WAGNER: In defence of Canadian Christian nationalism

These days, the term 'Christian nationalism' is commonly bantered about in discussions of American politics. Many conservative Christians in the US openly supported Donald Trump during his presidency and actively support his current campaign for that office.Democrats and much of the mainstream media try to portray such Christian support for Trump as dangerous. They point to the presence of conservative Christians in the January 6 2021 Washington, DC riot that they falsely claim was an “insurrection.”Such dangerous people are derided as “Christian nationalists” who are mixing religion and politics and thus pose a threat to the ruling political establishment and its progressive policies.Although there is apparently no agreed-upon definition of Christian nationalism, certain key themes are unmistakable: the belief that the United States was originally a Christian nation and the notion Christian principles should influence government policies.But such views — that a country was originally Christian and that Christianity should influence government — are actually not unique to the US. These claims could be made about Canada as well.Indeed, during debate in the House of Commons in 1877, none other than Sir John A. Macdonald himself referred to Canada as “a Christian country.”In 1906, Parliament passed the Lord’s Day Act to reflect the fourth commandment of Christianity’s Ten Commandments. That law remained in force until 1985.Christianity permeated public education in Canada for several decades. For example, during much of the twentieth century, Ontario’s public schools held religious exercises (Bible reading and prayer) and also taught some Christian religious content. The regulations mandating those features were in place until the late 1980s.Also note Canada had an explicitly Christian definition of marriage — that is, a definition that took its inspiration from “Christendom” — until 2003. It was formally changed by Parliament in 2005.Not coincidentally, each of those public manifestations of Christianity were eliminated by court decisions based on Pierre Trudeau’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Trudeau’s Charter has been a central component in the erasure of Christianity’s public presence in Canada.Historically, though, Canada was unmistakably a Christian country. Those who acknowledge that fact and who think restoring Christian influence in Canada’s public square would be a good thing could qualify as “Christian nationalists.”From a conservative Christian perspective, the loss of public Christian influence in Canada has had negative consequences because Christians are now being marginalized.In 2017, conservative Christian organizations were denied funding from the Canada Summer Jobs program because of their refusal to “attest” that they support abortion and same-sex marriage. In other words, it was these organizations’ Christian beliefs that prevented them from benefiting from the program.The precedent set here was that the federal government could deny benefits to organizations simply because their Christian beliefs conflict with progressive ideology.In 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Law Society of British Columbia — acting as an agent of the provincial government — could legitimately discriminate against Trinity Western University (TWU) simply because its code of conduct required students to abide by traditional Christian morality (i.e., sex only within a heterosexual marriage.)The Supreme Court said the law society’s refusal to approve TWU’s proposed law school was justified because it prevented “harms to (sexual minority) people and to the public in general.”So, according to Canada’s highest court, allowing a law school to require students to live according to Christian morality would result in “harms” to the Canadian public.This, of course, is complete and utter nonsense. TWU had been operating for decades with a Christian code of conduct and “the public in general” was not harmed in any way.The TWU ruling is especially egregious because it set a precedent in Canadian constitutional law that governments can openly discriminate against conservative Christians.Indeed, when the TWU decision was released, Gerald Butts, a top adviser to Justin Trudeau at the time, posted a link to the decision on Twitter with the tag “#CanadaSummerJobs.” He obviously considered the ruling to provide a legal basis for his own government’s blatant discrimination against Christian organizations.In Alberta, a number of private Christian schools were on the cusp of losing their funding and accreditation in 2019, if not for the election of Jason Kenney’s UCP government in April that year. Rachel Notley’s NDP government wanted to punish those schools because they would not adopt policies approving of the (sexual minority) lifestyle.Once again, a government was cracking down on Christian organizations simply because of their historic Christian beliefs. Jason Kenney deserves full credit for saving these schools from a nasty fate.What it all shows is that with the loss of public Christian influence, Canadian society is moving in the direction of making conservative Christians into second-class citizens and imposing progressive ideology upon them. This trend will continue and may accelerate unless a countervailing force arises.Christian nationalists in the US are motivated in part by their concern over the shrinking religious liberty in their country and conservative Christians in Canada should be concerned about the same development here.An active Christian nationalist movement in Canada could — and should — push back against the aggressive government-backed progressive ideology that threatens our historic liberties.

WAGNER: In defence of Canadian Christian nationalism

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