Harper's Day of Infamy

December 7, 1941 is remembered as a Day of Infamy when Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, attempting to put the US Pacific Fleet out of commission.

December 7, 2006 may also be remembered as a Day of Infamy when Stephen Harper betrayed his socially conservative supporters by allowing traditional marriage to be subjected to humiliating abuse as MPs voted on the government's limp-wristed motion that would have restored the traditional definition of marriage "...without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."

After one day of debate, the motion was defeated. There was no free vote, no Royal Commission on Marriage, no attempt to engage the Canadian public. The original same-sex marriage bill, which passed in 2005, still poses significant threats for our youth and undermines freedom of religion, yet Mr. Harper considers the case closed.

Those who understand God's great love for mankind, His plan to redeem a fallen world and the significance He places on marriage know that the case is not closed. Like abortion, that ruthless killer of innocent human life, same-sex marriage is not a policy that social conservatives can accept. It must be opposed with vigour while we still have a semblance of freedom.

The Christian Heritage Party (one local site is: http://skeenabulkley.ca ) remains Canada’s ONLY national party that is unequivocally PROLIFE, PRO FAMILY and committed to Christian principles of morality, justice and virtue.
Rod Taylor

The Other Environment

by Rod Taylor

Everyone seems to be talking about the environment. From air quality to wind currents, ocean levels and bio-plagues of epic proportions, our planet seems challenged daily by new assaults on the complex relationships between species and food sources, temperature and growth cycles. As we learn more about the complex and amazing world in which we live, we are awe-struck by the delicate conditions without which, we and our fellow-creatures would die in moments. We look for ways, not only to understand the forces at work in and around us---social, economic, and biological---but to counter them with proactive and creative policies to shape a more hopeful tomorrow.

Within our psyche as a nation, we also are entering another climate change of unknown proportion. Our collective conscience and consciousness groan for certainty and hope, while with frantic tuggings at the anchors and tiller, we seek familiar waters for our national soul. The complexities of this shift have thrown mankind and the creatures with whom we share this earth into cataclysmic reelings to and fro. The very foundations of all we've known seem to be moving...

The gropings and guessings with which we are daily tossed have also caused a climate change in our land. Our ability to establish and maintain a moral and social environment which will sustain a dignified human existence past our generation and into a caring and sustainable future hangs in the balance.

A few of the destructive forces at work :

• Toddlers now spend their early years with someone else's parents and the ideas most repeated and reinforced come not from their primary caregivers and their biological link to past generations but from admen, intent on developing their consumer-identity and social idealogues who may never have children themselves.

• Links in young minds between cause and effect are weakened by distance and softened by the constant fantasies portrayed in living colour by those with deadened hearts. While children may never have seen a headless chicken flap its last before becoming supper, they have seen thousands of young men and women die tortured deaths between the commercials.

• Insecurities abound as violent offenders are loosed to re-offend and the deaths of millions of the most innocent are ignored by those who claim to bring us the "news".

• We move heaven and earth to find miraculous cures for the most difficult cases, then deprive the living and breathing of the most basic needs---food and water.

• We lurch along uncomfortably freeing the guilty, apologizing for things we didn't do and teaching the innocent that they should try things our parents knew were wrong. Later on we will feel new pangs of guilt and spend any amount of money to provide new drugs to offset the lethal diseases thus contracted. All the while, we put guilt itself on display in a museum along with sexual morality and patriotic sacrifice.

• We attempt to hold in our minds a coalition of mutually exclusive ideas in the name of tolerance and punish those who point out the contradiction (also in the name of tolerance).
  We consider life too sacred to admonish and too valueless to protect.

We worship the earth and reject the Creator of the earth. In this our poverty of mind becomes absolute and our attempts to preserve the greatest values ring hollow against the declarations of the eternal God:

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." Psalm 24:1

Crossing the Line

Today's chaotic pace and the cacophony of mixed messages, both urgent and convincing, compel listeners / viewers / readers to focus on and analyze a myriad of inputs or block and delete---if only to maintain sanity.

The cries of "Injustice!" coming from left and right are so adamant and unapologetic as to dim the fact that sometimes the fastest way to get East is to go West.

While partisan camps endorse or oppose anything from the Big Box to the War on Terror to the War on the Unborn, many non-partisans are left to assume that all deep-thinking people will only join or vote for a certain party---they just can't agree on which party that is. The issues that divide a thinking populace are overlapping, not mutually exclusive. The information explosion, accompanied by the enhanced theatrics of an outraged advocate encourages complex people to make simple but unsatisfying choices, leaving the investigation of claims and counter-claims to the cadre of one's choice.

But some folks are not content to feast forever on pre-digested pablum but must have the real thing---meat that is savoury, fruits and vegetables that are vine-ripened. They acquire not only tastes but real choices. They are able to distinguish between information and peer pressure to conform.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of modern politics will be found, not in the passage of legislation embraced by the Left or the Right but by the release from bondage of a generation of creative thinkers who are able to stand on their own two feet and speak their minds. The proper and logical conclusion to many debates may be within our grasp if today's voters / editors / politicians give themselves permission to disagree with their high-profile leaders / readers and constituents. Blind allegiance to one's party imperils the ability to see the big picture. If there had ever been one group with no blind spots we would need only one nation, one party, one church, one university, one newspaper today. But diversity of thought, like fresh water flowing into a lake, brings nutrients, oxygen and cleansing for the mind. Think about it.

Engendering Confusion

by Rod Taylor

Thomas Barker (Interior News, Oct 18, A5) has asked some good questions and I thank him for acknowledging, in a democracy, the importance of freedom of speech and conscience. However, faulty logic has resulted in a misrepresentation of pro-family advocates. He insinuates that people like me, who believe marriage is only possible between a man and a woman, must therefore be questioning the “personhood” of homosexuals. Nothing could be further from the truth.

All men and women, regardless of their sexual behaviours deserve the protection of the law from violence and slander. All are persons and deserve to be treated with courtesy and respect. This is not a “rights” issue like the denial of voting rights or access to education. We are talking about marriage, the foundation of family life. A homosexual relationship cannot produce children and no amount of fanfare can give it the kind of generational impact exercised by the traditional family.

A man might similarly claim a “right” to bear children. Claiming that right would not make it possible. He is not designed that way.

Thomas is absolutely right to remind his readers that legislatures and courts have in the past wrongly denied the personhood of women, of First Nations people, of blacks in the US and Jews in Germany. This analogy fits the plight of the unborn child in Canada since the Supreme Court today claims the child is not a “person” until the head emerges from the birth canal---a preposterous assertion which results in the deaths of over 100,000 little people in Canada each year. But it is totally irrelevant to same-sex marriage since no groups are denying the personhood of homosexuals.

The goal of family values advocates is not to attack or demean people who are struggling with their sexual identities but to protect our children from the forced approbation of behaviours harmful to their health and well being.

Thomas quotes Nathan Cullen (Oct 18 page A9) as saying no further protection of freedom of conscience is needed since freedom of religion is mentioned in the Charter. Why then was Chris Kempling suspended for three months for writing a letter to the paper about same-sex marriage? Why was Scott Brockie fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $40,000 of costs for refusing, as a matter of conscience, to print materials promoting the homosexual movement? Mr. Cullen has shown no interest in defending their freedom of speech or conscience.

Mr Cullen also lamented the “weird mixing of church and state.” These words ignore that secular humanism is itself a religion and political correctness its creed. The “separation of church and state” is meant to protect the free exercise of religion from government control. Our Constitution begins with these words: “…Canada is founded upon principles which recognise the supremacy of God and the rule of law…” The so-called defenders of the Constitution seem willing to ignore its foundational premise, God’s supreme authority in all matters. To separate morality from public policy is to ignore our responsibility to future generations.

Entering the Blogosphere

Opening the door...just a crack. The weighty doors groan on the ancient hinges...light pours in, dust motes drifting across the light beams...old armour stands at attention, rusty chain mail, once polished with action and bravado, now waits in silent anticipation for the thunder of hooves and the clang of sword on shield.

The creak of harness and the calling into array. Heavy shiftings of restless warhorses, stabled too long but eager for the dust of tumult...the banners furled are sought in dim and musty corners...a few minutes in the breeze and their flapping gives to snapping!

The green hills roll away to the West and bright flashings of the mounted are seen again in glintings of the fresh and splashing riffles, men and horses dashing on through streams...the long necks and snorting lips drink rivers freely and are refreshed for the days ahead...days of mountings and spurrings, of hurryings in the semi-dark...shouts of joy and cries of urgency.

The Mighty Host begin to crest the hill...banners and medallions, shields and long-since silently sheathed swords. All are awakening with prayers and dreaming in their sleep of brave acts and stout words to call to life a nation from the dim ranks of wistful warriors.