalty pledge from the application form.
Sorry, I clicked
here to see how out of control he trans movement is in Canada. We have one state that bans trans until past puberty. If a girl makes the decision too early, she may not develope a womb and if she changes her mind as an adult…… Decides to marry and have a child……. it may be too late then.
ARPA’s suggestion here is ridiculous.
It is, with a straight face and in all seriousness, ARPA is requesting that churches hollow themselves out, completely rearrange the building, somehow achieve infection control (make all surfaces hard, institute rigorous cleaning, etc.) partition the building into rooms, provide separate power to the rooms, install all required equipment and separate the staff and patients from the rest of the services a hospital provides (oops, he needs an x-ray, so lets requisition an ambulance and drive 45 minutes)?
This suggestion is unworkable. It is much easier to set up purpose built field hospitals or move patients to a different hospital.
Honestly, this reads like a fantasy to me. More terrifying, the suggestion was to tear down the separation of church and state – that worked out well for Iran currently, and Spain/England/Holland historically, didn’t it?
And it’s not like churches can be unquestionably trusted on the infection control / cleaning end of things.
A country officially headed by an anointed monarch that has religiously affiliated government school systems doesn’t have separation of church and state.
Both of those are historical, implanted in the Constitution and not of too much effect.
First, the monarchy. This is really a rubber stamp figurehead and exists largely because Canada peacefully left the British orbit, rather than fighting, like the Americans. The monarchy has little power in Canada but deep history. This isn’t an example of the church influencing the state.
Second, the Catholic school system. This is entrenched in the Constitution (which is much much harder to change in Canada) and is a historical compromise between the French Catholics and English Protestants dating back to when the British took over Quebec. The British gave the French concessions to assure them that they could survive in the same country/colony as the English.
Interestingly, there were initially two school systems: the Protestant system and the Catholic system. However, the Protestants, being a loose amalgam of ranging beliefs, could not agree on virtually anything to do with the school system and so the government slowly took it over, making it the secular public system. This could be accomplished as, practically speaking, the Protestant system was ineffective and Canadian politicians love practicality if nothing else.
There are debates about the Catholic school system; however, the government can’t do anything about it yet.
All that said, the Catholic church really can’t effect policy in the Canadian government through the school system. The British monarchy comes for the occasional visit but has no effect on Canadian politics.
Canadian governments studiously avoid allowing the church influence in the state (as Jonathan has reported here with the Federal government denying funding to prolife causes pre-pandemic).
Having control of how children are educated seems pretty influential – much more than would be considered appropriate in a country that actually has a church-state separation precedent (like the USA). And much more than having churches help out with COVID relief, the original topic at hand. That it’s actually written into the Canadian Constitution is even stronger evidence that Canada doesn’t really have separation of church and state.
The government denying pro-life groups access to the summer jobs program had nothing to do with separation of church and state. Secular pro-life organizations (CCBR, NCLN, etc) were ineligible for funding, while religious pro-abortion organizations were eligible. It had more to do with a relatively unintelligent prime minister letting a couple of cat ladies with way too much time on their hands dictate his policies, because supporting abortion was one of his pet causes. The decision was widely considered a mistake (even by the likes of the Toronto Star), and the government later quietly removed the pro-abortion loyalty pledge from the application form.
Sorry, I clicked
here to see how out of control he trans movement is in Canada. We have one state that bans trans until past puberty. If a girl makes the decision too early, she may not develope a womb and if she changes her mind as an adult…… Decides to marry and have a child……. it may be too late then.