v***@aol.com
2006-01-23 15:18:55 UTC
Is Stephen Harper a Christian fundamentalist?. Well, we know that he is
associated with some of the most extreme, right-wing, intolerant,
racist, sexist, and homophobic elements
of the American religious right. We know that Stephen Harper will most
likely appoint
Stockwell Day, a confirmed Christian fundamentalist as Canada's next
foreign minister.
We know that Stephen Harper is associated with Christian fundamentalist
groups in the United States of America, such as the so-called "Focus on
the Family", who make little secret of their wish to create a Christian
theocracy in America by merging church and state. We know that Stephen
Harper will deny Canadian women control over their own bodies if he
becomes Canada's next prime minister by moving to ban outright or at
least severely restrict access to abortion. We know that Stephen Harper
and his Conservative caucus are a bunch of homophobic bigots who wish
to deny equality to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered
Canadians. We know that Stephen Harper ends every speech he makes by
utter the very American phrase "God Bless Canada". Can you imagine
former Canadian Prime Ministers and leaders of the old Progressive
Conservative Party of Canada such as
Robert Stanfield, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney or Kim Campbell ever
invoking the name
of God in a speech?. We also know that Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day,
George W. Bush and their ilk have nothing to do with the vast majority
of Christians who do not share their intolerant, bigoted, dogmatic
views. Is this something that has been done historically in Canada, or
is this Stephen Harper's own Americanized religious fundamentalist
version of how Canadian politics should be?.
For Robert Knight, who's with the extreme right-wing, Christian
fundamentalist, evangelical group called Concerned Women for America,
the prospect of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister of Canada is very
exciting indeed.
"The Conservative party at least in some ways embodies the values that
conservatives in the United States hold, like smaller government and an
emphasis on traditional values," said Knight.
"There is a feeling that under a Harper government, the speeding train
heading for a social wreck would at least be slowed, if not reversed".,
he said recently, a sure sign that his group would love to see Stephen
Harper make progress in taking away the rights of Canadian women to
determine their own reproductive futures by either banning abortion or
greatly restricting access to it. He would also welcome Stephen
Harper's homophobic ambition to deny equality and equal rights to gays,
lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgenered Canadians.
Do the vast majority of Canadians really want a racist, sexist,
bigoted, homophobic, misogynistic, patriarchal, spiteful, sour, dour,
cold, unfeeling, indifferent, divisive
government run by Stephen Harper, a man who adores and idolizes other
well known
Christian fundamentalists like George W. Bush?.
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right is first and foremost an American political phenomenon.
The Christian religious right has a virtual
stranglehold on the American Conservative movement, the American
Republican Party,
and much of modern American politics. This is something that is totally
alien to Canadian
politics and until quite recently even quite foreign to the Canadian
Conservative movement.
Stephen Harper is an American ass kissing, dogmatic, religious
fundamentalist who's goal is too Americanized Canada and Canadian
politics as much as possible. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party
of Canada are lackies of George W. Bush and the American Republican
Party.
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right
emerged in the United States of American in the late 1970s, the Moral
Majority (later renamed the Liberty Federation), the Religious
Roundtable, and the Christian Voice; their leaders, including Robert
Grant, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Ed McAteer; and the movement
that these leaders and organizations fostered. Though this movement
made a broad, religiously based conservative appeal, its deepest roots
and most lasting impact
were among white evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians. These
Christian religious
right groups and organizations are full of racists, sexists, bigots,
homophobes, and
those who seeth with hatred and contempt toward any other religion
(particularly
Islam) and even toward more moderate denominations of Christianity
(particularly
Roman Catholics and Anglicans).
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right
of which Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, and George W. Bush all support
of course
has nothing to do with the vast majority of mainstream Christianity
which teaches
tolerance, kindness, forgiveness, social responsibility, generosity.
The vast majority
of Christians are wonderful people who show love, friendship, kindness,
sympathy,
empathy, understanding, and compassion toward others. Furthermore, the
vast majority
of Christian denominations are engaged in interfaith dialogue with
other branches of
Christianity and with other religions to promote peace, harmony,
friendship, co-operation,
and understanding.
What do extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist,
Christian religious right
political leaders like Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day personally
believe?. What sort of society would they like to see Canada become?.
Just take a look at the following "values"
that the vast majority of Christian Fundamentalists have in common with
each other:
The Pro-Life movement, which advocates stronger regulation or
prohibition of abortion, in the belief that abortion constitutes
murder;
Opposition to euthanasia, in the belief that it is murder;
Opposition to same-sex marriage laws by groups such as the Focus on the
Family and Traditional Values Coalition in the belief that homosexual
behaviour is a violation of Christian doctrine and should be
criminalized [1]. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell brought controversy
when they attributed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to God's
wrath against "abortionists, pagans, feminists, gays and lesbians". [2]
(These remarks were quickly contested by other members of the Christian
Right, and both had to back pedal on the assertions.)
Regulation and restriction of some applications of biotechnology,
particularly human cloning and stem cell research with human embryos,
in the belief that it is immoral. See bioethics.
Support for the presence of Christianity in the public sphere, such as
with organized voluntary prayer in school, and varying degrees of
opposition to the separation of church and state principle, in the
belief that the Establishment Clause was intended only to prevent the
establishment of an official state religion, and not to prevent
religious discourse in the public sphere;
Ironically, and almost contradictory to the previous point, opposition
to the presence of other religions in the public sphere, such as Hindu
priests offering invocations before Congress;
Reducing restrictions on government funding for religious charities and
schools, in the belief that funding secular charities to the exclusion
of religious charities constitutes discrimination. Many politically
conservative churches refuse government funding because it comes with
too many strings which interfere with the practice of their faith.
Promotion of conservative Christian moral values, including an emphasis
on the value of the nuclear family in raising children, and opposition
to extramarital sex, in the belief that such values are beneficial both
for the individual and society generally;
Regulation and restriction of the publication and public exhibition of
explicitly sexual content and pornography, in the belief that it
encourages immorality;
Opposition to sex education classes in public schools in the belief
that sex education should be conducted at home in accord with the
family's value system, and public school courses that fail to advocate
abstinence inadvertently encourage sexual activity in teenagers. A
spectrum of views exist, from advocation of no sex education in public
schools to advocation of abstinence only to strong avocation of
abstinence in concert with other sex-related information.
Support for home schooling, and private schooling, generally as an
alternative to secular education rather than for Libertarian reasons,
in the belief that religious education is important for children, or in
the belief that some public schools fail to sufficiently educate
children in other subjects. This manifests itself as support for school
vouchers.
Promotion of the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in
public schools as alternatives to the theory of evolution, in the
belief that teaching evolution to the exclusion of creation
unconstitutionally inhibits religion.
Opposition to liberal "judicial activism" by federal judges in the
belief that straying from the constitution has resulted in the
imposition of atheistic values on society without the people's consent,
as well as interference with traditional family values and the free
exercise of their religion;
Support for the war in Iraq. Some leading evangelicals[3] and Christian
conservative politicians[4] have made statements about a religious
conflict between Christianity and Islam in the context of the War on
Terrorism, prompting many critics and some supporters to refer to the
war as a Tenth Crusade. Defenders explain some such criticism as a
misinterpretation of the term "crusade", which can be used to mean "a
grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause" without
any intentional overtones of holy war, although this explanation does
not apply to the more detailed characterizations of the war on terror
as a holy war.
Strong support for President George W. Bush and a belief that he was
chosen by God, with a mandate to lead America. However, keep in mind,
in recent months many have withdrawn their support for the President.
National organizations (including the Christian Coalition and Christian
Voice) and local churches have engaged in voter registration drives and
get-out-the-vote efforts, targeting people likely to vote for
Republican candidates and using materials that portray Republicans more
favourably than Democrats. [9]
The Christian Right has also worked to promote expressly partisan
Republican campaigning. For example, during the 2004 campaign,
Christian Voice waged a $2.9 million Christian Voter Drive [10]. Their
6,199 Church captains collectively registered 355,562 new voters and
turned out an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million voters. [11]. The
Traditional Values Coalition web site highlighted a voter registration
drive by the Republican National Committee, with a link to the RNC web
site, and added, "The Democratic National Committee is also engaged in
an aggressive campaign to register homosexual, bisexual, and
transgendered individuals to defeat President [George W.] Bush in the
November election." [12] Individual ministers also made political
comments from the pulpit. The pastor of the East Waynesville Baptist
Church in Waynesville, North Carolina "told the congregation that
anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry [the
Democratic presidential candidate in 2004] should either leave the
church or repent". [13] The church later expelled nine members who had
voted for Kerry and refused to repent.
The new Conservative Party of Canada, lead by Stephen Harper, is a
hotbed for racists, sexists, homophobes, bigots, chauvinists,
misogynists, and religious fundamentalists;
and is most certainly not the old, centrist, pragmatic, pluralistic
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada defined by the likes of Joe
Clark and Brian Mulroney. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of
Canada are not Conservatives in the Canadian tradition; they instead
represent the intolerant, bigoted, ignorant, backwards, dogmatic,
unreasonable, extremist religious fundamentalist strain of American
Conservatism. Stephen Harper,
Stockwell Day and many others within the new Conservative Party of
Canada are
extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right;
who do not speak for the vast majority of Christians and who would love
to see
Canada become a virtual religious theocracy. Stephen Harper and the new
Conservative
Party of Canada are extremely dangerous and divisive to Canadian values
of tolerance, diversity, multiculturalism, multilingualism, secularism,
and pluralism.
associated with some of the most extreme, right-wing, intolerant,
racist, sexist, and homophobic elements
of the American religious right. We know that Stephen Harper will most
likely appoint
Stockwell Day, a confirmed Christian fundamentalist as Canada's next
foreign minister.
We know that Stephen Harper is associated with Christian fundamentalist
groups in the United States of America, such as the so-called "Focus on
the Family", who make little secret of their wish to create a Christian
theocracy in America by merging church and state. We know that Stephen
Harper will deny Canadian women control over their own bodies if he
becomes Canada's next prime minister by moving to ban outright or at
least severely restrict access to abortion. We know that Stephen Harper
and his Conservative caucus are a bunch of homophobic bigots who wish
to deny equality to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered
Canadians. We know that Stephen Harper ends every speech he makes by
utter the very American phrase "God Bless Canada". Can you imagine
former Canadian Prime Ministers and leaders of the old Progressive
Conservative Party of Canada such as
Robert Stanfield, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney or Kim Campbell ever
invoking the name
of God in a speech?. We also know that Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day,
George W. Bush and their ilk have nothing to do with the vast majority
of Christians who do not share their intolerant, bigoted, dogmatic
views. Is this something that has been done historically in Canada, or
is this Stephen Harper's own Americanized religious fundamentalist
version of how Canadian politics should be?.
For Robert Knight, who's with the extreme right-wing, Christian
fundamentalist, evangelical group called Concerned Women for America,
the prospect of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister of Canada is very
exciting indeed.
"The Conservative party at least in some ways embodies the values that
conservatives in the United States hold, like smaller government and an
emphasis on traditional values," said Knight.
"There is a feeling that under a Harper government, the speeding train
heading for a social wreck would at least be slowed, if not reversed".,
he said recently, a sure sign that his group would love to see Stephen
Harper make progress in taking away the rights of Canadian women to
determine their own reproductive futures by either banning abortion or
greatly restricting access to it. He would also welcome Stephen
Harper's homophobic ambition to deny equality and equal rights to gays,
lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgenered Canadians.
Do the vast majority of Canadians really want a racist, sexist,
bigoted, homophobic, misogynistic, patriarchal, spiteful, sour, dour,
cold, unfeeling, indifferent, divisive
government run by Stephen Harper, a man who adores and idolizes other
well known
Christian fundamentalists like George W. Bush?.
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right is first and foremost an American political phenomenon.
The Christian religious right has a virtual
stranglehold on the American Conservative movement, the American
Republican Party,
and much of modern American politics. This is something that is totally
alien to Canadian
politics and until quite recently even quite foreign to the Canadian
Conservative movement.
Stephen Harper is an American ass kissing, dogmatic, religious
fundamentalist who's goal is too Americanized Canada and Canadian
politics as much as possible. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party
of Canada are lackies of George W. Bush and the American Republican
Party.
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right
emerged in the United States of American in the late 1970s, the Moral
Majority (later renamed the Liberty Federation), the Religious
Roundtable, and the Christian Voice; their leaders, including Robert
Grant, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Ed McAteer; and the movement
that these leaders and organizations fostered. Though this movement
made a broad, religiously based conservative appeal, its deepest roots
and most lasting impact
were among white evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians. These
Christian religious
right groups and organizations are full of racists, sexists, bigots,
homophobes, and
those who seeth with hatred and contempt toward any other religion
(particularly
Islam) and even toward more moderate denominations of Christianity
(particularly
Roman Catholics and Anglicans).
The extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right
of which Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, and George W. Bush all support
of course
has nothing to do with the vast majority of mainstream Christianity
which teaches
tolerance, kindness, forgiveness, social responsibility, generosity.
The vast majority
of Christians are wonderful people who show love, friendship, kindness,
sympathy,
empathy, understanding, and compassion toward others. Furthermore, the
vast majority
of Christian denominations are engaged in interfaith dialogue with
other branches of
Christianity and with other religions to promote peace, harmony,
friendship, co-operation,
and understanding.
What do extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist,
Christian religious right
political leaders like Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day personally
believe?. What sort of society would they like to see Canada become?.
Just take a look at the following "values"
that the vast majority of Christian Fundamentalists have in common with
each other:
The Pro-Life movement, which advocates stronger regulation or
prohibition of abortion, in the belief that abortion constitutes
murder;
Opposition to euthanasia, in the belief that it is murder;
Opposition to same-sex marriage laws by groups such as the Focus on the
Family and Traditional Values Coalition in the belief that homosexual
behaviour is a violation of Christian doctrine and should be
criminalized [1]. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell brought controversy
when they attributed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to God's
wrath against "abortionists, pagans, feminists, gays and lesbians". [2]
(These remarks were quickly contested by other members of the Christian
Right, and both had to back pedal on the assertions.)
Regulation and restriction of some applications of biotechnology,
particularly human cloning and stem cell research with human embryos,
in the belief that it is immoral. See bioethics.
Support for the presence of Christianity in the public sphere, such as
with organized voluntary prayer in school, and varying degrees of
opposition to the separation of church and state principle, in the
belief that the Establishment Clause was intended only to prevent the
establishment of an official state religion, and not to prevent
religious discourse in the public sphere;
Ironically, and almost contradictory to the previous point, opposition
to the presence of other religions in the public sphere, such as Hindu
priests offering invocations before Congress;
Reducing restrictions on government funding for religious charities and
schools, in the belief that funding secular charities to the exclusion
of religious charities constitutes discrimination. Many politically
conservative churches refuse government funding because it comes with
too many strings which interfere with the practice of their faith.
Promotion of conservative Christian moral values, including an emphasis
on the value of the nuclear family in raising children, and opposition
to extramarital sex, in the belief that such values are beneficial both
for the individual and society generally;
Regulation and restriction of the publication and public exhibition of
explicitly sexual content and pornography, in the belief that it
encourages immorality;
Opposition to sex education classes in public schools in the belief
that sex education should be conducted at home in accord with the
family's value system, and public school courses that fail to advocate
abstinence inadvertently encourage sexual activity in teenagers. A
spectrum of views exist, from advocation of no sex education in public
schools to advocation of abstinence only to strong avocation of
abstinence in concert with other sex-related information.
Support for home schooling, and private schooling, generally as an
alternative to secular education rather than for Libertarian reasons,
in the belief that religious education is important for children, or in
the belief that some public schools fail to sufficiently educate
children in other subjects. This manifests itself as support for school
vouchers.
Promotion of the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in
public schools as alternatives to the theory of evolution, in the
belief that teaching evolution to the exclusion of creation
unconstitutionally inhibits religion.
Opposition to liberal "judicial activism" by federal judges in the
belief that straying from the constitution has resulted in the
imposition of atheistic values on society without the people's consent,
as well as interference with traditional family values and the free
exercise of their religion;
Support for the war in Iraq. Some leading evangelicals[3] and Christian
conservative politicians[4] have made statements about a religious
conflict between Christianity and Islam in the context of the War on
Terrorism, prompting many critics and some supporters to refer to the
war as a Tenth Crusade. Defenders explain some such criticism as a
misinterpretation of the term "crusade", which can be used to mean "a
grand concerted effort toward some purportedly worthy cause" without
any intentional overtones of holy war, although this explanation does
not apply to the more detailed characterizations of the war on terror
as a holy war.
Strong support for President George W. Bush and a belief that he was
chosen by God, with a mandate to lead America. However, keep in mind,
in recent months many have withdrawn their support for the President.
National organizations (including the Christian Coalition and Christian
Voice) and local churches have engaged in voter registration drives and
get-out-the-vote efforts, targeting people likely to vote for
Republican candidates and using materials that portray Republicans more
favourably than Democrats. [9]
The Christian Right has also worked to promote expressly partisan
Republican campaigning. For example, during the 2004 campaign,
Christian Voice waged a $2.9 million Christian Voter Drive [10]. Their
6,199 Church captains collectively registered 355,562 new voters and
turned out an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million voters. [11]. The
Traditional Values Coalition web site highlighted a voter registration
drive by the Republican National Committee, with a link to the RNC web
site, and added, "The Democratic National Committee is also engaged in
an aggressive campaign to register homosexual, bisexual, and
transgendered individuals to defeat President [George W.] Bush in the
November election." [12] Individual ministers also made political
comments from the pulpit. The pastor of the East Waynesville Baptist
Church in Waynesville, North Carolina "told the congregation that
anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry [the
Democratic presidential candidate in 2004] should either leave the
church or repent". [13] The church later expelled nine members who had
voted for Kerry and refused to repent.
The new Conservative Party of Canada, lead by Stephen Harper, is a
hotbed for racists, sexists, homophobes, bigots, chauvinists,
misogynists, and religious fundamentalists;
and is most certainly not the old, centrist, pragmatic, pluralistic
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada defined by the likes of Joe
Clark and Brian Mulroney. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of
Canada are not Conservatives in the Canadian tradition; they instead
represent the intolerant, bigoted, ignorant, backwards, dogmatic,
unreasonable, extremist religious fundamentalist strain of American
Conservatism. Stephen Harper,
Stockwell Day and many others within the new Conservative Party of
Canada are
extreme right-wing, dogmatic, theocratic, fundamentalist, Christian
religious right;
who do not speak for the vast majority of Christians and who would love
to see
Canada become a virtual religious theocracy. Stephen Harper and the new
Conservative
Party of Canada are extremely dangerous and divisive to Canadian values
of tolerance, diversity, multiculturalism, multilingualism, secularism,
and pluralism.