Yesterday Walt passed on a report that 2/3 of the self-identified Christians in Notsogreat Britain felt they have become a persecuted minority in their own land. Persecuted, that is, by "aggressive secularists" supported by their own government, headed by "Conservative" Prime Minister David Cameron.
Today we look at Canada, where one would think freedom of speech, freedom of religion and, indeed, freedom of thought, would be guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, thus safe from the predations of political correctness. One would be wrong.
Walt takes you now to Langley, British Columbia, the home of Trinity Western University.
TWU is a small(ish) university compared with behemoths like UBC, but it has a wide range of programmes, offering undergrad and graduate degrees in the humanities, education, even medicine. It would like to start a faculty of law, but its attempt so to do is meeting with opposition from the usual gang of social activitsts and secular humanists.
Why the fuss? It's because Trinity Western University is... wait for it... a "faith-based" institution of higher learning. That right, dear reader. Those people are religious!
The idea of having a law school where students would be taught real ethics and religious ideals is being challenged in a petition by students from eight other Canadian law schools. Their reasoning (if such it can be called) is that TWU's Christian policies discriminate against... wait for it (again)... the LGBT (queer) "community".
The homophiliacs' petition asks the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology [Why do the names of these government departments get longer and more complex every year? Ed.] to reject the accreditation of TWU's proposed law school, claiming parts of the university's student handbook are contrary to the rights of LGBT students, faculty and staff.
Here's the deal. If you want to study or work at TWU, you're asked to sign a Community Covenant Agreement, outlining the university's conduct expectations, and your rights and duties as a member of the institution. OK so far? It's normal, surely, for a school, company, social club, government agency -- any organization -- to have policies and procedures which you must accept, either explicitly or implicitly, if you want to belong.
But... TWU's Community Covenant Agreement contains a clause that requires community members to abstain from "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman." Shock! Horror!
The handbook says that if a student fails to comply with the agreement after signing it, the university "reserves the right to discipline, dismiss, or refuse a student's re-admission to the University". In other words, if you break the agreement you signed, you exclude yourself from the organization.
But OUTlaw -- a group representing the LGBT gang at the University of Alberta -- doesn't see it that way. A spokesthingy, Christopher Ghesquier, told CBC Radio (natch!) "This discriminatory policy really does not represent Canadian law. I think it definitely does offer a less welcoming environment for LGBT students to attend [TWU]... Despite the fact that the law recognizes same-sex marriages, the school seems not to."
To which Walt says, so what, Chrissy?! You don't have to go to TWU if you don't think you will be welcome there. And you are already going to the University of Alberta law school, eh? So what's it to ya?!
Trinity Western was a little more moderate in its response. Their statement regarding the petition says the agreement being challenged was "rigorously researched and developed" after consultation with legal experts. "While we value and respect differing views, we trust that a faith-based community still has the religious freedom in Canada to maintain its beliefs and participate fully in society."
Walt hopes TWU's trust that Canadian law societies and governments uphold the rights of religious minorities -- such as practising Christians -- is not misplaced. Walt hopes... but will not bet. Lifetime pct, like freedom of religion in our secular society, does not apply.
Showing posts with label faith-based schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith-based schools. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Communist targets: our media, our schools and the Church
The oft-stated goal of communism is to remove the "bourgeois state". Here's how an Italian communist, Antonoio Gramsci (d. 1937), said it should be done, as quoted by present-day communist Hugo Chavez.
In essence, Gramsci said to eliminate the bourgeois state requires the seizure of the institutions that reproduce the thought patterns of the dominant (bourgeois) class. And what are these institutions? According to Chavez, they are the Church, the education system and the mass media.
How will the communists "eliminate" these three pillars of society? Not by violent overthrow, since the institutions have lives of their own. They have existed for hundreds of years -- nearly two millennia in the case of the Church.
The only way for the communists to destroy the Church, the education system and the media is through co-option and subversion. It is not "right-wing lunacy" to see "communists in every closet" of our media, schools and churches. The communists are infilitrating and subverting these institutions, yet we go on our merry way, blissfully unaware.
In essence, Gramsci said to eliminate the bourgeois state requires the seizure of the institutions that reproduce the thought patterns of the dominant (bourgeois) class. And what are these institutions? According to Chavez, they are the Church, the education system and the mass media.
How will the communists "eliminate" these three pillars of society? Not by violent overthrow, since the institutions have lives of their own. They have existed for hundreds of years -- nearly two millennia in the case of the Church.
The only way for the communists to destroy the Church, the education system and the media is through co-option and subversion. It is not "right-wing lunacy" to see "communists in every closet" of our media, schools and churches. The communists are infilitrating and subverting these institutions, yet we go on our merry way, blissfully unaware.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Faith-based schools: misreading the entrails
Here are three apparently unconnected facts.
1. On 10 October 2007 the people of the province of Ontario elected a Liberal government, giving the Liberals 71 out of a possible 107 seats in the legislature. A major plank in the platform of the losing Progressive Conservatives was the funding of "faith-based schools", schools operating outside of the public or Roman Catholic systems.
2. In the same election, voters defeated a proposal to change from first-past-the-post to a form of proportional representation. Only 37% of the participating electorate and 5 out of 107 ridings voted for the new system.
3. In June 2009, Tim Hudak was elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, replacing the too-aptly-named John Tory, who failed to win his seat in the 2007 election. One of the things Mr. Hudak proposes to do, if he forms the next government of Ontario, is to overhaul the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Commission which enforces it.
Here is the connection between the first and second items. The Tories accused the winning Liberals of appealing to the meanness of the electorate, of being unduly influenced by racist and anti-minority sentiments of (one presumes) "ordinary Ontarians", i.e. those not members of a visible of other minority.
As to the third item, it would seem that now the Tories want to make that same appeal, by taking away the HRC's power to punish discrimination and incitement to hatred. One of Mr. Hudak's opponents, Frank Klees, came out in favour of the reform of the HRC and was labelled a "dinosaur" by the media. Two other would-be leaders called the policy "toxic" and the Liberals rushed to agree. They are saying, now, that Mr. Hudak and his party are appealing to white, Christian Ontarians to the detriment of non-white, non-Christians. And, they say, "ordinary Ontarians" won't be taken in by this "appeal to racism and hatred".
They are wrong. The results of the 2007 election should be understood as an expression of the frustration of the majority -- white and nominally Christian Ontarians -- of being dictated to by the minority. Outside of parts of the GTA, the anger and sense of helplessness is almost palpable. Worse, the government won’t talk about this problem and won’t do anything about it. We all know (because the Toronto Star and CTV tell us) that it's not politically correct to even suggest that the politicians are pandering to the vizmins and other noisy minority groups. And those who do suggest it risk being hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission!
It's not that Joe Average wants to "keep the fuzzy-wuzzies down". Most people acknowledge that racism and discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and gender are real problems that need to be addressed. But Joe (and Walt) feel that the government only makes these problems worse through incessant and misguided tinkering. Government is falling for the "civil rights industry" propaganda which confuses equality of opportunity with equality of result.
Case in point: the proposed establishment of an "Afrocentric" school in Toronto. What problem does this address? Apparently the feeling is that because blacks are not scoring as well on examinations or staying in school as long as others, it must be because they need their own school! What other reason could there be? So...give them their own school. Excuse me, but wouldn't that be a segregated school -- the kind that the civil rights lobby fought for decades to outlaw in the USA?
Mr. Hudak and his party may be onto something here. Perhaps the Ontario Liberals should take a view of the province as a whole, not just the part that can be seen from the observation deck of the CN Tower.
1. On 10 October 2007 the people of the province of Ontario elected a Liberal government, giving the Liberals 71 out of a possible 107 seats in the legislature. A major plank in the platform of the losing Progressive Conservatives was the funding of "faith-based schools", schools operating outside of the public or Roman Catholic systems.
2. In the same election, voters defeated a proposal to change from first-past-the-post to a form of proportional representation. Only 37% of the participating electorate and 5 out of 107 ridings voted for the new system.
3. In June 2009, Tim Hudak was elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, replacing the too-aptly-named John Tory, who failed to win his seat in the 2007 election. One of the things Mr. Hudak proposes to do, if he forms the next government of Ontario, is to overhaul the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Commission which enforces it.
Here is the connection between the first and second items. The Tories accused the winning Liberals of appealing to the meanness of the electorate, of being unduly influenced by racist and anti-minority sentiments of (one presumes) "ordinary Ontarians", i.e. those not members of a visible of other minority.
As to the third item, it would seem that now the Tories want to make that same appeal, by taking away the HRC's power to punish discrimination and incitement to hatred. One of Mr. Hudak's opponents, Frank Klees, came out in favour of the reform of the HRC and was labelled a "dinosaur" by the media. Two other would-be leaders called the policy "toxic" and the Liberals rushed to agree. They are saying, now, that Mr. Hudak and his party are appealing to white, Christian Ontarians to the detriment of non-white, non-Christians. And, they say, "ordinary Ontarians" won't be taken in by this "appeal to racism and hatred".
They are wrong. The results of the 2007 election should be understood as an expression of the frustration of the majority -- white and nominally Christian Ontarians -- of being dictated to by the minority. Outside of parts of the GTA, the anger and sense of helplessness is almost palpable. Worse, the government won’t talk about this problem and won’t do anything about it. We all know (because the Toronto Star and CTV tell us) that it's not politically correct to even suggest that the politicians are pandering to the vizmins and other noisy minority groups. And those who do suggest it risk being hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission!
It's not that Joe Average wants to "keep the fuzzy-wuzzies down". Most people acknowledge that racism and discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and gender are real problems that need to be addressed. But Joe (and Walt) feel that the government only makes these problems worse through incessant and misguided tinkering. Government is falling for the "civil rights industry" propaganda which confuses equality of opportunity with equality of result.
Case in point: the proposed establishment of an "Afrocentric" school in Toronto. What problem does this address? Apparently the feeling is that because blacks are not scoring as well on examinations or staying in school as long as others, it must be because they need their own school! What other reason could there be? So...give them their own school. Excuse me, but wouldn't that be a segregated school -- the kind that the civil rights lobby fought for decades to outlaw in the USA?
Mr. Hudak and his party may be onto something here. Perhaps the Ontario Liberals should take a view of the province as a whole, not just the part that can be seen from the observation deck of the CN Tower.
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