The intersection of faith and government sparked an intense and nuanced dialogue among prominent speakers at a conference panel in Calgary.The discussion took place Saturday at We Unify's fourth annual Reclaiming Canada Conference. Moderator Clyde Nichols opened the panel, saying, "In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a lot of us have seen our faith rejuvenated.”Dr. Charles Hoffe highlighted the power of faith in overcoming societal challenges. "The solution to not being captured by fear is faith, because faith destroys fear." Hoffe later emphasized the importance of separating church and state, asserting that "It is never the role of the government to tell us whether or not we can worship."Journalist Lara Logan defended the Christian foundations of American liberty. "The United States of America was founded on the covenant with men, not with other men, but with God," she declared. Drawing from her international reporting experiences, Logan argued that the unique freedoms enjoyed in Western societies are rooted in Christian principles. "Your freedom to worship any way you want is based on a Christian principle," she insisted, warning against completely divorcing current societal values from their historical foundations.Matt Alexander shared his experience of being fired from his teaching position for refusing to celebrate sexual minority ideology. "When we remove God from our documents and from our daily life, the vacuum is filled by Marxist ideologies," he argued. Alexander emphasized that when engaging as a Christian, he wasn't seeking to impose his beliefs, but wanted to preserve the right to express them."I present my testimony, and they can make the choice,” Alexander said.Queen’s University Law Professor Bruce Pardy acknowledged the Christian origins of Western liberties, but stressed the importance of preventing state enforcement of religious values."Freedom means your actions are voluntary, and the state is not directing you," he argued. "You should promote, teach, and acknowledge where these values come from," he suggested, "none of that should involve the state."Rod Giltaca, CEO and Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights weighed in. "Even if I'm looking at it just as a pragmatist, Christianity is still the best system of values to make our society work," he observed. Giltaca highlighted the importance of recognizing the potential vacuum created by removing foundational principles: "If you have an absence of something, it's going to be filled with something else."Hoffe said, "Truth exists outside of us," adding, "It is the ground beneath your feet, the sky above your head." He referenced the biblical interaction between Christ and Pontius Pilate, noting the profound nature of the question "What is truth?"Logan emphasized the importance of recognizing historical foundations, including Christian roots. "If our children are born and they never know what those values are, and they don't fight to preserve them, how does our freedom survive?"Pardy cautioned against the dangers of enforcing specific religious values, while still acknowledging their historical significance. "There is something dark," he suggested, "in the conviction that everyone must live like you."Logan quipped that Pardy was dark and insisted he had misunderstood her argument.Despite the disagreements, a common thread emerged: the critical importance of understanding the principles that underpin individual liberty."We need to be careful that the discussion doesn't become so philosophical and ethereal that we're afraid of having the word 'God' involved in our founding documents and daily life,” Alexander insisted.Rod Giltaca concluded, "Even for people like me, when I look at Christianity as a faith, it's still the best system to make our society work and perhaps restore it to what it was before."
