Rise of militant secularism

A few weeks ago, Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s highest court, noted that “secularism has become militant.” He conveyed that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church would come under persecution just by “announcing her own teaching” which would be considered “engaging in illegal activity.”

In Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the US Bishops he stated, “No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society.”

I concur. Political, social and religious militancy has been on the rise for years. Few believe that a significant and bloody clash of values and agendas is not already occurring. The stage for determining what Canadian culture will morph into is in process right now.

Any thinking person would be concerned about the clear and present danger associated with the breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life. We seem to be surrounded by cynicism towards any staple value and authority. Our national ship is morally adrift, and the wind that blows the fiercest will eventually take us where it wants.

Right now that wind appears to be radical and militant secularism. Secularism’s roots are found in the ancient philosophy of Epicurus, the Enlightenment thinking of Voltaire and Paine, and find their way into our culture through agnostics and atheists like Bertrand Russell. Their highest value was the separation of government and religious values and beliefs. As modernists, they fiercely resist being impeded by religious or moralist thinking.

Conservatism

By nature, education, and political persuasion, I have always been a big “C” Conservative (Con). Wikipedia tells us that Conservatives carry an historic commonality. They “believe that government has a role in encouraging or enforcing what they consider traditional values or behaviours.”

That designation suits me just fine. It is one of the reasons I write this column. I sincerely believe that the nation runs best, and its people are served best, when character and principles dominate leadership’s decision making over polls and pundits. Legislation happens, but what makes legislation good is not good intentions but strong, moral foundations.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the future of Conservatism in Canada. According to Queen’s University political-science scholar James Farney, social conservatives (so-cons) “have become a spent political force in Canadian national politics” – that is, they have become irrelevant, indistinguishable, positioned on the outside looking in, and sidelined by a past morality. Link Byfield, a so-con himself, stated, “We’re now just seen as eccentric.”

There is truth to this. Conservative positions are not stamped in cement. They are much more fluid than they used to be. What used to exist, a broad and widely accepted traditional and Biblically based morality, is no more. I am constantly surprised by the scope of beliefs and values that so-called Conservatism embraces these days.

Maternity Leave for Abortionists

Every expectant mother is extremely grateful for policies instituted by our Canadian government to allow them to take leave from work with pay so that they can attend to the critical upbringing of their baby. When they see pictures of women carrying babies on their backs while working in the fields, they can only say that they are blessed to be living in Canada.

However, I am concerned about apparent duplicity in our legal system, laws grafted in that appear to fly under the public radar. I thought maternity benefits were targeted towards mothers who brought their baby into the world and were committed to caring for them. Apparently not!

Canada’s employment insurance guidelines reveal that a woman who aborts her child after 19 weeks gestation is eligible to receive 17 weeks of maternity leave, the same as a mother who gives birth. For an abortion occurring before 19 weeks gestation, the woman can collect sick leave for the same length of time. You can read it for yourself at our government site: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/labour/ipg/017.shtml.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation first identified this anomaly in federal policy in 2008. John Williamson, CTF’s executive director, alluding back to the Maternity Benefits Act of 1961, stated that the purpose behind the Act was to “allow parents bonding time with their newborn child.” This begs a critical question: “Why are Canadian tax payers paying maternity benefits to a mother who has aborted her child and will never experience bonding time?”