Pages

▼

Page List

▼

Pages

▼

Monday, June 9, 2008

Orwellianism Up North

The rights to free speech and free expression in Canada are coming apart faster than a cheese frisbee. The travails of Mark Steyn have been news in the blogosphere for some time (if you don't know, long story short, he wrote some things, the truth of which are undisputed, that the Canadian Muslim community didn't care for, so they have dragged him in front of one of Canada's un-parody-able "human rights" commissions). Now, a Canadian pastor has been ordered, by the government of a supposedly free nation directly to our north, to never again, for as long as he lives, ever say anything "disparaging" about gay people. I kid you not:

So, let's re-cap.

A Christian pastor has been given a lifetime ban against uttering anything "disparaging" about gays. Not against anything "hateful", let alone something legally defined as "hate speech". Just anything negative.

So a pastor cannot give a sermon.

But he must give a false sermon; he is positively ordered to renounce his deeply held religious beliefs, and apologize to his tormentor for having those views.

And then that pastor is ordered to declare to his entire city that he has renounced his religious views, even though he has not.

That's Alberta's human rights commission.


You might say that it's just another example of Canadian oddness, like Loverboy or the metric system. But you better believe that American bureaucrats are chomping at the bit for powers just like their Canadian cousins have.
at

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 20, 2008 at 11:58 AM

    Just came across your site through the "ET TU?" blog and really enjoyed it. I was interested to read about the loss of freedoms of speech and religion in Canada as it directly corresponds to two articles I have recently written about cultural loss here in America relating to California's new gay marriage law. I feel the violent swing between REALLY NOT wanting to be one of "those people", and wondering why so few others are aware or informed enough to see how dramatically the world is changing and what is going by the wayside. Great article. I am adding your site to my blog roll.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 20, 2008 at 2:12 PM

    I wanted to send you this link, as it put me in mind of your article. I hope I am not being to forward.

    http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/

    God bless, Kursten Schwarz

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 6, 2008 at 11:26 PM

    The pastor was not ordered to renounce his beliefs, he was ordered to stop disparaging homosexuals in public. That's very different.
    In a democracy, your rights stop where the rights of others begin. Although you have the right to hate homosexuals, homosexuals do not have to suffer because of your beliefs. It is not their problem that you hate them, that you chose to believe in Christianity and in the Bible.
    Ask yourself how you would feel if some atheist organization was publicly disparaging Christians, calling you a threat to be dealt with. You'd be the first to want them charged for inciting violence towards Christians. (Think of PZ Myers and the whole wafer thing and how many death threats he received.)
    I know you're gonna censure me (I know Christians), but that's ok - I wrote this for you. ;-)

    ReplyDelete