More than 10,000 people made their way to the second annual Great West Life Spirit of Christmas Celebration at B.C.’s Trinity Western University this past weekend. One key attraction was a uniquely Canadian ‘Living Nativity.’ Visitors were also treated to a variety of other entertainment, from kids’ singalongs and African drumming to hip hop and gospel. The event was enhanced by the area’s first snowfall of the year. Proceeds went to the Salvation Army.

Meeting their MPs

It has been a busy time for the Josiah Team on Parliament Hill. In early December, the 4MyCanada initiative in Ottawa sent 22 young people from across Canada to meet various political leaders. “In total,” the ministry asserts, “we had 41 sit down meetings with MPs and Senators.” Among other things, Josiah members talked to the politicians about raising the age of sexual consent, childcare, poverty, international peace issues, drug trafficking and reducing TV violence.

Climate care rally

Faith communities join a broad coalition of environmental organizations calling upon the federal government to honour Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol at a public rally December 8, outside Vancouver’s Central Library. “The debate on climate change is as much about ethics and morality as it is about science,” stated Anglican Church of Canada representative David Dranchuk. Faith communities, he added, “cannot be silent… Environment is a huge issue for people of faith. And we will hold politicians accountable for their inaction.” Contact: 604-684-6306, Ext. 221.

Progress on poverty

Kairos, an ecumenical social action coalition, recently said it sees “some progress towards poverty reduction strategies” in Canada. It commended the federal Liberal party’s commitment that, if elected, it will aim to reduce child poverty by 50 percent over five years. Kairos also said it is encouraged by the re-elections of Newfoundland premier Danny Williams and Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty, both of whom pledged to do more in the area of poverty reduction during their election campaigns. Kairos is asking Canadians to contact these politicians and “urge continued progress in developing and implementing poverty reduction strategies with targets.”

Christmas in a shoebox

Toy cars, pencils and a toothbrush may seem trivial, even insignificant items to the average Canadian; but for a child who’s never before received a gift, they mean the world. For 15 years, Operation Christmas Child has inspired Canadians to pack shoe boxes with various gifts for children living in desperate circumstances due to war, poverty, famine and natural disaster. The boxes are collected by local churches and businesses. For more information on how to pack a shoe box, where to send it once it’s finished, or other details about Operation Christmas Child, contact 1-800-303-1269.

Open House for Christmas

During the Christmas season, according to Lutheran Church – Canada, “people are more likely to think about church, especially if they have a connection with a congregation.” Its online survey at WhatYouBelieve.ca “shows that what a church believes, the sermons, and the friendliness of people, are top-of-the-list when deciding on a church.” Therefore, the church is urging its congregations to extend special Christmas invitations to their neighbours, in various forms of media.

Thinking about values

MakeYouThink Studios, based in Uxbridge, Ontario, is offering “character-based DVD resources on the issues that matter most to today’s youth.” The company produces films which “help provide foundations for making good decisions.” The Values Collection is described as “a library resource for teachers, parents and leaders, enabling them to inspire their students through relevant media.”

A Christmas Carolyn

Each year, for the past decade, popular recording artist Carolyn Arends has written a new song for her church’s Christmas Eve service. Eight of them were featured on her 2004 release, Christmas: An Irrational Season. Since then, she has written two more: ‘What Kind of King is This’ and ‘Everything Changes at Christmas.’ The first is available for free downloading at FeedTheLake.com, and the second should be available by mid-December.

50 years of Global support

A small rural church near Saskatoon is marking a milestone: 50 years of continuous support for MCC’s Global Family Program. Among other things, the congregation of Tiefengrund Rosenort Mennonite Church has raised money to sponsor seven students’ attendance at a high school in India; and 11 students at a school in the West Bank, in Palestine. This sponsorship program includes exchanging gifts of cards, letters, drawings and photographs.

Keep us informed! CanadianChristianity.com is always interested in upcoming events, important milestones, unusual arts and entertainment, and significant personnel changes. If you want the Christian community to know about something important to you, contact us well in advance here.

Stories about Stephen Boissoin and the “anti-gay” letter:

Alberta panel finds writer of anti-gay letter broke human rights law

An Alberta man who has pressed for five years to get an anti-gay letter branded as hate literature won a victory Friday with a human rights commission ruling that said it broke provincial law and may even have played a role in the beating of a gay teenager. The letter, written by Stephen Boissoin and published in the Red Deer Advocate in 2002, carried the headline “Homosexual agenda wicked” and suggested gays were as immoral as pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps.

Canadian Press, November 30

Alberta Tories oust candidate linked to anti-gay controversy

An ugly internal dispute over sex, religion and violence erupted within the Alberta Conservative party Saturday, ending up with a candidate being ousted and Premier Ed Stelmach saying the reasons for the “difficult” decision must remain confidential. Mr. Stelmach presided over a private meeting of his party’s 40-member executive committee, which voted not to endorse the nomination of a candidate who founded a group linked to an anti-gay letter.

Canadian Press, December 1

Earlier: Stories on Darren Lund, Stephen Boissoin and “hate speech”

Stories about The Golden Compass:

Panel debates The Golden Compass, religion, atheism

Globeandmail.com has invited a panel to debate the issues raised by the book, movie and the school board’s decision.

Globe and Mail, December 1

An Epic Epic

Kidman and Weitz also discussed the supposed anti-Catholic bias Pullman allegedly wove into his books, but Weitz says the Catholic-raised actress was convinced the screenplay and eventual movie would have none of that.

National Post, December 5

Calgary Catholic school board dumps Golden Compass

The Roman Catholic school board in Calgary has followed the lead of a Catholic school board in Burlington, Ont., in pulling the children’s fantasy book The Golden Compass off school shelves. Board officials said their decision followed concern voiced by parents and recent publicity surrounding the release of a movie version of the book, starring Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman.

Canadian Press, December 5

Is The Golden Compass pointing away from God?

While some Catholic school boards are removing the novel from their libraries, others say it’s a chance to learn how to decode the world.

Globe and Mail, December 6

Review: The Golden Compass

The filmmakers have been at pains lately to say that they toned down the book’s anti-religious content, and that may be true to the extent that the movie never uses words like “church” or “God.” But the word “magisterium” does refer, in the real world, to the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and the film is still peppered with religiously significant words like “oblation” and “heresy,” as well as a cryptic reference to “our ancestors” who “disobeyed the Authority” — that is, to Adam and Eve and their disobedience against God in the Garden of Eden. And when Iorek breaks into one of the Magisterium’s offices to retrieve his armor, he bursts through walls decorated with Byzantine icons — a potent symbol of how the bear, Lyra, and others are fighting to liberate themselves from church rule.

Peter T. Chattaway, ChristianityTodayMovies.com, December 6

Earlier: His Dark Materials: How the Grinch stole God

Stories about the minister and her license plate:

Licence plate case to be reviewed

Stung by uproar, province is reconsidering decision to deny retired church minister her vanity plate

Toronto Star, November 29

Licence to stifle plate expression

If there’s any cosmic justice, the devil himself will be firing up a special ring in hell for the Ministry of Transportation. Only a body called the Personalized Licence Plate Review Committee, after all, could have so lost touch with goodness and decency as to object to a United Church minister from Whitby — Rev. Joanne Sorrill by name — having the vanity plates REV JO on her car.

Jim Coyle, Toronto Star, November 29

Plate refusal #2 has cleric all REV’d up

REV JO is a NO GO. A Whitby minister’s vanity licence plate has been rejected by the transportation ministry — again. This time, it’s worried about drunk driving. “Rev is an alcoholic cooler-type beverage,” spokesperson Bob Nichols said in passing along the plate review committee’s decision yesterday.

Toronto Star, December 5

Minister will get her REV JO plates

The decision to deny the renewal of previously approved personalized licence plates was embarrassing and defied common sense, Premier Dalton McGuinty admitted Wednesday as he overruled the Ministry of Transportation’s bureaucrats.

Canadian Press, December 5

It’s a go for REV JO

Whitby minister gets her licence plate back after McGuinty steps in to ensure ‘common sense’

Toronto Star, December 6

Panel has licence to be ABSRD

The law, we were famously told by Dickens, is a ass, a idiot. And he had that figured out without even meeting the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s personalized licence plate review committee.

Jim Coyle, Toronto Star, December 6

Earlier: Stories about the minister and her license plate

Stories about Christmas and Hanukkah:

Advent: of what?

The comment is often made, by people of my own religious and political outlook, that you cannot write satire any more, for the world of our contemporaries is self-satirizing on an heroic scale. I have myself made passing references, over the years, to what I call the “mall culture”: the vision of frenetic consumerism one encounters, even while trying to avoid it.

David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, December 2

Hanukkah’s brightest lights

When Eliana Train plunked down in front of an arts and crafts table a few weeks ago, she had to muster all her imagination to tackle the job at hand. In front of her, and about 80 of her schoolmates, were small lengths of wood, a pile of metal nuts, some tissue paper, pastels and paint. Their task: to transform these raw materials into menorahs — special candelabras lit only during Hanukkah.

Toronto Star, December 4

Whitewashing the Jews’ ancient enemies

In his op-ed column attacking the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (“Bah, Hanukkah,” Dec. 5), Christopher Hitchens gave every impression, as he usually does, of a man frightened by the thought that religion might refuse to remain in the grave he keeps trying to dig for it. So frightened, in fact, that yesterday he attempted a hasty burial of history for good measure.

Douglas Farrow, National Post, December 6

Stories about the Anglican schism:

Anglican leader in ‘denial’

The head of the Anglican Church of Canada is suffering from “functional amnesia” and is in “denial” for ignoring a key part of an international report that is meant to deal with the issue of same-sex blessings, conservatives charge. They point to a pastoral letter released yesterday, in which Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the national Church, expressed displeasure with the primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, which takes in most of South America, for appointing bishops in Canada this month to oversee a parallel church structure here for those opposed to the controversial rite.

National Post, November 30

It’s DIVORCE for the Anglicans

The liberals and the conservatives have come to a parting of the ways; all that’s left is the division of property

Michael Davenport, Vancouver Sun, December 3

Episcopalian diocese votes on secession

The U.S. Episcopal Church faces major tumult as an entire California diocese with more than 9,000 members decides whether to secede in an unprecedented protest over gay issues.

National Post, December 6

Earlier: Conservative Anglicans to establish new Canadian denomination

Stories about the polygamous cult at Bountiful:

Fundamentalist case blurs line between abuser and abused

Warren Jeffs was a tyrant but those carrying out orders were also victims.

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, November 23

Mother wins custody of Bountiful children

The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that three children whose mother left the Mormon community of Bountiful, B.C., and now lives in Payette, Idaho, should remain with their mother. Joseph Blackmore asked the court for sole interim custody but said he’d be content with an order for joint custody if his former wife returned with the children to live near him.

Canadian Press, December 5
Also: Canadian Press

Sect leader convicted of rape by accomplice wants to get a new trial

The polygamous-sect leader convicted of being an accomplice to rape is asking the Utah judge who heard the case for a new trial. Lawyers for Warren Jeffs filed the motion claiming errors and improprieties during his four-day trial in September.

Associated Press, December 5

Bountiful mother wins custody of her children

A mother of three from the polygamous B.C. community of Bountiful, who was accused by her husband of snatching her children and taking them to the United States, has won an interim order for sole custody of the children. Teressa Blackmore, who recently testified against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, took the children to Idaho, claiming she was trying to get them out of the clutches of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon community linked to Bountiful, near Creston.

National Post, December 6

Judge’s custody ruling a warning

Politicians in British Columbia may be afraid to tackle the polygamous community of Bountiful, but a Supreme Court judge didn’t shy away from repeating the obvious this week. Polygamy is illegal and it may not be in childrens’ best interests to be raised within a polygamous society. And if anything Justice T.J. Melnick’s ruling on the interim custody of three of Bountiful’s children should raise alarm bells in several different B.C. ministries whose responsibilities include the care, protection, nurturing, and education of children.

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, December 6

Earlier: Stories about the polygamous cult at Bountiful

Stories about Islam and the West:

Why no one is betting on success for Annapolis

In 2007 most people noticed a factor that only a few saw in the 1980s and 1990s. For peace-negotiations to succeed, it’s not enough for both sides to want peace in the abstract. They must both ascribe the same meaning to the term — and the two sides in the Middle East do not. Israel wants peace and so does the Arab/Muslim world — except Israel wants peace with the Arab/Muslim world and the Arab/Muslim world wants peace without Israel.

George Jonas, CanWest Publications, November 29

Signs & gestures

Let us not be timid in the face of bullying. I am thinking of the mob that formed in Khartoum yesterday, after Friday prayers in the mosques, demanding the execution of a British schoolteacher who was arrested by Sudan’s ruling Islamist junta. Gillian Gibbons has already been “tried,” and jailed 15 days, by one of this regime’s kangaroo courts. She was found guilty of “insulting Islam,” and barely escaped forty lashes or worse — for what? For having named a class teddy bear “Mohammad,” in complete innocence, at the suggestion of one of her pupils, whose own name is Mohammad, and who, after she was charged, bravely stood up to defend her. In other words, a wilful misunderstanding, in which the wilful misunderstanders are calling for blood.

David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, December 1

A cloak of my own
‘When I see a woman masked in black cloth, I can’t help but wonder what it’s like to be her’
Danielle Crittenden, National Post, December 5

Little mosque on the tundra
In the land of the midnight sun, Yellowknife’s growing Muslim community grapples with a harsh climate, geographic hardship and faith on the frontier.
Globe and Mail, December 6

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past week:

Making the Church matter in Quebec
Last week Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec City, made front-page news across the country with his open letter asking forgiveness for the sins of the past. Yesterday in this space, my colleague George Jonas devoted his column to that apology. And in Quebec, the Cardinal’s intervention dominated the news. The open letter of last week caps a year for Cardinal Ouellet in which something extraordinary has become ordinary again. The Archbishop of Quebec is once again a public figure of consequence.
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, November 29
Earlier: Cardinal Ouellet’s apology greeted with praise and suspicion

Top court to settle row over Hutterite driver’s licences
A dispute between the Alberta government and two Hutterite colonies over driver’s licences is heading to the Supreme Court of Canada, signalling a years-long legal battle is about to come to an end. Canada’s top court agreed Thursday to hear the case that has pitted Alberta’s demands for security measures against the Hutterites’ demands for religious freedom.
CanWest News Service, November 30

Hope that saves
Pope explores distinguishing mark of Christians in encyclical
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, December 1

Dealing with the i-word on the spiritual West Coast
To free-spirited secular-but-spiritual people, the word “institution” is a profanity. Many hate organized religion, for reasons related to their upbringings or to global conflicts. Still, I’m one of those people in do-your-own-thing B.C. who holds on to an unpopular view: Institutions are extremely valuable.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, December 1

Despite the rhetoric, we’re a tolerant lot
One wonders whether, when the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation has aired the thoughts of every Quebecer who chooses to take the microphone, the province (and indeed the rest of Canada) will feel satisfaction or regret.
Michael Adams, Vancouver Sun, December 1
Earlier: Stories about religious minorities in Quebec

New Catholic head to strengthen ethnic community ties
Seven years ago, she was a parent trying to save her son’s school from closing. Now, she’s running the board. Catherine LeBlanc-Miller, acclaimed as chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, took the job Dec. 1.
Toronto Star, December 4

What would Jesus watch?
Also involving a nativity play — in fact starting with one — is The Pagan Christ on CBC. A voice-over tells us that one third of the world’s population subscribes to basic Christian beliefs, including — in fact dominated by — that Jesus was a real person. The film charts the growing disbelief in this of the Canadian religious journalist Tom Harpur, who nonetheless still considers himself a Christian, an allegorical one. For him “the Jesus figure stands for [everybody’s] higher self.” The film is based on his recent book of the same name.
Robert Cushman, National Post, December 6
Earlier: Was Christ’s life based on pagan myths?

‘From sea to sea’ suits me fine
We’ve been having some fun in the Saturday National Post the last few weeks, running a contest on these pages for a new motto for Canada. The entries have ranged from critical — “Medicare, we’re dying to keep it” — to congratulatory — “Canada: a home for the world.” The actual motto of Canada is a mari usque ad mare — “from sea to sea.” My colleague Yoni Goldstein, who is moderating the contest, characterizes our current motto as “drab” and mocks it as being the equivalent of describing a person as being “from head to toes.” All very clever, and no harm done in pursuit of the first prize.
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, December 6

Having years of professional experience with children, my wife felt confident. I felt terrified. We sought the counsel of small-group members and pastors, and they all said the same thing: Fostering would be difficult, but we were in a unique position to make it happen. The outpouring of support and provision from friends–who hosted a shower for us and helped us move spare furniture out and donated furniture in–confirmed our decision.

I also found confirmation in John 1:4–5: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Who doesn’t want to shine the light of Christ? We want to make a difference in His name, whether on the mission field, in our city or in our home.

Saying yes was the easy part. The anticipation of bringing the girls into our family had us daydreaming about game nights and sit-down dinners. And the early days were exciting, fresh and fun. But dreams and excitement fade quickly when a screaming child slams a door in your face. It hurts to hear “I hate you!” when you give a child what she needs instead of what she demands.

Being a foster parent takes more energy than I ever imagined. At times, my glowing vision of changing a child’s life feels distant, as though it belongs to another time and place. There are joyful times when we see the girls becoming more respectful, pursuing their talents and taking on more responsibility; but when we feel stretched and strained, the hard times nearly eclipse the good. It’s easy to forget how much energy it takes to shine when circumstances darken.

And it’s in those moments that John 1:5 resonates in my mind, giving me resilient hope. All my fears, failures and anxieties prove that I am not the light–and this is paramount. Shining the light of Christ in darkness is impossible if I rely on my own energy and ability. But with God as the source, the light I’m sharing will never be extinguished. Better and brighter yet, Christ’s light will continue to shine when mine goes out. Even when the girls no longer live with us, the progress they’ve made and the things we’ve all learned will remain.

I am confident in the vision God gave us. And I’m hopeful that one day the streak of permanent marker on our antique dining table will remind me that the hard work was worth it.

Article courtesy of Bible Study Magazine, a product of Faithlife Corporation, makers of Logos Bible Software. Each issue of Bible Study Magazine provides tools and methods for Bible study, as well as insights from Bible teachers, professors, historians, and archaeologists. Originally published in print: Copyright Bible Study Magazine (Jan–Feb 2013): pg. 8.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Sproul attended Westminster College not because he wanted to attend a Christian school, but because he had an athletic scholarship. Sproul and his roommate had just completed freshman orientation when they decided to cross the Ohio state border for a drink. Sproul’s quick cigarette run was interrupted when a group of guys–including the star of the football team–engaged them in conversation.

“For the first time in my life, I met somebody who really believed in Jesus as a living person. I’d never encountered that before,” Sproul recalls. “This fellow was telling me about his faith, and in the middle of the conversation, he made reference to a text in Ecclesiastes: ‘Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie’ 11:3. I saw myself as just like that tree–going nowhere, just rotting away–and I had this fierce desire to know Christ.” Years later, he laughs at the experience. “I think I’m probably the only person in the history of the Church who was converted by that verse.”

The conversation had a profound effect on him. “When the discussion was over, I went to my room, got down on my knees by my bed, and I asked God to forgive me of my sins. I had a powerful experience of being forgiven. That night, September 13, 1957, was the night I was converted to Christ.” Author of 80 books and founder of Ligonier Ministries, Sproul is still as passionate about Christ as he was that night.

Falling in Love with Scripture

Following his conversion, Sproul experienced many of the struggles that most new Christians face. “That first year was a roller coaster of spiritual highs and spiritual lows. I was frustrated by my ongoing sin and that I still struggled with things I brought into the faith from my old life. At the same time, I couldn’t get enough study of the Scripture.”

“From the day of my conversion, I had this unquenchable thirst to know the Bible. In the first few weeks of my Christian experience, I read the Bible from cover to cover. In fact, that’s all I did. The first semester of my freshman year, I got Ds in all my classes except gym and Bible–I got an A in Bible. I didn’t want to know anything else.”

He spent his nights pacing the hallway and reading the Bible, sometimes until as late as three o’clock in the morning. “Everybody else was asleep, but I couldn’t sleep because I was immersed in the study of Scripture. I was overwhelmed by the portrait of the God of the Old Testament. I had no understanding of who He was.”

“The one thing that was clear to me from my initial reading of the Old Testament was that this God is a God who plays for keeps. I knew that if I was going to be a Christian, I couldn’t mess around. It had to be all or nothing.”

Spreading the Word: From Teacher to Preacher

Sproul’s faith soon shaped his future. “From the very beginning, I knew I was going to have to spend my whole life in some type of Christian service, but I certainly wasn’t inclined to think about it as a pastoral ministry. My goal was to be a seminary professor.”

After graduating, Sproul received his M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and then studied for his doctorate at the Free University of Amsterdam. Not long after, he became ordained to the teaching ministry of the Presbyterian Church.

Sproul then taught philosophy at Westminster College, his alma mater, before moving to Gordon College in Boston, where he taught Bible and theology. When he was 29 years old, Sproul finally achieved his original goal: He was appointed to the Conwell School of Theology in Philadelphia. Little did he know that after reaching his goal, he would soon be led in a new direction.

“While I was teaching seminary, the pastor of the local church I attended asked me if I would be willing to teach an adult Sunday school class on the person and work of Christ. I said, ‘Sure, I’d be happy to.'” Sproul was shocked by his class’ hunger to learn. “When I was teaching these lay people, I discovered that their excitement and interest was more manifest than that of the captive audience that I had in the academic world.” He responded to their enthusiasm by making a crucial career shift.

He explains that with that experience, he “began to major in lay education and continued to minor in teaching in the academic world.” Although he remained involved in the academic world, Sproul turned his attention to educating lay people. He founded Ligonier Valley Study Center in 1971. Today the goal of what is now known as Ligonier Ministries is to “help Christians understand what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it.”

Developing Discipline

Sproul started his ministry with the acknowledgment that “a lot of people have to work at Bible study to try to get motivated.” He recommends becoming involved in a Bible study group or class, which helps develop the discipline needed to get into the Word regularly. He compares Bible study to learning a musical instrument: “I’ve known a few people who have taught themselves how to play the piano, and they’ve done a very good job of it. But most people who try to teach themselves have a fool for a student. If you want to learn how to play the piano, get yourself a good piano teacher and sign up for a course. That’s how you progress in it; that’s how you learn.”

He says the same is true for growing in your spiritual life. “If you’re not motivated to initiate Bible study on your own, get yourself in a Bible class–one where you’re given assignments. Self-discipline is a result of first having a discipline under someone else’s authority so you learn to establish patterns on your own.”

A Culture of Truth

Sproul sees Bible study as one step in becoming an educated Christian–something he deems a responsibility for all Christians. He sees adult Christian education as the key to eradicating biblical illiteracy and to revitalizing the Church. “Christian education is a primary consideration for every Christian and for the life of the Church. That was so in the first century, and it has been so in the great periods of revival throughout Church history.”

He is concerned that a growing suspicion of intellectualism is becoming an obstacle. “We have this undercurrent of people who are opposed to education, partly because they’ve seen educators who’ve committed treason against the faith. They’re leery and wary of becoming involved in education because they think that it’s contrary to the things of God. That’s a very serious mistake. We’re called to beware of the godless philosophies that surround us, but you can’t be wary of something that you’re not aware of.”

Sproul explains, “When I come to the Scriptures, I often come laden down with cultural ideas that conflict with the Word of God. I have to have those ideas expunged from my thinking, and the only place I’m going to get that is from the true ideas that we get in sacred Scripture. We have to constantly subject our own thinking to the critique of the Scriptures.”

“Our culture argues all the time about what’s right and what’s wrong.” Sproul again points to the Scriptures as a solution: “The Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong; if we believe that it is God’s actual Word, then that should define our lives and should make us salt and light and influencers of the culture around us.”

The fire that captured Sproul as a young college student still burns brightly in him today: “The Bible calls us to have renewed minds. We’re called to love the Lord our God with all our minds. … You have to work. You have to study. To be led out of the darkness of the world and into the light of the Word of God, we’re called to seek after the very mind of Christ.”

Tabletalk is a devotional magazine from Ligonier Ministries. To pick up the latest issue go to Ligonier.org/Tabletalk.

To pick up back issues go to Logos.com/Tabletalk.

Article courtesy of Bible Study Magazine published by Logos Bible Software. Each issue of Bible Study Magazine provides tools and methods for Bible study as well as insights from people like John Piper, Beth Moore, Mark Driscoll, Kay Arthur, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Barry Black, and more. More information is available at biblestudymagazine.com. Originally published in print: Copyright Bible Study Magazine (Jan–Feb 2013): pgs. 10–13.

Organizers of a Vancouver conference set for March 22 – 24 are hoping it will do something significant about reconciling secularism, religion and the common good. The gathering, dubbed Our Whole Society will take place at the downtown Vancouver campus of UBC, at Robson Square.

I spoke with three people involved in the conference, asking them about its objectives and potential significance for Christians. The three are:

• Karen Hamilton, chair of the conference steering committee and general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches.
• Aileen Van Ginkel, a steering committee member and a vice president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
• John Stackhouse, a conference keynoter and long-time Regent College professor, soon to take up a new post at Crandall University in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Karen Hamilton noted that all three words in the event’s title ‘Our Whole Society’ are important. She pointed out that recent surveys on Canadian attitudes toward faith and religion show that when those who are ‘spiritual but not religious’ are added to those who identify themselves as followers of particular faiths, the preponderance of Canadian society could be seen as rooted in faith or spirituality.

She added that “in 2013 I was invited to speak at three ‘secular’ conferences. Not one of them ever had a faith-based speaker. They realized [at that point] that religion was part of the Canadian scene and that, dealing with poverty and development [for example], the faith community is always involved.”

Hamilton noted that the Vancouver event follows up on Bridging the Secular Divide: Religion and Canadian Public Discourse, held at Montreal’s McGill University two years ago. That event, she said, drew “standing room only” participation.

She suggested there is a nuanced difference between the way themes are being explored in Vancouver and how they were at McGill. Those nuances relate to McGill’s emphasis on helping people and groups of faith to interact among themselves. At that time, there was a fear that religion would be sidelined in the public square by the forces of what might be described as secularism or unbelief.

But today, Hamilton said, “religion is very much a part of the conversation. We need to be having that kind of broad conversation. [A few years ago] people thought faith would fade away.”

Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun religion/ethics writer, noted, after being a panelist at the McGill event: “If it goes on to receive the support of more people of goodwill, this week’s event could mark the beginning of better things for all Canadians, whether they define themselves as religious or secular or (like most of us) somewhere in between.” Todd will again be a participant in the Vancouver conference.

For her part, Aileen Van Ginkel said she sees the genesis of the Vancouver conference as being not just in Montreal, but also in the World Religions Summit that took place just before the G-20 Summit (in Canada) in 2010. It produced a major statement on the Millennium Development Goals on global poverty and related issues.

Van Ginkel made clear her view that part of the impact of this conference will be its ability to be not so much a “debate” between people of faith and/or spirituality and those who are “secular” or not believing, but a “conversation.” She agreed that sometimes, in these kinds of settings, the media can create more of a debate and less of a conversation, by highlighting conflict in its coverage.

“It is going to be an interesting question whether there is participation from people who are not of faith,” she said. (While the organizers have tried to encourage participation by advocates of secularism or religious non-influence in the public square, it is still not clear what the response will be.)

In any case, she said, it is important that “people of faith are not ‘on the other side of the room’” in order to preserve the idea of a conversation rather than a debate.

As a conference speaker, rather than a planner, John Stackhouse poses questions like: “To what extent is this a defensive session, rallying like-minded religious people to protect against what they see to be threats against religious liberty and identity, on the part of the ‘secular’ regimes of government, the mass media or education? Or to what extent is it a positive attempt to articulate a society where every Canadian and Canadian group can flourish in a cooperative way?”

Stackhouse said he was encouraged to see that, in both the McGill and Vancouver events, evangelical Christians have been included in both the planning and participation aspects of the conferences.

“That shows genuine promise,” he suggested, adding that it was preferable to a “rally of the faithful liberal [constituency].”

Such matters as the current controversy over LGBTQ opposition to the establishing of a law school at Trinity Western University are, in the view of all three of the interviewees, potential undercurrents in the conference’s conversations.

The inclusion of two Trinity Western professors in the conference’s speaker lineup might provide some hint to the event’s significance for BC’s Christian communities.

Last week, Church for Vancouver featured a commentary on the implications of the conference from Paul Rowe of Trinity Western University, who noted:

A society in which people of faith may participate whole-heartedly, where their beliefs are not confiscated at the door to our public forums, would be a much better ‘secular’ society than one which seeks to eliminate all the vestiges of faith. A secular society then is one that promotes our inherent plurality, not one which seeks conformity to some form of irreligion.

Other speakers and participants in Our Whole Society include:

• Andrew Bennett, Canadian Ambassador for Religious Freedom
• James Christie, Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology, University of Winnipeg
• Bruce Clemenger, President, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
• Imam Zijad Delic, Author, Canadian Islam: Belonging and Loyalty
• John Dyck, Assistant Professor of Political Studies, Trinity Western University
• Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Montreal
• Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute
• Marie Wilson, Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

For the full list of speakers go here.

Full information on the conference is available here.

“Believe whatever you want, but don’t impose those beliefs on me!”

It’s a commonly held position, and summarizes the way that many people in our society think about the intersection of religious faith and public life.

A possible solution to the problem of dueling religious beliefs is what we like to call secularism. Originally, this idea was about separating the authorities of church and state: render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s. But secularism of such a sort perhaps sounds a little too Christian – it was Jesus who made this statement, after all.

Over time, secularism developed a more robust meaning in many people’s minds. It meant that we had to eliminate all thoughts of a religious nature from our public life. In a secular state, so the thinking goes, the government does not seek to impose one or another belief on anyone. Religious people go about their religious lives and don’t bother the rest of us by making demands that we abide by their peculiar beliefs.

Of course, in reality this is easier said than done. For example, whenever governments legislate, they are making moral choices. Most of these may seem morally trivial: should we invest in a road here, or there? Should we allocate an extra two percent to the education budget, or draw the line?

But at some point, those public policy decisions become less morally trivial – they become about life and death, or equality rights, or freedom of speech. In these cases, it makes little sense to say that faith cannot have a role to play in informing our public discussions. For many, it would be impossible to articulate a position on these issues without some sort of recourse to a faith tradition.

Given the necessity of answering some of those deeper moral questions, secularism either has to make use of what we call a normative philosophy of life or a religious one. The complexities of how a society promotes secularism have led to a multitude of different forms of secularism.

Ran Hirschl, a professor of politics and law at the University of Toronto, writes in his book Constitutional Theocracy that “[t]he religious has never been lost in Western culture, let alone in other cultures; it has only become one of many stories striving for acceptance.”

He goes on to identify nine different forms of secularism on a spectrum from atheist regimes like the former Soviet Union where religion was formally persecuted to so-called theocratic regimes where religion is institutionalized as the law of the state.

In between run various different attitudes secular society might have toward religion, from the “laic” form used in France to the “weak establishment” of religion in places like Norway or Denmark.

One of the problems of secularism, especially in its more laic form, is its tendency to rule out of court the very things that make many human beings feel like human beings. By purposely excluding religion, we may purposely exclude members of our society with whom we merely disagree.

I have spoken in many contexts about religion and public life in Canada and it is common for Canadians to presume that we live in a “secular” society. What they mean by this varies as widely as the many different definitions of secularism identified by Ran Hirschl.

But what few will admit is that Canada in its constitution is not an explicitly secular society. Rather, it is “founded on principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.”

That would suggest that Canadians have every right to be religious in their public life except under those limitations justified by the rule of law. That opens up a great deal of debate about where we should set those limits, but it also suggests that those who invoke God are at least as Canadian as those who do not.

Now I don’t for a moment think that the preamble to the Charter of Rights and freedoms implies the institution of some sort of theocracy. But I do think that it at least means we shouldn’t exclude religious people, or make our disagreements about issues of faith a basis for excluding one another.

A society in which people of faith may participate whole-heartedly, where their beliefs are not confiscated at the door to our public forums, would be a much better “secular” society than one which seeks to eliminate all the vestiges of faith. A secular society then is one that promotes our inherent plurality, not one which seeks conformity to some form of irreligion.

What would such a society look like? It would need to involve members of our whole society – people of all faiths and none. It would be truly pluralistic and it would mean at the least tolerating our differences and at the most understanding that those differences are an asset.

From March 22 – 24, the Our Whole Society conference will be held at Robson Square in Vancouver to explore the possibilities of such differences. I hope to see you there.

Paul Rowe is associate professor and coordinator of political and international studies at Trinity Western University. His PhD dissertation focused on the politics of Christian minority communities in Middle Eastern states and he studies the politics of religious groups in developing countries and at the global level.

He is the author of Religion and Global Politics (Oxford University Press Canada, 2012) and edited – with fellow TWU profs John Dyck and Jens Zimmerman – Christians and the Middle East Conflict (Routledge, 2014) and Politics and the Religious Imagination (Routledge, 2010).

He is on the steering committee of the Our Whole Society conference.

While the Vancouver School of Theology (VST) $28 million sale of the iconic Iona Building ‘castle’ to the University of British Columbia is significant news, VST principal Richard Topping suggests there is more to the story.

The ‘more’ relates to the changing scene in Canadian theological education — particularly the increasing role of online learning and expanded educational services to present and future ministers and faith leaders.

Dr. Topping is a minister who pastored one of Canada’s largest Presbyterian churches, did most of his theological studies at Wycliffe College, Anglicanism’s evangelical seminary at University of Toronto, and earned his PhD from St. Michael’s College, a Catholic institution also at the UofT.

(The congregation he served as senior minister from 2000 to 2009 was the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal. He moved to the west coast in 2009 to become professor of studies in the Reformed Tradition at St. Andrew’s Hall. He became principal of VST this past summer, while retaining the Reformed Studies role.)

Topping asserts: We have the incredible opportunity to construct a purpose designed facility to advance thoughtful, engaged and generous Christian faith for the 21st century.

Amplifying on that statement, he notes that the student body, at present, is 115, but draws from a range of faith backgrounds, including the school’s participating bodies — the United, Presbyterian and Anglican traditions.

The landmark stone-faced 100,000 square foot building topped by an imposing tower and featuring stunning views to the north, was built shortly after the 1925 church union. That union brought together the Methodist, Congregational and a large section of the Presbyterian denominations in Canada.

That original Iona was known as Union College. Growing up around them in subsequent years were the Anglican Theological College (ATC), St. Andrew’s Hall (Presbyterian) St. Mark’s / Corpus Christi College (Catholic) and Carey Centre (Baptist). Regent College came into existence in 1968 but, before it moved into its own building across campus, it occupied one wing of Union College.

UBC plans to make the Vancouver School of Economics, which operates under its Faculty of Arts, the main occupant of the towered building. According to Gage Averill, UBC Dean of Arts: ”This will generate great excitement for the Faculty of Arts. The magnificent Iona building is ideally suited for the UBC Vancouver School of Economics. It is a treasure that will provide an inspiring setting for our faculty and students.”

VST was formed in 1971 from the merger of Union and ATC. Later, St. Andrew’s affiliated. “Interestingly,” Topping says, “space in St. Andrew’s will be used to accommodate some of the classroom and faculty to be moved from the Iona Building.”

He added that “[VST] was using about one-quarter of the Iona Building in recent years.” He said that while final plans are still in process, Somerville House, a smaller structure in the north part of the “neighbourhood” may be renovated to permanently accommodate VST activities.

Somerville House was built on the site of the structure which originally housed ATC, near the Chapel of the Epiphany, which remains a worship centre for the complex — and home to University Hill United Church.

Alternatively, a new structure may be built, equipped in a fashion that recognizes the breadth of theological interests that exist around the Pacific Rim. As a Pacific-facing institution, that emphasis is significant, says Topping.

All the theological facilities on and around Iona Drive form what is known at UBC as the Theological Neighbourhood. While each institution maintains its independence, the arrangements they have in common are governed by a covenant.

Amplifying on its plans, a VST release notes that the school leaders plan “to use the proceeds of the sale to continue its existing operations as a theological college at UBC,” by:

• Investing in its facilities on the Vancouver campus.
• Setting aside a substantial portion of the remaining proceeds in an endowment that will generate income to support professional and pastoral training

The Iona Building sits on UBC-owned land leased to the theological school for 999 years. UBC plans to take possession this coming July, with a view to beginning use for the economics school in the fall of 2015.

VST first approached UBC with the purchase idea in 2012, having concluded that the venerable structure was, in Topping’s words: “no longer suited to the school’s new programming, and that different facilities were needed.”

In effect, while differing in their general education purposes, the Vancouver School of Theology and the Vancouver School of Economics share a less than parochial outlook. As Topping indicates, VST’s west coast location lends to it a Pacific Rim perspective; many of its students and faculty come from outside of Canada.

For its part, UBC leadership sees the VSE as “a global centre for research and hands-on learning about pressing economic issues.” It claims VSE is one of the world’s best schools of economics, adding that in a recent ranking based on research publications, it placed “in the top 20 worldwide, and number one in Canada.”

Since 2007, Dwayne Buhler has been executive director of Missions Fest Vancouver, the large and popular event that takes place each year ‘under the sails’ at the harbour-side Vancouver Convention Centre. Shortly after the end of this year’s Missions Fest (January 24 – 26), he spoke with Canadian Christianity writer Lloyd Mackey about the last few years and his plans for the future. We wish Dwayne well, as he and his wife Rhonda consider the next step in their involvement as mission leaders in an increasingly complex global setting.

Lloyd Mackey: What have been some of your most memorable experiences with Missions Fest during your years there?

Dwayne Buhler: I would have to say that the main highlight of working with Missions Fest has been to rub shoulders with the men and women who lead our volunteer teams, board members, and church leaders and pastors who have supported and encouraged us.

But I have to add some other things: It’s been great to meet the speakers and work alongside the great people involved with the agencies. For me the interdenominational, intergenerational and intercultural nature of Missions Fest — giving a real sense of what I think the church is supposed to look like — is what fuels my tank.

I’m also thrilled to see how the Film Festival has developed, giving a voice and a venue to those who are telling the ‘God stories’ to this generation. We’ve seen people inspired and called — I never get tired of hearing about the people who made a connection or commitment at Missions Fest, and are now ‘out there,’ involved in local and global missions.

Lloyd Mackey: What are your interests as you look forward to the next step? Any particular plans you want to share?

Dwayne Buhler: About a year ago my wife, Rhonda, and I began to pray about our next steps.

We understand that our 15 years in Brazil and Mexico, knowledge of Portuguese and Spanish, and our love for Latin America, are part of who we are. Our hope is that wherever we end up, that we will use these in a ministry setting, which could be international, or serving from a North American base. Things right now for us are not well-defined, but I’ll keep people in the loop as they become clear.

With a sense of an upcoming change, I informed the board of Missions Fest Vancouver last March that they should begin working towards finding my replacement. They have worked on this through the last months and are in the process of interviewing potential candidates. They’ve asked me to see things through up to our AGM in May, giving some time for me to mentor my successor.

Lloyd Mackey: Any comments on the burgeoning missions festival/events field and what kind of global impact it is likely to have during the next decade or two?

DB: I tell people that only eternity will reveal the impact that an event like Missions Fest can make. It’s amazing to think about God’s faithfulness over 31 years.

I was called at that first Missions Fest, back at the MacPherson Centre in 1984, and God is still doing that today. [The first Missions Fests were held at McPherson Centre in Burnaby, then the home of Burnaby Christian Fellowship. Later in the decade, after the Vancouver Convention Centre was built, in connection with Expo ’86, the festival moved there.]

I think there is still a future for a large-scale event like Missions Fest because it meets a need in the body of Christ. All too often believers feel like they are alone; that their small church or group are like an Elijah (1 Kings 19) that doesn’t see the other 7,000 that haven’t bowed their knee to the pressures of the people and environment around them. But coming together at an event where there are other Christians worshipping is especially encouraging and impactful.

Lloyd Mackey: What kinds of developments do you anticipate for missions/missional activities in the light of postmodernity and changing relations with other world religions?

Dwayne Buhler: It goes without saying that the world of missions is changing. I see a number of important developments:

1. The growing missionary movements in the developing world call for new forms of partnerships; partnerships that are not just based on sending money, which is too often a guilt-based way of supporting missions. We still need to find new ways to work together as equals.
2. There is the phenomenon — ‘boomerang missions’ — where immigrants return to their homeland. They alone are the reason why Canada continues to maintain the number of missionaries it sends out.
3. At the same time there is a resurgence of interest in missions, especially in younger millenniums. Here is a generation that wants to change the world. They’ll do things differently than you or I do them, as they are not tied to denominations or organizations. We often hear of a generation that is either ‘falling away’ or giving up on their faith. But there are many who want to live out their faith in authentic, purpose-filled, missional lives. For that reason I see many new organizations springing up – smaller agencies that have a holistic focus, less bureaucracy and a heart for authentic expressions of Christianity. It’s also why there is an incredible need for seasoned leaders to play a mentoring role – enabling and championing them.
4. That’s not good news for the bigger, older and traditional missions agencies who are feeling the effects of an aging demographic of supporters and retirement of their missionaries on the field. But if North American organizations don’t adapt to these changes, they will shrivel up and die. That’s why it is so important to reach the next generation – either you morph, or mortify!

Posted by permission from ChurchForVancouver.ca

On Thursday, February 6, CanadianChristianity reporter Lloyd Mackey attended the annual Mel Smith Lecture at Trinity Western University. This year’s lecture was delivered by D. Martyn Brown, who was a long-time chief of staff and public policy advisor to former British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell. In that role, Brown helped to shape many of the Aboriginal policies that were being implemented during the Campbell years.

Much of Brown’s lecture centered around the Eyford Report, released late last year. Entitled ‘Forging Partnerships, Building Relationships: Aboriginal Canadians and Energy Development,’ the report was written by Vancouver lawyer Doug Eyford and emphasized some partnership-building policies and strategies for the federal government and First Nations leadership to consider going forward, particularly with respect to energy issues. Eyford had been appointed as a special envoy by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in early 2013. The text of Brown’s lecture will appear soon on Trinity Western’s Mel Smith Lectures page.

His lecture was given just hours before the joint announcement by Harper and Assembly of First Nations  grand chief Shawn Atleo regarding a major funding initiative and shift to First Nations control of Aboriginal education. For that reason, Mackey elicited comment from Brown on the significance of the announcement, in the context of Aboriginal relations with both provincial and federal governments.

Given that many of our readers look at public policy through a faith-based filter, Brown notes that he is “not a member of, a proponent of, or affiliated with any specific church, organized religion, or religious institution.” As such, he adds, his remarks are “not intended as an endorsement or a comment upon any faith or religion”.

By D. Martyn Brown

The recent (February 7) announcement regarding the First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act (FNEA) was fantastic. It certainly deserves much more media coverage and public attention, as it is a hugely important and historic initiative that is a tremendous credit to the Harper government and to the pragmatic, solutions-oriented leadership of Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Shawn Atleo.

It will build on the vision that Atleo also helped to drive in British Columbia as the then-regional AFN chief on the First Nations Leadership Council. As such, he was a signatory to the 2005 Transformative Change Accord (TFA).

That agreement, aimed at closing the socioeconomic gaps, has profoundly improved Aboriginal education content, control, reporting and outcomes in BC. Since then, there have been substantial increases in Aboriginal graduation rates and significant improvements in FSA reading/writing/numeracy results and in Required Examinations results in virtually every indicator category. Six-year completion results are up from 46 to 60 percent over the last decade, for example. And according to provincial education ministry sources, the absolute numbers of Aboriginal students who graduated with a Dogwood last year is up 72 per cent over 2002/03.

We now know that it serves student achievement to ensure that Aboriginal education is more sensitive, responsive and tailored to Aboriginal young people’s unique cultures, needs and learning challenges. Giving Aboriginal communities more direct control over their education delivery systems is a key part of that, as it is for improved health and other social services delivery systems.

As I mentioned in my Mel Smith Lecture, much progress has been made in those areas since 2005, especially in BC – ongoing  challenges and inadequacies notwithstanding – as the provincial Child and Youth Rep has so aptly related in respect of child protection issues.

Further to the TFA, for example, 53 BC schools districts now have Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements (with four draft EAs and three more in planning). That means almost all of BC’s 60 school districts have successfully engaged their Aboriginal communities/stakeholders/partners in reshaping their K-12 education systems to better serve kids’ needs through partnership agreements that are jointly developed and supported by school districts as well as Aboriginal organizations and educators.

That same type of improvement in quality education delivery and outcomes should flow from this new FNEA in giving on-reserve First Nations the direct control over education that they have long sought.

It will provide laudable legislative requirements for better transparency and accountability; for a core curriculum that meets or exceeds provincial standards; for new language and culture content; for minimum attendance requirements; for teacher certification; and for recognized diplomas or certificates that should improve students’ off-reserve education recognition and transferability.

It will contribute to the broader imperative of ‘healing,’ which the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples said so much about and that is now being advanced by Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (That latter is another initiative that the Harper government deserves great credit for initiating and accommodating through its recent time and funding extensions to complete the Commission’s work.)

The new FNEA will get rid of the Indian Act provisions related to residential schools, which is a very important symbolic healing measure. And the new Act will be led by a Joint Council of Education Professionals that will provide advice and support on the implementation and oversight of the new Act, supported by a massive new funding commitment.

It should be noted that the $1.9 billion in additional funding for this overall initiative is more than the extra $1.8 billion education component that had been earmarked for Aboriginal education improvements in the 2005 so-called Kelowna Accord, which I mentioned in my lecture remarks. [Editor’s note: The Kelowna Accord was led by Liberal then-Prime Minister Paul Martin.]

It is too bad that the Harper government rejected that commitment in 2006 (as then-Premier Campbell so eloquently noted in the provincial legislature at the time) and that it took eight more years to get to this point; but better late than never.

The extra $1.2 billion in core funding for this initiative is over three years – whereas, as I recall, the Kelowna Accord funding was proposed to extend for five years. The 4.5 per cent annual funding escalator is almost triple the current inflation rate and should accommodate any increases in cost pressures from rising on-reserve student enrollment levels. As well, there is a $500 million, seven-year commitment for infrastructure enhancements, which is really good, and $160 million over four years for implementation, beginning next year.

In short, it’s a tonne of new money for on-reserve Aboriginal education that should dispel any notion that the Harper government is short-changing First Nations education.

All of those improvements should go a long way, also, to serving Aboriginal students in advancing their education beyond high school.This initiative will substantially improve Aboriginal students’ foundational education, skills and credentials, which will in turn support their post-secondary opportunities and outcomes via college/university and new employment training programs, including through those now being developed and supported by industries, governments and First Nations that are part of the broader resource development vision that Eyford addressed in his report.

No doubt, National Chief Atleo will get lots of blow back from some First Nations and Aboriginal politicos who might think that he’s too conciliatory, cooperative or ‘timid.’ And that’s a shame, for it is mostly through the good leadership and more constructive approaches of people like Shawn Atleo, Phil Fontaine and Ovide Mercredi that First Nations, Metis and Inuit have been so successful in advancing Aboriginal partnerships with governments across the country.

In the case of Prime Minister Harper, there’s no doubt that his meetings with Aboriginal leaders in the last two years have paid off in spades, at least on this component of government-to-government relationships. The ‘new relationship’ in education bodes well for fed-FN relations generally. But like I said during the lecture, the imminent decisions ahead for resource development will be critical in either helping to advance the broader goal of reconciliation, or in setting it back decades, if not irrevocably.

It is such a tough and challenging file. Yet these educational reforms suggest that the way to the future lies in thinking outside the box, in putting new ideas, concrete funding and shared decision-making on the table, and in developing new governance structures and permanent opportunities for meaningful and ongoing dialogue that anticipates a will by all parties to listen, learn and compromise.

Used by permission of ChurchforVancouver.ca

[Although this comment was written just before the Supreme Court’s landmark prostitution decision today, it expresses well why Parliament must reform Canada’s prostitution laws.]

We’re now less than 24 hours before the Supreme Court of Canada is set to release its ruling in the Bedford prostitution case Friday morning. Those who have been involved in the case know well what is at stake. But I remain concerned that much of society has yet to look honestly and critically at the real issues of prostitution in Canada.

The Bedford case is a challenge to three of the key laws that inhibit prostitution in Canada, which would otherwise be completely legal. One of the laws whose fate we await is the Criminal Code provision that makes it a criminal offence to live on the avails of prostitution, or the pimping law.

This provision was struck down at the Ontario Superior Court, then rewritten at the Ontario Court of Appeal so that it would “only apply in circumstances of exploitation.” It has been argued before the Supreme Court and in the media by pro-prostitution groups that this provision prevents women in prostitution from hiring bodyguards, drivers or even bookkeepers, thereby making their ‘work’ less safe.

It’s a charming chapter in a fairy tale version of prostitution, in which the men involved in the prostitution industry are benevolent fellows whose interests lie in assisting and protecting prostituted women. But the thing about fairy tales is when you look a little deeper you often find something darker and more ominous.

‘Attention all bitches…’

Through the network of individuals and organizations I work alongside to bring change to Canada’s prostitution laws, I was alerted to a mass text communication that had been issued by several well known pimps in southwestern Ontario.

The text begins, “Attention All Bad Bitches/Working Girls/Escorts/Strippers… Exile Season Starts December 15!”

The exile season warning is directed at all women known to be prostituting in the Greater Toronto Area, and possibly even more widespread, whether on the streets, in massage parlours, escort services or in strip clubs. Intended to intimidate and threaten, it is a less than subtle directive that failure to ‘choose’ a pimp to work with on a ‘100 percent basis’ would result in those women no longer being permitted to work, period.

The text makes it clear that enforcers – whose nicknames aren’t fit for print – are ready and willing to deal with non-compliers. The message is unambiguous: working independently, anywhere, will not be tolerated; and those who don’t play by the rules will face consequences.

I was sickened by what I read. I’m told this type of communication is just part of ‘the game,’ and must be taken seriously. These men are not drivers or bodyguards. They are dangerous individuals, exercising a perverse sense of power and entitlement, and bent on maintaining control.

A decade of experience with legalization in countries like the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand tells us that legalization does not wrestle this power from the hands of these men. Rather, it creates a more competitive environment for them, encouraging them to up the ante. Women, as this communication detailed, are forced to either leave the game or respect its origin, as the text says, “built and designed for gentlemen to eat.” Gentlemen, indeed.

Criminalize the purchase of sex

This is just part of what’s at stake in Friday’s decision. And it’s why, regardless of how the Supreme Court of Canada rules, it is essential that Parliament reform our prostitution laws

Last week the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) submitted Out of Business: Prostitution in Canada – Putting an end to Demand to the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Justice and Public Safety before sending it to all parliamentarians.

It is a comprehensive report outlining the model of law and public policy on prostitution that we, along with other faith, feminist, women’s and First Nations organizations and a growing number of police associations, believe to be the most effective, most just approach to addressing prostitution.

Ultimately, our goal is the elimination of all forms of sexual exploitation in Canada. This Canadian proposal, based on the approach pioneered in Sweden, recognizes prostitution as violence toward women, exploitation and contrary to equality between the sexes.

It proposes criminalizing the purchase and attempt to purchase sex for the first time in our country, while decriminalizing the people who are being sold for someone else’s pleasure. And it suggests a Canadian way of providing supports and services to facilitate exit from prostitution.

In studies of women in prostitution, 90 percent have expressed they would get out of prostitution if they could. If prostituted women weren’t worried about facing charges, vile communications like the one I describe could be reported to the police, and the police would take action.

In Ottawa, the Supreme Court and Parliament stand in each other’s shadows. Let’s hope both will take the steps necessary to put an end to this modern day sex slavery. [The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down all three provisions of Canada’s prostitution laws led the EFC to ‘urge government to act.’]

Julia Beazley is Policy Analyst, Canadian and International Poverty, with Activate CFPL, which is the law and public policy blog (where this comment first appeared) of the EFC’s Centre for Faith and Public Life. She has been with the EFC since 1999, and works on issues of domestic and global poverty, homelessness and human trafficking. She also serves as the Chair of Advocacy for StreetLevel: The National Roundtable on Poverty & Homelessness.