Positive Signs in the West
The ancient Saxon King Canute was encouraged by his courtiers to see himself as all powerful. He ordered his throne to be brought to the edge of the waves on the shore, and he ordered the waves and the tide to stop. Obviously, it didn’t. Sometimes it can seem that we are engaged in as useless an endeavor as King Canute faced with our growing tide of mercy killing and euthanasia and the ceaseless onslaught of the killing of the preborn. Many people are just prone to give up.
We should not.
In Alberta, the Smith government has decided to go against the tide. They are trying to restrict and indeed perhaps reverse much of the extension of mercy killing and euthanasia. They have put forward a new act - Bill 18 the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act.
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Putting Tools in the Hands of Priests
The great feast of Easter always means that we celebrate the true victory of good over evil, of life over death, of Christ over the forces of darkness. This signal victory is one that we necessarily celebrate not just on one day, but on the many days following Easter and indeed throughout the entire year and each time we celebrate the Eucharist. It is essential to remember that this victory is such that even in the face of defeats and darkness that we can be able to hold fast to the truth which allow us to sustain our hearts or minds and to reshape our lives as we necessarily must. We know how difficult it is fighting for the principles of life. You may be downhearted or feel that we are losing completely because each time we lose a battle it means that we lose a life.
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A Perfect Storm
Several very important legislative and legal issues are being decided within Canada in the next few weeks and months. Let me go over several of them so that we can see what our practical and Christian response should be.
First, most people reading this newsletter know that the federal government, under pressure from Bloc Quebecois MPs, is attempting to impose the so-called neutrality stance regarding hate speech in the federal Criminal Code. Until now, hate speech was defined in a variety of ways, but always had a religious exemption. People that were properly quoting scripture of various religions would be exempt from hate speech regulation. The C-9 “Combating Hate Act” would eliminate this religious exemption. It is obvious that the quoting of scripture can be seen by those who are anti-religious as hate speech. We’ve seen this before - in the areas of sexuality or life issues and indeed in discussing pluralism. The Bloc Quebecois, in its drive for so-called laicism, has tried to portray themselves as being neutral in the areas of religion.
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