The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Canadian Election 2

Interesting comment from the blog I linked…

“As someone who has served in the pastorate north of the border, you have a better read on the validity of your statement that Canadian secularism “has had little impact on my daily life” on your pastoral work.

However, I’d encourage you to look at the situation with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Canada and the legal and ecclesiastical disruptions caused by the question of how to deal with COVID restrictions. The details are messy, and for that reason I don’t want to try to summarize them here. There are two sides to every story.

What can be said is that situation would not have happened in almost any US state, and the few states where it might have happened are well known as the farthest-left states in the US, and the courts have generally rebuked state and county governments that tried to do such things. What is correctly regarded as being extreme in the US appears to be becoming increasingly common north of the border — and it most emphatically IS affecting churches and denominations.

I’m well aware that the problems of government intrusion into ecclesiastical life are as bad, or sometimes much worse, in Britain and the Continent, let alone many non-Western countries. What’s important is that most Americans understand the difference between the US and Europe when it comes to legal matters. Many Americans wrongly think that the Canadians are just colder versions of US states, with a sprinkling of “ehs” and an accent. That’s simply not the case. Canada is a different country with different rules, and failing to understand that is problematic.”