Gay Marriage Galvanizes Canada's Religious Right

[Daniel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/wo...rtner=homepage

The religious right in Canada- where I legally married my husband (so nice to be able to say that- and I look forward to the day when it will be realized here in my home state- NY- and the rest of the USA) is making a push to roll back gay marriage. I doubt, however, that they will be successful.

Reports that the sky is falling are erroneous.

OTTAWA — It was a lonely time here in the capital for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the early days of the gay marriage debate in 2003.


Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press
Charles McVety, who leads several evangelical groups, said, “With the legalization of gay marriage, faith has been violated and we’ve been forced to respond.”
Of the scattered conservative Christian groups opposed to extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, it was the only one with a full-time office in Ottawa to lobby politicians. “We were the only ones here,” said Janet Epp Buckingham, who was the group’s public policy director then.

But that was before the legislation passed in 2005 allowing gay marriage in Canada. And before the election early this year of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative and an evangelical Christian who frequently caps his speeches with “God bless Canada.”

Today across the country, the gay marriage issue and Mr. Harper’s election have galvanized conservative Christian groups to enter politics like never before.

The best part....

But the experience of Canada’s abortion debate in the 1980s and early 90s looms ominously over optimism that the movement can be broadened beyond gay marriage.

At the time, evangelical leaders formed groups, raised money and drew significant support in an effort to establish stiff laws against abortion. In 1989, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced legislation banning abortions in cases where the health of the mother was not at risk but the bill failed in the Senate and never became law.

Soon after, the evangelical political movement disbanded, remaining relatively dormant until the gay marriage issue arose.

“When the abortion legislation died everyone just went home and all the momentum was lost,” said Joseph C. Ben-Ami, executive director of the conservative Institute for Canadian Values, which opened an office in Ottawa last year to team up with Mr. McVety’s organizations in Toronto. “I do worry something like that could happen with what we’re seeing now.”

You may worry Mr. McVety, but the light of our love will not be extinguished.

Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear.