and a Canadian at that.
Up here, ALL of the mainstream protestant churches oppose the introduction of legislation criminalizing abortion, or restricting access to abortion in any way. (At present, and since a Supreme Court judgment in 1988 ruling the then abortion law unconstitutional, we have no legislation concerning abortion at all, except to provide that it must be covered under the universal public health plans.)
"Mainstream" excludes Baptists, who make up less than 5% of the population here. On the other hand, the population runs about 45% Roman Catholic (I think that's the 1991 census figure; the 2001 census figure may be a bit lower, but I'm speaking from memory here, being short of time). And we of no religious affiliation make up nearly 20% of the population, about double the figure in the US.
Because of the prevalence of Roman Catholicism -- in large part accounted for by Quebec, and its majority French-speaking RC population -- we have a lot of RC politicians. The present PM is an anglo RCer; the one before him was a franco RCer, and in fact our PMs have been RC all the way back to the 60s (three more anglos and a franco, Trudeau).
Pierre Trudeau was RC, and introduced the legislation in the late 60s that liberalized divorce, decriminalized various previously illegal varieties of sex between consenting adults, and started to liberalize access to abortion (allowed for life/health reasons, which came to be interpreted so broadly as to be non-existent, with approval by a hospital committee). The French-speaking population of Quebec, which mainly still self-identifies as RC, is just like the rest of us if not more so when it comes to contraception, abortion, allowing same-sex marriage, cohabitation and child-rearing without marriage, etc.
The Canadian public, in general, really doesn't care what anybody's religion is, largely because the Canadian public would simply not stand for anybody governing the country by religious belief. And we don't take kindly to interference in politics by religious authorities in matters of fundamental rights (like access to abortion and the legality of same-sex marriage, e.g.). A couple of RC bishops have recently threatened the PM and other politicians with excommunication, and nobody gives a damn.
The United Church of Canada is the largest protestant denomination, followed by the Anglicans (Episcopalian equivalents). Both are extremely "liberal". In fact, they'd probably be regarded as commies south of the border. ;)
Our universal health care system was first brought into existence by the then Premier of Saskatchewan, the late Tommy Douglas (the "father of Canadian medicare" ... and grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland) -- recently voted by the national television audience as the Greatest Canadian. He was an ordained Baptist minister, and subsequently the national leader of the New Democratic Party, our social-democrat party, for which a woman's right to choose is a fundamental principle. There was never a more "decent Christian" than Tommy, one of the most decent people ever to walk the earth. Bill Blaikie, a long-time NDP member of Parliament, is also ordained, in the United Church.
I think I'm babbling. What I'm getting at is that "religion" comes in a lot of stripes, and the public face of the Christian church as one all too often sees it in the US is not all there is. There are progressive elements in all churches (I've known a lot of very progressive RCers, for instance), and there are churches that are, as institutions, progressive. I have no truck with
religion, but religious people are not the same thing, and are not all the same.
It's not my job to decide who is a "good Christian" and who isn't, but it seems to me that operating from compassion and respect for other people should have a lot to do with it.
If you're curious about foreign ways of doing things, have a look at
http://www.united-church.ca/and some of the issues stuff there:
http://www.united-church.ca/justice/Have you ever done any of the
find your perfect religion quizzies?
http://selectsmart.com/RELIGION/You might find that a more compassionate and respectful denomination is more suited to you. You change, you may need to change your affiliation to reflect those changes in order to be comfortable. If you really don't believe that abortion is a "sin" (and I suspect there are other things that you disagree, or will come to disagree, with your church about), you could probably be happier, and do more good, somewhere else.
If you could possibly get hold of an out of print book by the late Mark MacGuigan, a former Minister of Justice in Canada, then a Federal Court judge, and a legal scholar ... and Roman Catholic ... (and, from my little personal contact with him, a nice guy) called "Abortion, Conscience and Democracy", you might find it interesting and helpful. Here's a slightly disapproving article about it:
http://gvanv.com/compass/arch/v1305/keating.htmlI see there's one available in Australia
http://www.abetitles1.com/Title/116892/Abortion+Conscience+and+Democracy.htmlbut you should be able to get it on inter-library loan elsewhere.
Some of my best friends are Christian (well, okay, not many ... ;) ), and if you're a Christian who respects everybody else and honours their right to live their own lives, and attempts to help rather than hurt others, you'll be okay by me.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(317 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
