Same-sex debate no place for religion: Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew
Some of that famous liberal tolerance and openness and freedom to speak? Yup, liberal style! Freedom of speech is fine; freedom of religion… maybe barely tolerable; BUT ONLY AS LONG AS YOU ONLY SAY PRO-LIBERAL THINGS! Otherwise, shut up, don’t speak! You have no right to speak, in other words, unless you agree with them.
That’s how “rights” “flow” from the Charter of Rights, liberal style.
Is he a theophobe?
Perhaps the liberals would like it if there were a new law saying that only gays could speak about the gay ‘marriage’ issue. That would make it more fair for the liberal position on the matter, if I read liberals correctly on this issue.
This is an absolutely abominable display of liberal intolerance and a government attempt at silencing government critics. It also reveals at least some measure of theophobia. This sort of reminds me of the Liberal Party’s banning of Fox News Channel from Canada to silence conservatives, until people like us demanded they remove the ban. Is this YOUR idea of Canada? It’s not mine.
FREDERICTON – The Roman Catholic Church should keep its nose out of the government’s same-sex marriage legislation, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew suggested yesterday.
Asked about plans by church groups in Quebec to launch a campaign against same-sex marriage, Mr. Pettigrew said the government and churches should not get involved in each other’s affairs.
“I find that the separation of the Church and the state is one of the most beautiful inventions of modern times.”
He obviously has absolutely no clue what on earth he’s talking about. He thinks he’s a lawyer in the ACLU in the United States where they pretend these church/state separation issues exist—but don’t really even there. There’s NOTHING about it in our constitution—perhaps he should READ IT and point out all that talk of church/state separation which must surely come after the first line of the Charter of Rights section, “Whereas Canada is founded upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”.
Prime Minister Paul Martin has already ordered all members of Cabinet to vote with the government although backbenchers are free to follow their consciences. Last week, Catholic archbishops voiced their opposition to the bill, echoing the concerns of Muslim and Sikh religious leaders.
And yesterday, Catholics were outraged at Mr. Pettigrew’s suggestion they keep silent on an issue of moral significance such as the same-sex legislation.
“Certainly those who are trying to bring about change have not been shy at engaging in debate,” said Thomas Collins, Archbishop of the Diocese of Edmonton. “We have every right to make our voice heard as well.”
Archbishop Collins says Ottawa should not try to stifle the views of any Canadians on issues of moral conscience. “This is an effort to try to remove moral comment from issues affecting the common good.”
He also noted the Catholic opposition to same-sex marriage is shared by other Christian groups, as well as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Orthodox Jews.
Philip Horgan, the Catholic Civil Rights League president, said Mr. Pettigrew should be “ashamed” of himself for suggesting the Catholic Church does not have a role in a public debate. “Typically it’s been my experience that when folks start talking about the separation of Church and state, what they are really talking about is the separation of conscience from politics.”
“Any political decision is at its core a moral decision of what should be done, what ought to be done and what is the right thing to do.”
Mr. Horgan also noted Canada’s Constitution goes to great pains to protect the rights of religious groups and does not, as is the case in the United States, call for a strict separation of Church and state. The state has always funded Catholic schools, hospitals and other religious organizations, for example, he says. […]
And then this salient point was made at the end of the article. I’m going to save this bit in a separate text file for future reference:
Mr. Martin attempted yesterday to shift the emphasis off same-sex insisting that his government had a very busy session coming up when Parliament resumes on Monday. However, he had a tough time explaining exactly what was on his legislative agenda when pressed.
“Um, um, certainly, among the first pieces of legislation will be the bill introduced by [Justice] Minister Cotler … on the redefinition of marriage,” he said. The only other item he mentioned was the budget, expected in late February or early March, and some housekeeping bills that may accompany that.
MPs privately grumbled that the government has lost control of the Liberal agenda. They say PMO officials spend each day in a crisis management mode reacting to the headline of the hour and are failing to take a proactive approach by fulfilling the promises they made to Canadians during the election campaign.
(my bolding)
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