Gay Rights Activists to Go After Canadian Churches Who Don't Perform Same-Sex Marriages

The Battle is On

June 13, 2005

By Glenn Penner

Finally, a supporter of Bill C-38 with the honesty to speak clearly about his agenda! With supporters of the bill persistently denying that the proposed legislation will have any impact on religious chartable organizations that refuse to perform same-sex "marriages," at last one of them has come out and, in effect, said, "You betcha we're going after such groups."

Kevin Bourassa, a Toronto gay rights activist was quoted by the National Post on June 13 as saying that he will pursue eliminating the charitable status of churches that refuse to perform same-sex marriages. He said, ''If you are at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers' money, you should be following taxpayers' laws. And that means adhering to the Charter." He was further quoted as saying, ''We have no problem with the Catholic Church or any other faith group promoting bigotry. We have a problem with the Canadian government funding that bigotry.''

Isn’t it amazing how sincere religious beliefs are labelled as "bigotry" when they differ from the homosexual activist agenda? Or how all who disagree with them are frequently accused of being mentally ill (i.e. labelled as being "homophobic"). In other words, if you, on sincere religious grounds based on scriptural teaching and theological beliefs dating back for almost 2000 years, believe that homosexual practice is morally wrong and that marriage is the union of one man and one woman at the exclusion of all others, then you must be a mentally deranged person who is guilty of spreading hate crimes. I would like to urge Mr Bourassa and others like him in at least being consistent in insisting that all pro-gay charitable groups lose their charitable status if they propagate the impression that all those who believe in traditional family values are mentally ill hate-mongers (as implied by the words, "bigotry" and "homophobic"). We can’t have the Canadian taxpayer funding such obvious bigotry against an identifiable group, can we?

I have been amazed and thankful for the restraint shown by my fellow Christians in this debate. Rarely have I seen derogatory terms such as "sodomites" or "perverts" used to disparage those who support this bill. I don’t recall anyone calling homosexuals "mentally ill", even though a number of countries still have legislation on the books to that effect and it wasn't that many years ago that the mental health associations in Canada and the United States labelled homosexuality as a mental illness. Indeed, spokespersons for those who contest this legislation have typically been exemplary in their moderation and respect for their opponents.

However, no such restraint has been shown by supporters of this bill. And now it is clear that they will not be satisfied until they have punished the churches who have opposed them by having their taxable charity status revoked, regardless of what amendments are made to the bill. It emphasizes the devastating impact on the rights of churches that Bill C-38 will likely have. This is simply bad legislation that needs to be defeated.

I have repeatedly said that I believe that the frontline for the battle for religious liberty here in Canada will be over the church's right to call homosexuality "sin." It appears that the battle is on.

(Glenn Penner is the Communications Director for The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada)

Go to his blog.