Take back the power to set social policy, MPs urged
Frank Stirk
BC Correspondent
bc@christianweek.org
A court decision allowing a child to have three legal parents has given new urgency to recent calls by faith-based organizations that Parliament reclaim the initiative for setting social policy in Canada—and especially as it affects the family.
“We think this case shows better than most cases how mistaken it is to have social policies set by court rulings rather than by legislators,” says Joanne McGarry, executive director of the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL).
Last month, the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed a five-year-old boy to have two mothers—his biological mother plus her lesbian partner. His father, a family friend who remains part of his son’s life, supported the application.
First indigenous bishop appointed
Bishop Mark L. MacDonald’s appointment as National Indigenous Bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada is innovative and record-setting on a number of counts. He’s the first national indigenous bishop, the first bishop whose duties transcend national boundaries, and one of only two bishops whose diocese is not determined geographically.
Indigenous Anglicans in Canada expressed a desire to have their own bishop in August 2005 at the Sacred Circle, a gathering in Pinawa, Manitoba, where Archbishop Hutchinson promised to work to make their request a reality. In further talks, the Anglican Council of Indigenous People decided the successful candidate must be a native person and already a bishop.
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Small chapel in the desert: the spiritual oasis of Kandahar base
A swirl of dust lifts him off his feet as three huge armored personnel carriers charge in front of his path.
After 13 hours of tactical meetings, logistical mousetraps and a couple of rocket warnings, C-130 detachment commander Tom Kolesnik is on his way to the Fraise chapel on Kandahar Airfield.
Kandahar is home to the largest international force on the front lines in Afghanistan. Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship in the same building. The chapel, a camouflage brown pine building for a hundred souls, lies somewhere at the end of a myriad spartan barracks, the Tim Hortons and a concrete slab hockey rink. Phony stained glass is painted on the windows. Inside is silence.
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Parents threaten BC schools with legal action
The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) has told British Columbia’s 60 school boards they could face legal action from parents if they fail to guarantee them the right to keep their children out of classes that teach material contrary to their beliefs.
The warning is contained in a letter sent to the boards late 2006 by Sean Murphy, the league’s western regional director, in a bid to sound them out on the issue.
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Markets & Morality — The market economy
We can use the things we make by ourselves, take our allotment of things collectively produced by ourselves and others, or get the things we want from others by exchanging goods with those who want ours. All three ways coexist in most human societies at most times.
We can also get what we want from others by brute force. Scottish clans lived by robbing their neighbours. But the costs of predatory war are great, and civilized societies must live by the rule of law. The sovereign, who has a monopoly of violence, therefore protects persons and property. Therefore we rule out the fourth way.
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Salvation Army sells Montreal citadel
The mid-January sale of The Salvation Army’s (SA) flagship site in downtown Montreal to Alcan Aluminum came as a surprise in light of a provincial moratorium on the sale of historic religious buildings.
Less than a year ago, Quebec minister of culture and communications Line Beauchamps responded to growing concerns about the destruction and redevelopment of important historic religious sites.
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