OTTAWA, ON—Recent statements in the House of Commons disparaging Darrel Reid’s faith-based convictions suggests to some observers that the way many Canadians regard evangelical Christians has hit an “unprecedented” low.

Reid is a former president of Focus on the Family Canada. He was narrowly defeated when he ran for the Conservatives in Richmond, B.C., in the last federal election.

The attack on Reid, led by interim Liberal leader Bill Graham, was prompted by news that he had been hired as chief of staff to Environment Minister Rona Ambrose.

During question period, Graham accused Reid of having said that MPs who supported broadening Canada’s hate-crimes law to include sexual orientation were akin to Nazis.

“This is an affront to our democracy. It is an affront to the House of Commons of Canada,” said Graham.

Outside the Commons, he said Reid’s “Neanderthal” opinions on marriage and morality made him unfit for such an important government post and that his dismissal would be in “the best interests of our parliamentary system.”

Prior to working for Focus Canada, Reid, who has a PhD in history from Queen’s University, was chief of staff to Preston Manning when he was the Opposition leader.

Joseph Ben-Ami, executive director of the Institute for Canadian Values, says Graham’s attack on Reid was “out of bounds.”

“The fact that he would feel that...he was somehow or other fulfilling some sort of public good by figuratively lynching a guy because of his strong Christian beliefs—that he could do that with impunity—is a mark of how badly deteriorated our sense of propriety has become in this country,” says Ben-Ami, who is Jewish.

“No one can recall when a chief of staff was regaled by the Opposition in the House. That’s unprecedented,” adds Brian Stiller, president of Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto.

“If that person wore a turban or worshiped in a mosque or had just emerged from a sweat lodge, would Graham have the fortitude to say the kinds of things against those people in parallel to what he said against Reid? I doubt it.”

The next day, Graham was forced to apologize for falsely attributing to Reid allegedly “anti-Muslim statements” that had in fact been made by someone else named Darrell Reid in a letter to the Western Standard.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the Calgary Sun this was just one more example of how the Liberals “have to make stuff up” to try to attack his government. Stiller likewise accuses them of “sloppy research and political grandstanding.”

But Ben-Ami believes this incident reveals how far “the liberal, secular, Left establishment” will go to discredit anyone who disagrees with them.

“The people who talk this way,” he says, “most of them probably deep down believe that they’re somehow or other promoting plurality and tolerance—when in fact it’s the opposite that they’re doing.”

Focus Canada senior vice-president Derek Rogusky shares that concern. “Are people that choose to live their lives based on an orthodox Christian worldview somehow to be excluded from engaging in public life?” he asks. “...I think that’s unfortunately the subtle, implied message behind some of the comments that were made.”

Stiller says evangelicals should not be surprised that they are not “treated nicely” when they take their rightful place at the table of social discourse by those who think Christians have no business being there. But what they must not do is respond in kind.

“Instead,” he says, “the witness of Christ, in all of His love and generosity, must characterize what we say at that table.”

A recent survey by University of Lethbridge sociologist and author Reg Bibby found that 31 per cent of respondents said they felt uneasy just being around a born-again Christian, compared to 18 per cent in the case of a Muslim and five per cent in the case of a Jew.