I'm converting religions. I'm now officially a secularist.
Ok, so that's not actually a religion...but you get the idea. 
In my canon, I worship the fundamental rights of the individual. My beatitudes include protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority. My holy texts include the Charter of Rights and hate crimes legislation. I believe church is what you do on your own time, and has no place in the governing of a pluralistic, multicultural country. My temple is the House of Commons, a name that has always given me an historic thrill -- it speaks of egalitarianism, co-operation, and mutual gain.
What brought this on? Well, it's been coming for some considerable time. When you teach world history, every year you are forced to realize that most of the evils in this world have been committed in the name of religion. Pogroms, inquisitions, burning of witches, crusades, holocausts...all for the sake of power, hiding behind the shield of sanctimonious beliefs that religious hierarchies themselves do not respect.
Another factor is the realization that, while Canada is becoming more and more a society that tries to be a model of the compassion and secularism, the United States is becoming more and more religious. Rick Salutin's article in today's Globe and Mail provides a sobering commentary on this fact, and shares some interesting statistics:
--46% of Americans call themselves Born-Again Christians; only 12% of Canadians indentify themselves this way
--15% believe events in the middle east (eg. Israel) will lead to the Rapture, then the Apocalypse...and that such people possibly comprise up to 33% of Republicans
What I don't understand is why no one in the Administration can see that they are trying to turn their nation into a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Look at the evidence...
--funding is being pulled from social agencies that do not share the administration's pro-life/pro-religion agenda...spelling disaster for sex-education and birth control programs that educate and help thousands of people
--laws are being enacted to try and invalidate the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade court decision that granted the legal right to an abortion
--more and more states are passing acts to make same sex marriage illegal, and the possibiliy of a constitutional ammendment to enshrine this continues to move forward...the only time an administration has ever used the constitutional process to TAKE AWAY the rights and freedoms of individuals in society
--the rise of right wing, religious-influenced talk shows, news programs, publications, and commentators (such as scummy FOX News)...all of which are gaining in popularity
--the zeal which people are gobbling up radically-religious entertainment, be it the Left Behind series of books about the Apocalypse, or the recent release of The Passion of the Christ, which now sits at #7 on the list of all time top-grossing films
When I read Rick Salutin's article, one passage in particular caught my attention. Having just been interviewed by that zealous guardian of right-wing thought Bill O'Reilly, he says the following:
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"We sparred and it was only when he repeated the term that I realized that in the United States, the main political divide now runs between Christian fundamentalism and secularists. I said I was grateful for this insight: that the US may be the only nation that defines politics in such religious terms. Since the Taliban, anyway, muttered a friend."
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I'm not comparing the U.S. Administration to the Taliban...yet. But let's face facts...George W. Bush and his supporters have dragged the country far down the road that leads to such a society....where faith is enough, where patriarchy is paramount, and where all things are done in the name of God. Whenever Bush says "God bless America", I wince....because the man actually believes that the Lord Jesus is smiling his benevolent sunshine on his policies...and then, in the next breath, says he is on a crusade against evil. This is a man twisted by fundamentalist religion -- a man for whom there is only a black and white view of the world, and a man ignorant of history.
And that's the whole point, isn't it? Canada, and few other countries, have learned the hard way what terrors come in the name of religion and fighting for God. We now have a society composed of people who would be fueding with each other in any other part of the world...yet they live here in peace and harmony, because in this society, extremist & fundamentalist religious beliefs are frowned upon. They only cause division, heartache, chaos and destruction. In Canada, these things are anathema...which is why the Alliance-dominated Conservative party hasn't a hope in hell of forming a government in this country in my lifetime. They look at the United States and see nothing but nirvana. Most Canadians look at the United States with furrowed brows and faces clouded with worry.
A student of mine recently came back from the Southern U.S., completely enamoured with the culture...and then he told me about the Chapel (complete with church services) that exists in the Dollywood theme park in Tennessee. That simply repulses me...indoctrinating Christianity at a theme park? Can you even imagine that occurring in Canada? The park would be laughed out of business.
So I'm now a full-blown, 100% secularist, and I live in a society that breeds this secularism. The other night, the movie version of Left Behind finally had a television broadcast in Canada...on SPACE, the science fiction channel! After I stopped laughing, I realized that this pretty much summed up the Canadian P.O.V. on this issue
