ChristianWeek

WINNIPEG, MB—After 28 years in parliament, Bill Blaikie, MP for Elmwood Transcona in Winnipeg and deputy leader of the New Democratic Party, announced he will hang his hat at the University of Winnipeg (UofW) next fall as adjunct professor in both politics and theology departments.

He hopes to continue a legacy begun by the original social gospel leaders—Tommy Douglas, J.S. Woodsworth and Stanley Knowles—to spur thought on the relation between faith and politics.

UofW Dean of Theology, James Christie—also president of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC)—has proposed a new program called the Centre for Theology and Progressive Public Policy, due to launch in the fall of 2008.

The program will integrate history, political science, arts and theology courses. While Blaikie will teach in the political science department, he’ll make his home in Wesley Hall—one of two founding theological colleges which prepares to celebrate its 120th anniversary in 2008.

UofW wants to partner with both Providence College and Chicago Theological Seminary.

“We aren’t trying to chase those of liberal theology,” says Christie. “We want people from all areas.”

Blaikie, a stalwart NDP critic and child of the social gospel movement of the ’50s and ’60s, says social gospel is due for a renewal, and the spiritual “capital” of evangelicals will be the next catalyst.

“I think that there’s a growth of interest in poverty in evangelical circles, and I believe that if people spend enough time studying poverty or AIDS in Africa, they’ll come up with the role powerful institutes and structures play in keeping people in some of the states that evangelicals don’t want them to be in.

“The minute they say ‘well, that structure needs to be changed, and we think we can change it,’ they’ve stepped into the social gospel—whether they call it that or not.”

Christie says the appointment will give Blaikie a chance to reflect on his years in Parliament, do some writing and teach a couple courses.

Blaikie—a United Church minister who does the occasional preaching and often finds it more nerve-racking to plan a worship service than to stand in opposition—has been part of ground-breaking policy developments that have shaped our thinking as Canadians.

He was instrumental in including Aboriginals—not mentioned in Trudeau’s original draft—in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As health critic in the ’80s, he pushed a bill to address extra user fees that eventually became the Canada Health Act.

His career spanned the breadth of social policy, environment, health, external affairs and finance areas.

“It’s quite common to look back and say ‘well, the NDP was right about that’—right about the injustice about the Japanese internment, giving the Chinese the vote, our position on nuclear weapons, capital punishment, Aboriginal rights and more recently the issue of Maher Arar,” says Blaikie.

“Politics is not just what you do, it’s also what you prevent. I know that many times, because I was in the room, things happened differently.”

In the world of Christian politicians, Blaikie was sometimes a lone voice on the left. He remembers backing Stockwell Day when he was chastised for holding religious views.

“When I first came into politics, it was the religious left that had to explain the connection between faith and politics. Initially, I think there was a rejection from the religious right on principle because of their insistence that salvation was a personal conviction, and notions of economic or aboriginal justice had nothing to do with faith.”

James Christie agrees that evangelicals will play a large role in the next social gospel movement. However, he notes a growing concern that evangelicals are automatically labeled as fundamentalists. “The CCC and EFC have thought of this question for a while: is the question of faith in the public square?”