Religious Freedom is Good for Us

My my! What a fuss over the announcement that the Government of Canada is opening an Office of Religious Freedom within the Department of Foreign Affairs. Predictably the anti-religious doomsayers can only see a plot to assure the ascendency of Christendom and the suppression of secular opposition. Strangely they will often conflate their shouts of alarm with opposition to American foreign policy under George W. Bush (who is NOT and Evangelical by the way), water boarding and Islamic suicide bombers as if these have anything to do with the promotion of religious freedom. Not far away are thoughts of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and Salem Witch Trials as if these events were evoked by desires for religious freedom, too.

Having sounded alarm over these horrors some might then mention that there are in Canada city councils that start meetings saying the Lord’s Prayer. It must be horrible for them to endure the sights and sounds of people praying in a public setting. How horrible that they should go to a school or government office and find people dressed in garb they associate with religious commitment. No one is forced to pray the prayers, dress the dress or pay the consequences. They are still free to write columns in the newspaper against these things and no one is arresting them for it. Nevertheless, they seem insecure seeing that religion exists openly in Canada.

That there are school boards in some parts of Canada with a religious foundation seems unjust to doomsayers too. Never mind that no one is forced to attend these schools or pay for them neither can they be barred from attending on religious grounds. Perhaps a more apt cry of alarm would be that there are other religious groups that would like to have the same privilege of having charge of the education of their children without the double jeopardy of having to support the public system while at the same time paying for their own.

The presumed principle of the Separation of Church and State is always cited as proof that no government should have anything to do with appearance of supporting anything to do with religion. The fact that this is not a constitutional matter in Canada. Rather, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms assures freedom of conscience and religion. No one seems to be arguing against this fundamental freedom. Even if the principle of separation were central to Canadian law, it is one that separates powers, that is, State has no power over Church and the Church no power over State. “Church” implies a specific, organized body of authority, not a general practice of religion or sense of responsibility to the Divine.

There are no church bombings here or mob attacks against religious groups tolerated by government. There are no laws against training your children to have religious or anti-religious sensibilities although Richard Dawkins would like to make it illegal for religious parents to pass on their faith. There are no movements to turn Canada into a religious state preferring one religion over another although it might be argued that Secularists wouldn’t mind seizing this power for themselves.

Right now human rights lawyers are being banned from access to clients in China. Christian leaders are being held in Iran facing serious anti-Islamic charges related to apostasy. A pastor and four others have been arrested in New York on charges of criminal trespassing for praying and singing two hymns outside the New York City Law Department in protest against a ban of certain religious groups. Ask other minorities such as followers of Baha’i faith or Jehovah’s Witnesses what they are experiencing in different parts of the world.

Meanwhile Arab Spring is seeing the rise to power popularly elected governments that would enforce Sharia law against minorities. In the regions bordering sub-Saharan Africa people are being killed at Christian worship and in some Arab states there are murderous attacks between Islamic sects. Large swaths of the earth are governed by authorities that repress religious and nonreligious minorities. Islamic, Totalitarian and Communist states and some regions under other religious majorities promote or tolerate such things. Conversions are banned, the religious training of children outlawed, distribution of religious literature is difficult, gatherings are strictly limited except by government approval and anything approaching criticism of these policies are severely punished. Right now there are thousands of vulnerable minorities who are targeted for violence just because of their religious associations. The guarantee of religious freedom is exactly designed to guard against such injustice. Pundits arguing against religious freedom and government programs to promote it seem more comfortable with widespread violent oppression than trying to find ways for people of religious faith or lack thereof to live peaceably together.

This matter ought to concern all of us because the principle of religious freedom is of benefit to all of us regardless of our religious views or practice. What is more, there are many thousands of people who are migrating, or would like to, from areas of threat to areas of freedom because their lives are endangered because of a lack of religious liberty. Many of these are seeking refuge in Canada because of our lawful tolerance of diverse religious views.

Are there still tensions around certain aspects of religious liberty and its place in the public forum? Yes. Are there legitimate limits on some aspects of religiously-based behaviour? Of course. Such will and should continue. Nevertheless the principle of religious freedom is directly related to the principle of freedom of conscience. Surely, this is something we are happy to see guaranteed and championed by the Canadian government. Would we really have it any other way?