So It Begins

The above quote comes from the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It is spoken by King Theoden just before the orcs attack him at Helm’s Deep.

In a similar way, we are facing the beginning of an onslaught in Canada. It started in Alberta, and, if it is successful in Alberta, will spread to the rest of Canada. Below is the text of the news story:

Canadian province demands faith-based schools purge religious content from policies

 Alberta, Alberta Education, Curtis Clark, David Eggen, Education, Family, Independent Schools, Justice Centre For Constitutional Freedoms, Marriage, Religious Discrimination, Religious Freedom, School Act

CALGARY, September 27, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Alberta’s deputy education minister Curtis Clark is threatening the funding and accreditation of independent schools in the province if they don’t scrub a broad range of religious content from their policies, according to a correspondence obtained by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

The correspondences identify examples of language from several schools’ “Safe and Caring” policies, which allegedly conflict with various provisions of the School Act, as well as “disrespect” diversity by “suggest[ing] alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate,” and contain “provisions which we consider unwelcoming, uncaring, and/or disrespectful to certain segments of the student body.”

Examples of objectionable language include:

• the declaration that “men and women were created in the image of God, after His likeness, and therefore have transcendent, intrinsic worth”;
• the stated goal of “develop[ing] godly attitudes toward marriage and the family”;
• reference to “the unchangeable and infallible truth of the Word of God”;
• affirmation that men and women are “equal in dignity and worth” but have “distinct and complementary roles”;
• statements that student clubs must align with “the values, principles, mission and vision of the school”:
• the declaration that “Obedience to God’s law supersedes subjection to human authority”; and more.

Any offending schools that fail to remove the cited language from their policies may face investigation, “funding implications,” or the suspension or cancellation of accreditation,” Clark wrote in an August 27 email.

These demands were sent to schools who had submitted their policies to Education Minister David Eggen in March 2016 and had not received any feedback from Alberta Education until September 2018, the JCCF notes, “well after the start of the 2018-19 school year.”

“By demanding that independent schools remove religious content from their safe-and-caring policies, David Eggen is attacking the welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment that these schools have in place,” attorney and JCCF president John Carpay said. “In the name of ‘diversity’ David Eggen is attacking the constitutional right to have thoughts, opinions and beliefs different than his own.”

Carpay questioned how “respectful” it is to ask independent schools to “repudiate their teaching that every woman and every man has transcendent, intrinsic worth, as created in the image of God,” and noted that religious affirmation of students’ intrinsic worth has implications for the common educational goal of fighting bullying.

“This is a naked and aggressive attack against the Charter rights and freedoms of every citizen, and designed to intimidate schools which are now asserting their Charter rights in court,” Carpay concluded. “These bullying tactics are what you would expect in a repressive third-world dictatorship, not in a functioning democracy that respects the rule of law.”

Most of the 61 targeted schools “already have carefully crafted safe-school policies that protect all students equally, and do so in harmony with their cultural and religious traditions,” Ed Hoogerdyk of Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada added in the Lethbridge Herald. “This diversity is, apparently, intolerable for the procrustean education minister, who insists that all policies be worded as he wants, despite the lack of evidence that uniformity is needed.”

“The philosophical hypocrisy is obvious, and the clash of worldviews likely inevitable,” David MacKenzie of the Evangelical Office of the Public Square (EOPS) said in response to the news. “It seems increasingly apparent that authentic and conscientious Christians must now prepare for resistance, and civil disobedience.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/alberta-official-demands-independent-schools-purge-religious-references-val

This situation was commented on by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms:

Alberta Government demands that independent schools renounce their religious policies

Posted on Sep 27, 2018 in Justice Update, Latest Updates, News Releases

The Justice Centre has released correspondencesent to independent schools by Curtis Clark, Alberta’s Deputy Minister of Education, threatening schools with defunding if they do not remove the following content from their “Safe and Caring” school policies:

• “We believe men and women were created in the image of God, after His likeness, and therefore have transcendent, intrinsic worth.” (allegedly violates School Act because this is “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful”)
• As part of the school’s Personal and Social Value Commitments: “To develop godly attitudes toward marriage and the family along with the understanding and skills needed to establish a God-honouring home.” (allegedly violates School Act for being “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful”)
• “…parents have been given the responsibility to raise their children, and are the primary educators of their children.  Therefore, the school will involve parents as appropriate and necessary regarding their children’s participation in school student groups in accordance with the usual practices of notification.” (allegedly violates the School Act)
• “the unchangeable and infallible truth of the Word of God” (allegedly violates School Act requirement that “diversity” must be “respected”)
• “Upon receipt of a request for a club or activity, the principal shall determine whether the requested club or activities would create a safe, caring, welcoming and respectful environment and is consistent with the vision and mission of the school.” (allegedly violates School Act for being “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful”)
• “God created mankind as male and female, equal in dignity and worth, yet with distinct and complementary roles” (allegedly contrary to School Act requirement for “welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment”)
• “Proposals for student clubs and activities will be evaluated according to their promotion of the values, principles, mission and vision of the school” (allegedly contrary to the School Act)
• “God’s institution of marriage, a covenant relationship between one man and one woman, is the sole environment within which sexual activity is permitted, and is the context in which children are to be raised.” (allegedly violates School Act requirement for “welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment”)
• “Obedience to God’s law supersedes subjection to human authority” (allegedly contrary to the School Act)
• “… the above doctrines will be taught as truth in our school.” (allegedly violates School Act by disrespecting “diversity”)
• “All school groups, clubs and activities must teach, demonstrate and embrace the biblical perspective that is the foundation for all school activities” (allegedly violates the School Act)
• “Names of student groups will be in harmony with the teachings of Scripture and the values and faith perspective of the school community” (allegedly violates the School Act)
• “The school’s teachers and staff need not teach ethics or religious doctrines that are contrary to the school community’s faith/value commitments in a way that portrays them as equally credible or worthy of belief.” (allegedly violates School Actrequirement to respect “diversity”)
• “As appropriate, if a parent or student believes the faith and/or value commitment of the School and the parent’s or student’s faith and/or values are incompatible, and continuing to enroll the student in the School is not in the best interest of the student, then the School shall assist the parent or student to enroll in another school for the subsequent school year.” (allegedly contrary to the School Act as unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful)
• As a requirement on a form for setting up a student organization: “Please explain how the formation of this club will help the school better achieve its mission and vision.” (allegedly violates School Act for being unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful)

Alberta Education states that failure to remove the above content from a school’s “Safe and Caring” policies “may result in funding implications … and the suspension or cancellation of accreditation.”

Schools in receipt of these demands and threats from Alberta Education, along with all schools in Alberta, had submitted their policies to David Eggen in March of 2016.  Since March of 2016, in the past 2½ years, schools have not received a response from David Eggen as to whether he considered their policies to follow the School Act.

It was not until the week of September 4, 2018, that some schools finally received specific feedback about their policies from the Alberta Government, well after the start of the 2018-19 school year.

“By demanding that independent schools remove religious content from their safe-and-caring policies, David Eggen is attacking the welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment that these schools have in place,” stated lawyer John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre.

The Justice Centre represents parents and dozens of schools in a constitutional challenge to the Bill 24 secrecy provisions, which require withholding information from parents about their own children as young as five years old.

“In the name of ‘diversity’ David Eggen is attacking the constitutional right to have thoughts, opinions and beliefs different than his own,” continued Carpay.

“The government is requiring schools to repudiate their teaching that every woman and every man has transcendent, intrinsic worth, as created in the image of God.  How is this respectful?  How is forcing schools to conform to the state’s beliefs welcoming, or caring?” continued Carpay.

“The government insists that a school’s core values, such as the intrinsic worth of every person, play no role in its anti-bullying policies.  In this way, the government insists on a lack of integrity, because schools can no longer allow their foundational beliefs to permeate all aspects of school policies and practices,” continued Carpay.

“This is a naked and aggressive attack against the Charter rights and freedoms of every citizen, and designed to intimidate schools which are now asserting their Charter rights in court.  These bullying tactics are what you would expect in a repressive third-world dictatorship, not in a functioning democracy that respects the rule of law,” concluded Carpay.

https://www.jccf.ca/alberta-government-demands-that-independent-schools-renounce-their-religious-policies/

Seeing that this may be the battle that we have to fight soon here in Saskatchewan, there are a few principles we need to remember:

1. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
2. Ephesians 6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
3. Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
4. 1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
5. Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint; But happy is the one who keeps the law.

Let us pray for the Christian schools (and Christian families) in Alberta:

1. That they might stand strong
2. That they would stay faithful
3. That they support one another
4. That they would seek to honour God in all they do and say
5. That the government would back off.

 

The latest article is as follows:

Alberta’s Attack on Truth in Education, And the Church’s Response

October 1, 2018  | Jeff Jones

Share

Alberta’s Attack on Truth in Education, And the Church’s Response

SHARE

Current Events

Last week, Albertans learned that their provincial Ministry of Education has demanded that Christian schools remove biblically-based language from their policies governing how they will create “safe and caring” environments. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms not only posted an article summarizing the government’s demands, but released copies of the correspondence sent by Alberta government officials to the schools—complete with colour-coded highlighting specifying how each statement fell afoul of Alberta Education policy.

The Alberta Government’s Objections to Basic Christian Beliefs

Even a cursory “skim” of the released correspondence is profoundly alarming. Four times, Alberta government bureaucrats highlighted the word “truth” and not its surrounding context, using a yellow colour that (in Alberta Education’s own words) means they “contain language which suggests alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate, which is disrespectful of diversity and thus inconsistent with” the School Act.

For example, in one case, in the sentence “the educational philosophy of [the school] is based upon a God-centered view of man and truth as presented in the Bible,” only the words “and truth” are highlighted. In another case, in the sentence, “we are committed to promoting the truth of Scripture,” only the words “truth of” are highlighted. Besides the four times where the idea of “truth” was isolated and highlighted, one school’s stated belief in “the unchangeable and infallible truth” of God’s Word was similarly highlighted. Another school’s rather common-sense observation that “ensuring that all viewpoints are regarded as equally credible or worthy of belief would require a degree of disconnect from, and suppression of, the School’s own religious and/or value perspective that is incompatible with the school community’s freedom of religion” was also marked in yellow.

Besides these, educational officials used an orange highlighter (denoting “provisions which we consider unwelcoming, uncaring, and/or disrespectful to certain segments of the school body….and need to be removed from your Safe and Caring policy”) to mark out language such as: the Biblical distinction “between men and women”; the statement that “we believe that men and women were created by God in His own image (Gen. 1:27; Genesis 9:6)”—yes, the prooftexts are in the original document, and yes, even they were marked orange!; the statement that “We believe that men and women were created in the image of God, after his likeness, and therefore have transcendent, inherent worth (Gen. 1:27); and, of course, the assertion that “The unjustified destruction of any human being from conception to natural death (e.g., through abortion, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, doctor-assisted suicide, etc.) is wrong.”

So, in short, Alberta’s ministry of education views even the mention of “truth,” and certainly “unchangeable and infallible truth,” to be “disrespectful of diversity” and wants to prohibit it. And Alberta government bureaucrats are demanding that Christian schools remove any mention of God’s creation of man and woman in his image—and even the idea that they have transcendent and inherent worth on that account—from their documents, even though this doctrine constitutes the very foundation of the Christian idea of the sanctity and value of human life.

Secular Irrationality And Hypocrisy on Display

Two observations simply have to be made at this point. Before I make them, though, I need to highlight one crucial fact as background: the officials making these demands are responsible for the oversight of basic K-12 education in Alberta. The government department arguing that these statements are unacceptable is the very same department which ensures Alberta’s children are given the intellectual tools necessary to live in the real world. Let that sink in for a moment, and then consider the two glaring problems with Alberta Education’s demands.

First, Alberta Education’s requirements of these Christian schools are incoherent, irrational, illogical, and self-refuting. They object to the mere mention of “truth” by a religious institution as “suggest[ing] alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate”—well, yes, that’s exactly what “truth” means! Of course a religious institution is going to advance one viewpoint over and against others by arguing alternatives are not equally legitimate! But the problem is far deeper than just a (still, frankly, inexcusable) misunderstanding of the nature of religion.

After all, even Alberta Education’s assertion that, for instance, certain “language…is disrespectful of diversity” is itself a truth claim! Remember: these are schools, educational institutions, that are being told they aren’t allowed to suggest that all “alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate.” Think about that for a minute. How is education possible without showing students how one viewpoint is more legitimate than others? Is the opinion that 2 + 2 = 5 now to be privileged equally with 2 + 2 = 4? Will an Alberta science teacher no longer be allowed to teach that the earth is round and not flat?

To be blunt, if “suggest[ing] alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate” is a violation of the School Act, then education is now illegal in the province of Alberta.

Second, and what makes it even worse, Alberta Education’s demands of these schools is hypocritical and amounts to a case of special pleading. It’s rather revealing (of either the corporate culture in the Education ministry, or of the quality of education valued among its staff) that the individual who, while marking up these documents’ confession of “truth” and religious convictions as being allegedly “disrespectful of diversity” or “unwelcome [and] uncaring,” failed to realize how disrespectful of ideological and religious diversity these letters are. How is it anything but disrespectful for a government agency, which is supposed to represent and respect all Albertans, to tell a religious school what Bible verses they are allowed to cite as prooftexts?

It certainly looks as if the only people in Alberta who are permitted to be in any way intolerant of other perspectives are members and staffers of the Alberta government itself.

The Sinful Root of Irrationality in Secular Culture

Taken together, these letters illustrate the depths of the cultural—and more than that, theological—crisis that has captured Canadian society. Our educational elites have abandoned logic and reason in favour of the shifting sands of political correctness. Why? Because, like everyone else, they are sinners. Paul describes in chilling language one of the most profound effects of rejecting the Triune God: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking” (Rom. 1:21). I can’t think of a better illustration of “futile thinking” than telling a school that it must not suggest any viewpoint is illegitimate!

The secular and materialistic worldview that pervades Canadian culture as a whole and, evidently, Alberta education in particular, is a sobering example of sinners who, “claiming to be wise, they became fools” (v. 22). By rejecting the God of truth (Isa. 65:16) and his specially revealed Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), they have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25).

What we are seeing in this action by Alberta Education is the pitiful folly of sinful human beings trying to live in light of that lie rather than the truth. Without submitting to the God who “cannot deny himself,” and lacking in their materialistic worldview any foundation for immaterial and universal realities like, for instance, the law of non-contradiction, Canadian culture simply cannot avoid such irrationality.

Respond with Compassion And the Gospel, Not Pride or Vitriolic Outrage

It would be very easy for Christian believers to recognize this folly and be tempted to pride. No, we need to remind ourselves of the truth the Apostle Paul declared: “And such were some of you” (1 Cor. 6:11). What do we have—rationally and intellectually as well as in every other way—that we have not been given (1 Cor. 4:7)? The proper response to this flagrant display of sinful irrationality, then, must be grief and pity and compassion.

Politicians and bureaucrats are not faceless enemies, but fellow image-bearers of God (however offensive they may declare this truth to be!) who are desperately in need of new hearts and new minds. When we consider them, we, like Jesus, need to be filled with compassion on them because they are “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34) who, because they are “straying like sheep,” need nothing more than to return to “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:25). They need the Gospel.

How, then, are we to respond? Consider that if you are planning to write to your MLA or to the Minister or Premier, your attitude should be that which we just described (grief and pity and compassion) rather than outrage. Yes, it is an outrage. But God promises that “vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Heb. 10:30). We don’t need to imitate the vitriolic politics of the world.

Instead, if you speak or write, or if you’re talking to unbelieving friends and neighbours, explain how self-contradictory and destructive to education and reason this government policy is—and then point them instead to the only “alternative viewpoint” which is ultimately and truly “legitimate” and invite them to love the God of Truth with all of their heart and soul and (yes!) mind (Matt. 22:37). Think of your letter-writing as evangelism!

The Ultimate Answer: Strive to Build Up the Church

As for Christians in Alberta and across Canada who recognize that logic and reason are rapidly fleeing our educational institutions, we cannot panic or despair. If we are not to trust in princes (Ps. 146:3) in the realm of legislation or jurisprudence, we shouldn’t put our trust there in the area of education, either. Rather, our most long-lasting and ultimately effective answer is to “strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12) by proclaiming the Gospel and persisting in our disciple-making and disciple-teaching mission. It is the responsibility of parents to raise children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4); it is the responsibility of churches to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19); it is the responsibility of pastors to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12).

A Bible-preaching church, and every Christian family committed to membership in it, has everything necessary, in the complete and sufficient Word of God and the watchful undershepherds and godly parents who teach it, to prepare both children and adults to be “complete” and “equipped” (2 Tim. 3:17)—such that, “honor[ing] God in your hearts as holy” they are “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15).

Parents, teach your children to be “acquainted with the sacred writings” (2 Tim. 3:15), for as they learn to interpret the Bible, they’re also learning to interpret a newspaper or college syllabus or assigned textbook. Churches, teach all ages how to “reason together” as God has commanded (Isa. 1:18), and you’ll equip them with the tools they need for life in both the church and in the world. Just as one example, I’m planning on discussing this very situation with our church’s young people this week as an exercise in critical reading and listening.

Jesus has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church (Matt. 16:18), and one reason why is that “his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). That is a truth we can stand on.

Jeff Jones serves as Executive Pastor at Calvary Grace Church of Calgary. A graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary, Jeff has worked as a hotel manager, charity program coordinator, and a corporate chaplain, and he and his wife Erin currently live in Cochrane, Alberta, with their six children.

https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/albertas-attack-truth-education-churchs-response/

 

 

• Spiritual