Canada is a secular society. It provides freedom of religion. It also provides freedom from religion.
I do not take any issue with how a Christian or someone from another faith conducts their faith including efforts to recruit people to their faith. I do take issue when they interfer in secular matters to remove or prevent Governments from governing for all the people. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew agrees. Pettigrew told the National Post yesterday, "I find that the separation of the Church and the state is one of the most beautiful inventions of modern times."
We can not have religion dictate the laws of Canada. To do so would allow them to enforce their religious values on secular society as a whole. Conservative Christians are trying to do just that with the debate on same-sex marriage.
It is vital at this time for those Canadians that support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to speak out, to contact their MP and if they can, other MPs as well. In the end this not just about allowing same-sex marriages. It is the fight to uphold the rights of all Canadians and the right to be free of religion should one want to be.
"Democracy is not a spectator sport" - Michael Yoder
Religions are free to impose their faith dictums upon its own membership. We as Canadians provide for that. They can grow their membership by soliciting others to join, using the State to assist them in their endevours is wrong.
Canada is at a very crucial point in its history. Will we allow religion to dictate to secular society, in which case we abandon any notion of seperation of religion from state. Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government helped establish the seperation, through changing laws giving women access to abortion, allowing for divorce and removing the states interferance with Canadians private lives.
Same-sex marriage is the issue today, tomorrow people such as the Harper led Conservatives could pass anti-choice legislation, could make divorce more difficult, remove common law relationship protections, adoption and other rights. It will be simple for them to do even if their actions are deemed unconstitutional. The not withstanding clause allows them to set aside constitutional rights for up to five years. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, their supporters, the Conservative Christians backed by big American groups like Focus on the Family don't like what they see in the Charter.
Take Action, email your MP. Email them all if you can. Canadians for Equal marriage have made it easy for you. A couple of keystrokes and your email is sent.
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The Campaign for life says" “The battle has not even begun”, said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC).
“We need the MPs who are against same-sex “marriage” and same-sex “unions” to take heart and prepare for a fierce battle on this issue. The Canadian people are stirred up and watching their MPs closely.
The Churches are taking their rightful place with a firm defense of marriage which is one man and one woman. They are encouraging their flocks to act,” he continued. “This is not the time for MPs to concede defeat before the issue is even introduced.”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05012801.html
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Think this is going to go away, these folks are about denying Canadians a secular society. Take Action, email your MP
Queer Thoughts
Since the French Revolution 1789, the Catholic Church was forced to retreat; the American Independence enshrined the separation of church and state; France followed in 1905. Germany in 1948;
Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, nazism, fascism were joined up with the Vatican;
Auschwitz stands for the Vatican's complicity. Most homophobes are relating positively to either nazism or fascism or both. There's a very very good reason why Spain is advancing same-sex marriage against the dictatorship of the pope...; there, dictatorship lasted
until Franco died...
The catholic church is the natural antagonist of democracy, of liberalism; they're an authoritarien structure; they don't understand separation of church and state; because in their worldview, the whole world must obey their hiarchical order; Luther's Reformation was against the Pope, a thirty year war was fought in Europe, after which today's world order was established, that with 9/11 is dissolving presently under our very eyes...
It's a golden opportunity, by any means, to reclaim what the church thinks, belongs to her, especially the uses of sexuality as defined to their advantage (i.e. carneval and whoring up to ash wednesday)
keep also in mind, that the catholic church and the protestant churches were complicit in the murder of thousands of homosexuals under Hitler.
http://www.holocaust-trc.org/homosx.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005261
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