A Newfoundland homosexual group filed a hate crimes complaint under the Criminal Code with the police last week after a local magazine published an opinion piece urging Christians to promote the Scriptural teachings on the sinfulness of homosexuality, abortion, and other acts against a secularist establishment.
The Newfoundland Herald published the piece by US columnist and constitutional lawyer Matt Barber as a letter to the editor in its August 3-9 issue.
Western Pride NL activist Kyle Curley, who filed the complaint, alleged in an interview with CBC that the piece was “a rallying call for people to stand against LGBT rights” and “hate propaganda.”
However, he dropped the complaint this week after the magazine’s managing editor apologized for causing offense.
“Many beautiful, wise, wonderful and caring people were hurt and angered by Barber's letter, and the fact that it was published in the Herald. And for that, I'm truly sorry,” Pam Pardy-Ghent wrote in the current issue of the weekly. However, she added, “If we refuse to publish letters that may be controversial, or letters that do not line up with our own beliefs, then I believe there's a problem.”
“Opinions, no matter how unpopular or controversial, can be freely expressed in this country whether they are from a minority, or a majority,” she wrote.
Titled 'The Coming Christian Revolt' and originally published last month at his Barbwire.com blog, Barber’s piece called on Christians to courageously defend and promote, even to the point of civil disobedience and martyrdom, the sinfulness of homosexuality, abortion, adultery, promiscuity, incest, and other acts condemned in Scripture.
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“As many in the early church refused to bow a knee to Caesar in worship, so, too, will many modern Christians refuse, under any circumstances, to obey any law that presumes to make sin obligatory,” he wrote. “If the ancient church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was able to face the lions in hopeful anticipation of joining Jesus, then we, too, under the same Spirit, will face anything today’s pagan left can threaten.”
Explaining the decision to drop the complaint, Curlew told CBC, “We decided we want to take an educational stance towards these issues and not a stance of retribution. We think it's wonderful that they did come out and apologize.”
Barber commented on the incident in a Barbwire.com article Monday. “Ms. Pardy-Ghent, free speech may well be important to you, but it’s now verboten in Canada (and is fast becoming that way here in the U.S.). Though we may or may not agree on the issues, I nonetheless admire and respect your courage, apparent appreciation for open discourse and clear disdain for censorship.”
“The left is a walking paradox. It is irony personified,” he wrote. “While liberals’ complete lack of self-awareness, self-righteous snobbery, aloof emotionalism and obtuse circular reasoning make them an easy target for ridicule, these things quickly move from curious to dangerous when they control the reins of government.”