Every week we want to highlight for you important stories from across Canada and the world. We want to start conversations about how Christians ought to respond to the unstable world around us.
In this week’s edition, the Prime Minister calls pro-life proponents not in line with Canadian society; an opinion piece at the CBC advocates criticizing people for having too many children; and China demolishes a mega church while Egypt constructs one.
The Prime Minister Calls Pro-Life proponents NOT IN line with CanadIAN SOCIETY
On January 10th, 2018, the Prime Minister held a town hall at McMaster University. A questioner asked the Prime Minister about free speech and specifically about how pro-life Canadians feel belittled by left-leaning Canadians. In response, Justin Trudeau said, “An organization that has the explicit purpose of restricting women’s rights by removing rights to abortion, the right for women to control their own bodies, is not in line with where we are as a government and quite frankly where we are as a society.”
In short, the Prime Minister calls pro-life persons not in line with Canadian society.
One wonders how the millions of religious Canadians should understand the Prime Minister’s statement. For the church, being pro-life is a matter of religious conviction. It’s not merely a social convention. The current government seems to think that convictional Christians are simply behind the times and need to catch up. Small wonder, then, that the Liberal Government of Canada will not fund religious organizations who are pro-life from the Canada Summer Jobs Program.
Having Too Many Children Is the New Social Sin
Chip and Joanna Gaines announced baby number five recently. The response? Many attacked them for having too many children. Kristen Pyszczyk agrees, writing in her opinion piece at the CBC, “Procreation is becoming a global public health concern, rather than a personal decision. So when people do irresponsible things like having five children, we absolutely need to be calling them out.” For Pyszczyk, having too many kids means leaving a larger “environmental footprint” and that’s unacceptable. So, for her and others like her, one solution is to criticize people for having too many children (the article’s title is: “It shouldn’t be taboo to criticize parents for having too many kids”).
Christians are called to steward the earth. But we also trust that God sustains the world and will recreate it. After all, our great hope is the new heavens and the new earth. Once you add Christian eschatology to the picture, it balances out the fear that humans can destroy the world without God’s intervention. It doesn’t excuse us for being bad stewards of the Earth, but it certainly doesn’t condemn us for having five children.
China Demolishes a Church, while Egypt Builds One
The Chinese government has recently demolished the Golden Lampstand church, an unregistered church that boasts 50,000 members. While it’s unclear why the Chinese government demolished the building now, Joann Pittman notes the possibility that China may feel “emboldened to go after the church” because of “tighter religious regulations.”
The story is almost reversed in Egypt. In that country, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi personally donated to the construction of what would become possibly the largest cathedral in the middle east in Egypt’s new (but as of yet unnamed) administrative capital.
These two stories illustrate the fact that religious tolerance ebbs and flows. While Christians in Canada have enjoyed religious tolerance and privilege for many years, we are increasingly falling out of step with the values of our nation’s leadership. And soon, we may find ourselves under pressure from Canadian law. To consider what this might mean for us in Canada, read Paul Carter’s article “How Did the Apostles Relate to the Law? (5 Observations from the Book of Acts).”
What Do you Think?
What do you think of these stories? Comment on our social media platforms to let us know. How should we as Christians respond to this week’s News across Canada And the World?
