Introduction and Background
With the recent enactment of Bill C-9, a provision protecting the expression of religious beliefs from criminal hate-speech charges was removed. More specifically, they have removed what is called the “good faith religious expression defense.” Through this Act, the Government of Canada has chosen to uphold a new sort of blasphemy law, not a law that guards against those who would blaspheme God, but a law that guards against blasphemy toward our culture’s ideology.
In the face of this Act, we as the church are called by God to uphold biblical definitions of hate and love in opposition to those of our current government. This saddens us, for there is nothing we desire more than to honour the leaders that the Lord has given to us. We wholeheartedly pray and work for the good of this country, but our civil leaders have chosen not only to accept false definitions of love and hate; moreover, they have removed any protection from churches who disagree with the government’s definition of love and hate. We, however, must stand for the righteousness of Christ, and we must continue to preach the entirety of God’s Word.
It should be observed that there is little that a Christian would object to in the Canadian Hate Propaganda laws in themselves, paragraphs 318 and 319 of section VIII of the Criminal Code (though we may object to the idea that hate propaganda laws are necessary or helpful in the first place). We do not advocate violence against any of the groups listed or for conditions that would bring about the physical destruction of these groups. However, our main objections are two-fold:
- To the place of this law within the matrix of Canadian law, the way in which it is interpreted through the lens of Canadian attitudes about equality that are untethered from the defining nature of God who has revealed himself as love in the Christian Scriptures. Though we cite Canada’s hate propaganda laws in our objections, we recognize that they are part of a broader matrix of laws we reject. These include the Criminal Code’s hate propaganda provisions themselves (sections 318 and 319, now stripped of the religious-opinion defense by Bill C-9); the human rights codes of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories, which prohibit speech merely “likely to expose” a person to hatred – a far lower bar than the criminal standard, tried before a tribunal rather than a court, and requiring no proof of intent; and the repeated attempts, most recently in the failed Bill C-63, to revive a federal human-rights complaint mechanism for hate speech of the kind Parliament abolished in 2013.
- To the formative nature of this law, as it forms the hearts and minds of Canadians through the institutions of Canada, teaching Canadians that there is nothing worse than objecting to another person’s self-expression; that correspondingly, there is nothing higher than a person’s self-expression; and that blasphemy against a person’s choices, no matter how self-destructive, is worse than blasphemy against the love of the God, who created heaven and earth, who formed us, and offers us salvation in the person of his Son.
We write this to offer an alternative to the current laws of love and hate. In doing so, we rely on the transcendent Word that has been given to us in Jesus Christ, the eternal foundation on which our great nation was founded, and far better than the arbitrary definitions of love and hate that ground the hate speech laws in the Criminal Code.
We offer defiance to this law not in our own name, for in ourselves we would only tremble before our civil authorities, men who are God’s ministers to bear the sword for His sake. But we boldly offer it in the name of Jesus Christ, who is established on His throne at the right hand of God, by whom we must defy this law. For here, the Government of Canada, with the Provinces, rather than defending the righteous, has chosen a course that may well expose the church to prosecution for teaching God’s love. We will choose the path of Christ’s love, not the false love of the Government of Canada.
In the church’s teaching, God’s love does not leave us in sin and darkness; it is meant to transform us so that we may turn from our sins and misery and come to God. The protection the Government of Canada offers for various identifiable groups may well leave them in their sin and misery so that they are never confronted by the gospel, and so never have an opportunity for true happiness.
To better explain ourselves, we ought to walk through the identifiable groups that the criminal law purports to protect from hatred, and so demonstrate how God’s love, as revealed in Scripture, contrasts with Canadian Legislation.
Even now, there is a lot of overlap between the two, as the Canadian legislation is historically rooted in a Christian conscience; but it is a conscience that has been untethered from the love of God that is supposed to form it. In the very act of establishing its own definition of hate propaganda, the Government of Canada has usurped the place of Christ’s Church in forming the conscience of the Canadian people.
The Dividing Line
For simplicity, we will group various identities together due to the overlap between a Christian understanding of hate and love and the Government of Canada’s understanding of them.
There will be similarities in the language of the hate propaganda laws to a Biblical understanding of the love we owe toward colour, race, and national or ethnic origin. For the Christian, any person who trusts in Jesus Christ for their salvation is a child of God, and a brother or sister in Christ regardless of race or ethnicity. We believe that we have an obligation as Christians to work toward unity with brothers and sisters in Christ. While there are many difficulties toward unity: varieties in doctrine and practice among ethnic churches, ungodly prejudices, and real or perceived wrongs in the past that create obstacles toward this unity, we still feel obligated to pursue it because of the unifying work of the Holy Spirit within us (John 17:21-22).
We reject any teaching that any colour, race, or ethnicity is inherently inferior to any other (Acts 17:26; Col. 3:11). We hold that the image of God is equally present in all mankind, and this becomes even more true when those of other ethnicities are brothers and sisters in Christ.
We do not believe that cultures are equal. A culture that honours tyranny instead of the rule of law is an inferior culture. Cultures shaped by false religion often suppress and undermine the righteousness that builds up a nation (Prov. 14:4). All cultures need to be continually formed and transformed by the Word of God, even those that have been shaped by that Word for a long time.
There are also similarities between the language of the hate propaganda laws and biblically grounded love toward age, sex, or mental or physical disability. We would honour those who have been crowned with old age (Prov. 17:6; 20:29). While we hold that God created men and women with unique characteristics that provide a unique perspective in the callings with which God has called them, we uphold the call to honour both men and women as they fulfill those roles (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 11:11-12; Eph. 5:22-29; Col. 3:18-25). Similarly, those with mental or physical disabilities. We seek to treat these with the same honour and respect that is due to all people, on the basis that they bear the image of God.
Where we disagree with the Government of Canada and the Provinces is in our willingness to accept the differences with which God has created men and women. We do not treat them as interchangeable, as the Government of Canada would like to.
We firmly oppose the way in which the Government of Canada protects and enables the last three identity groups named: religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.
We believe that Christ is the only way to the Father, that Christianity is the only true and pure religion, and that other religions ultimately serve demons (Lev. 17:7; 2 Chron. 11:15; 1 Cor. 10:20; 1 Tim. 1:4). As the church of Jesus Christ, however, we do not seek to physically destroy the members of other religions. Rather, we seek to persuade with the truth of the gospel so that they may be rescued from their sin. On the other hand, the Government of Canada and the Provincial Governments, insofar as they protect other religions from hearing the proclamation of the gospel by threat of criminal prosecution, or through legislating chaplaincies, show hatred toward these religions in that they allow them to continue in darkness.
The Government of Canada and its Provinces have an obligation to uphold the Christian religion for the sake of its citizens.
We believe that certain sexual acts (we do not accept the framing of “sexual orientation”) are offensive to God. These include homosexual and lesbian acts. God made man as male and female and intends for sexual acts to happen between one man and one woman exclusively, within the covenant of marriage, until the death of one party brings separation (Gen. 2:24; Rom. 7:2-3; 1 Cor. 7:2-4). As the church, we do not seek to physically destroy those who participate in these acts, but we do want all those who are slaves to wicked desires and who desire to participate in perverse acts to repent from those sins and crucify them on the cross of Christ. We want them to find joy in Christ! And they cannot do so while they pursue their evil desires. Again, the Government of Canada and the Provincial Governments show hatred toward these groups insofar as they protect them from the proclamation of the gospel, and insofar as they encourage them in their sin and misery through celebrating their desires.
We believe that the government’s definition and administration of marriage ought to reflect marriage as God created it — the exclusive union of one man and one woman — and that laws or policies which formalize other arrangements as equivalent mock that design. Therefore, we oppose same-sex marriage.
We believe it is not the place of government to sponsor, fund, or publicly celebrate events that promote sexual practices contrary to God’s design, that is, events that celebrate perversions, and that doing so encourages people to remain in patterns of life that keep them from the gospel.
We believe it is good for government to place limits on the public promotion of sexual content and conduct, to protect the populace — particularly children — and to direct public life toward a healthy vision of sexuality.
Finally, regarding gender identity and expression, we believe that a biological male who chooses to identify as a female or a biological female who chooses to identify as a male is offensive to God (Deut. 22:5). We believe that presuming to choose a gender that denies one’s natural sex is an act of rebellion against God. Again, we do not want to destroy these people; we want to see them saved. We want to proclaim the opportunity to put away their sinful desires and choices and find true freedom and identity in God. Meanwhile, the Government of Canada and the Provinces act out of hatred toward them by enabling and celebrating their enslavement.
We believe that government policy which disregards biological sex in the allocation of spaces reserved for one sex — such as changing rooms, shelters, prisons, and sports — fails to protect the safety and dignity of those the space is meant for, regardless of whether it is males or females who are displaced.
We also wholeheartedly oppose medical interventions for those who claim to be transgender, and we certainly believe that no minor ought to be allowed to undergo any such medical interventions. Further, no taxpayer money ought to be directed to any of these medical interventions. Neither should the government provide any support to men or women who are willing to participate in these medical interventions.
Our commitment
Therefore, in the name of Christ, we the undersigned, reject the Government of Canada’s hate legislation, and bind ourselves to the principles of love we have laid out above.
