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For
the churches representing the majority of Canadian Christians,
legalization of same-sex marriage will be a sign of the
end of Christendom, the 1,700-year-old notion that has
defined government in the Western world as devoted to
the enforcement of Christian values, says one of Canada's
leading theologians.
Those
churches will be left feeling marginalized by the state
-- a state they will no longer see as an expression of
a Christian point of view and fulfilling certain Christian
ideals, said Christopher Lind, director of the Toronto
School of Theology, the federation of theological colleges
affiliated with the University of Toronto.
It
explains why a rope of fear runs through the churches'
legal submissions to the Supreme Court, where hearings
begin Wednesday on the constitutionality of the government's
intention to authorize same-sex marriage.
There
is fear that if, as widely expected, the court rules in
favour of same-sex marriage and Parliament passes enabling
legislation, churches will face persecution and discrimination
in Canadian society for holding fast to the belief that
God ordained marriage only for heterosexual couples.
From
Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants to Mormons,
Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists among others, religious
groups are also apprehensive that they may be stripped
of their charitable status and other state benefits, penalized
by public institutions, branded as hate-mongers and forced
into accepting the legitimacy of same-sex unions.
It
is the same fear that political scientists and theologians
identify as driving the powerful conservative religious
right in the United States -- a conviction that liberal,
secular society is bent on erasing religion from public
life.
But
whether a redefined marriage law will ignite decades of
political conflict -- as happened in America after the
U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 with the
case of Roe vs. Wade -- is what one conservative Anglican
priest terms "a sociological Pandora's box."
"I
doubt that anyone knows the potential fallout," said
Rev. Ed Hird, rector of St. Simon's Anglican Church in
North Vancouver, one of a dozen Greater Vancouver Anglican
congregations in rebellion against their bishop for approving
church blessings of same-sex unions.
"I do know biblically oriented Christians are not
going to roll over and play dead. This would mean an abandonment
of their core value of the final supremacy of holy Scripture."
Bruce
Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of
Canada -- representing more than three million Canadians
through 130 affiliated denominations, ministry organizations
and educational institutions -- says the redefinition
of marriage in Canada would cause conservative Christians
to feel stripped of public language with which to express
their values on marriage.
"We
will have lost the [public] language to be able to describe
something that's very meaningful within a religious tradition.
How will parents impart their values to their children
in a society where their definition of marriage is seen
to be discriminatory?"
He
said the issue for conservative religious communities
will be to advance the definition and substance of pluralism
in Canada, to where "you have a plurality of public
languages and options and choices that people can promote."
Charles
McVety, president of Toronto's evangelical Canada Christian
College, illustrated the loss of public language by describing
the reaction to an e-mail he sent recently to members
of Ontario's Conservative Party, urging them not to vote
for John Tory as leader because he supported same-sex
marriage. "The venom that came back. . . . People
calling me an effing homophobe," he said. "You're
demonized."
Quotes
:
"By
requiring [Canadians] to treat homosexual sexual practices
as good, it will lead to intolerance of those who teach
and espouse the opposite view which, in turn, will have
wide-ranging negative consequences for freedom of religion
and conscience."
-- Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
"The
companionate model of marriage advanced by the A-G Canada
is troublingly over-inclusive. For example, the arguments
made in favour of same-sex marriage can also be made in
recognition of polygamy and polyandry.
The definition of marriage advanced by A-G Canada is so
broad that it risks depriving 'marriage' of any real meaning
in the longer term and, in a perverse way, risks denying
the advocates of same-sex marriage the social validation
they seek."
--
Attorney-General of Alberta
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