A group of Christian leaders in Canada are furious because they believe the government (and everyone else) is persecuting them:

The group, including Charles McVety, president of the Institute for Canadian Values, pointed to a number of recent events they said equate to an attack on the Christian faith and impinge on Christians’ ability to practice their faith.

Well… this should be interesting.

What are their examples?

A refusal by three provincial bar associations to accredit any potential law school graduate of Trinity Western University, which prohibits sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage among its students.

I’ve written about this before. In general, I don’t think the students should be punished for attending an anti-gay school because they’ll ultimately have to practice (and follow) secular law. If they can show they understand that law, I don’t see why their religious beliefs matter unless they’re discriminating against their clients, which is a completely different issue.

In any case, this isn’t an attack on Christians. It’s about whether a school that discriminates against LGBT students should be given accreditation.

A commitment by the general counsel of 72 companies to promote diversity and inclusion.

I can’t believe this is on the list.

These Christians are seriously complaining about companies committing to not discriminate against the LGBT community. Their faith requires them to hate the sinner and the sin.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario requiring that doctors with religious objections to birth control or abortion refer those patients to another physician.

You’ve got to be shitting me.

In the U.S., we’ve had these controversies where, say, a young woman goes to a pharmacy to get a birth control pill… and the pharmacist says no. Because Jesus.

It ought to be unacceptable for pharmacists to impose their personal religious beliefs on patients — but the usual workaround has been that those pharmacists could just recommend you to another qualified colleague — or a nearby pharmacy that’ll give the patients what they need. It’s a waste of time and could jeopardize the patients’ health in some cases. But again: Jesus > People Right In Front Of You.

In Canada, these Christians think it’s an imposition on them to even make a recommendation to someone else:

“The obligation to provide an ‘effective referral’ for a procedure or pharmaceuticals to which the physician objects on moral or religious grounds is, for some physicians, unconscionable,” the applicants say in the statement of claim.

I’m a Christian pharmacist, dammit! How dare any of you suggest I do my job properly?!

That’s their argument. That’s the “attack” on Christians. The notion that they should do the job they were hired to do.

To summarize: Christians are complaining about how they’re under attack… because they’re not allowed to treat everyone else like shit.

They’re mad because the rest of us are intolerant of their intolerance.

All together now:

Someone let me know when they have a legitimate gripe.

(Top image via quinet on Flickr. Thanks to Cecil for the link)



