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Monday, February 27, 2012

Coming Soon

Coming soon to a country near you. Maybe even your own.

How long did you think it would take? Well, probably a lot longer than this. I mean, there is no homosexual agenda, right? It's a lie, a myth, a fable, foisted off on people by homophobic rightwingers trying to raise the alarm on something that simply doesn't exist. So, how could this happen?

According to Donna McColl, the spokesperson for Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, "Under Alberta’s new Education Act, homeschoolers and faith-based schools will not be permitted to teach that homosexual acts are sinful as part of their academic program." Welcome to the new regime in Alberta, Canada.

"You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life," she said, "you just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction."

Welcome to the fringes of genuine control, the start of the thought police. Education of all sorts will be required not merely to educate, but to require "honour and respect" of diverse beliefs. Interestingly, this would necessarily preclude honoring and respecting the beliefs of those who hold that homosexual acts are sinful. And that is the rub, isn't it? Someone is deciding "This diversity is good and that is not."

I personally know of no one who advocates the outlawing of homosexual acts. I've heard many Christians (genuine Christians) agree with the Bible that it's sin, but I have yet to hear of one in recent years who sought to make it illegal. I call that "respect". I call that "tolerance". "We believe it is sin. We don't approve. Please feel free to do so; just don't expect us to honor your activity." On the other hand, that position is called "homophobic", "hate", and now a violation of law.

Most disturbing, perhaps, is the fact that this will reach into the homeschooling realm. While they assure homeschooling families that they can surely teach what they wish during "family time", it is not really possible to distinguish "teaching time" from "family time" in a homeschoolers environment. Beyond that, Christian homeschoolers often use the Bible in teaching. The Bible isn't limited to "honouring and respecting diversity". That means that 1) families will no longer be able to teach their children their values and 2) the government will be coming into the home to find out what you're saying.

"Oh, such overreacting," some are saying. "That's Alberta, not America." Yes, perhaps, we are not quite there yet. But given the number of voices urging "marriage equity" (defined as "steal marriage from its original definition and then give it to another group but only that group that we deem worthy") and the number of people that classify simply holding a biblical view of homosexual behavior as offensive, hateful, and homophobic, how long do you think it will be before it comes knocking at our door? We're the international leaders, aren't we? We can't let Quebec and Alberta get ahead of us! Let's get more repressive. We're already going to demand that those who are opposed to contraceptives on religious grounds be unable to have the freedom to practice their religious views. Why stop there? Let's get out and be really invasive and oppressive to religious beliefs. After all, the sooner we can throw off this whole "God" thing, we can eliminate a whole lot of pesky "God-given rights". Think how nice that will be!

(Only obliquely related, I found this political cartoon way too close to home.)

2 comments:

starflyer said...

I think it is a lot closer even than you are suggesting. I thought a recent comment posted by one of your faithful readers might be appropriate here:

"...many of the churches I attended growing up - all mainstream Baptist, Nazarene, Methodist, etc churches. Demonizing terminology and ideas have been expressed in sermons that I have personally heard and read. At least in Kentucky, it's not enough to politely note that Christians disagree with gay behavior, but love gay folk, there must be mentions of the "gay agenda" or conflations of gay folk and pedophiles or bestiality. It happens all the time in mainstream churches with which I'm familiar.

Are you saying you are unfamiliar with such demonizing talk? Google it, man, it's all over the place, and not just at Westboro.

I know, I've seen/heard/spoke it firsthand."

David said...

Not exactly sure how you could distinguish between faith studies and academic studies clearly and consistently. That is just ridiculous.