Blogs

Pro-life, pro-family Canadians are having a particularly tough time right now. At the federal government level they have a “Conservative” Prime Minister who continues to be unreasonably determined to shut down all debate in Parliament that might in any way bring up the abortion or other similarly contentious social issues.

Harper’s support is starting to decline as even his die-hard social conservative supporters are losing hope that this PM will drop his intransigence and his suppression of caucus members who dare to be true to their consciences and to God. The nation could be in danger of a deadly political swing to the hard left in reaction to growing distaste for Harper’s autocratic governing style.

At the Ontario provincial level, the Bill 13 attempt to impose gay straight alliances on all schools is wearing on principled citizens, especially in new ethnic communities, where the great importance of traditional moral principles is understood. They can’t believe things have been allowed to go this far and that this “Catholic” raised and schooled premier, after doing so much damage on many moral issues fronts, is still being treated with kid gloves by the province’s Catholic bishops.

I have rarely seen such a depth of discouragement in my nearly 30 years of work on life and family issues. The parents, grandparents and others are still in a fighting mood, but the dismay is increasing as their religious leaders appear to be doing all they can to delay and avoid uncomfortable, but clearly necessary actions that the parents groups have been begging them to undertake for almost three years. Notice that at yesterday’s Dundas Square protest there was only one Catholic clergyman in attendance – retired Toronto bishop Pearce Lacey.

The parents long ago saw that Bill 13 was not really about “bullying” and is instead a dangerous, undemocratic attempt to fast track normalization of homosexuality and to destroy the influence of religion in Ontario schools and had to be vigorously fought. And yet, they have been greeted with disbelief, ridicule and criticism from their religious leaders for having that on-the-ground, real world view of the situation.

History has repeatedly taught that yes, there really are tyrants, small and large, who do evil, who callously manipulate and lie and cannot be trusted or reasoned with – and whom you can only negotiate with using strength, numbers and moral authority (only bishops and other religious leaders, not laymen, can wield that authority).

However, with the natural leaders not even willing to admit that there is a battle going on, the seasoned, faithful regular troops are severely handicapped from winning the battle they know cannot be avoided. That means it is only going to be a lot tougher than it needed to be had strong action been taken sooner.

But then again, I guess we have to try to accept that there is some higher plan and purpose to it all beyond the plans and understanding of faulty men.