A little faith

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2012 (5035 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EARLY this year, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will establish an Office of Religious Freedom as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

That’s the result of a pledge made during the last election. At the time, it seemed to be one of those throw-away promises that political parties make when they are courting particular constituencies. There are some Canadians who think it should remain just that. Put the words “conservative” and “religious” together and you are likely to set bells ringing in Canada. Add the word “Harper,” and you’ve got a three-alarm political fire, but in this case, it is likely a false one. At least one should hope it is and it will be if the government stays true to its stated intentions.

Religion and politics don’t mix very well, but they are inseparable in that the political must protect the religious. The Office of Religious Freedom was put forward as a means to monitor religious freedom around the world, to give Canadian foreign policy a clearer focus on freedom of religion and to espouse that cause abroad as we supposedly espouse it at home.

Those are good goals to pursue, even if it is not entirely clear how we will pursue them.

The United States has a similar policy, but as one critic claims, it does not amount to much more than issuing memos to malignant foreign governments.

It is hard to see how Canada’s policy will differ from that — we are not about to go to war to protect the rights of members of the Falun Gong in China, even if we should.

We can, however, protect their rights in Canada. And, by making this statement, Canadians take a stand for religious freedom here and abroad that sets us apart from those who would trample it.