EDMONTON—A pastor named as the United Conservative Party’s new Calgary-Mountain View candidate has come under fire for saying women should “submit” to their husbands.

The comments were made in a recent sermon attributed to Jeremy Wong, a minister with the Calgary Chinese Alliance Church, in a clip posted online by the NDP on Friday.

“Wives, respect your husbands. Submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives,” the pastor said in the clip.

The UCP named Wong on Thursday as the replacement for Caylan Ford in the Alberta election race. Critics have also raised concerns about Wong’s ties to Journey Canada, which is alleged to offer conversion therapy for members of the LGBTQ community.

Ford resigned after Facebook messages surfaced this week in which she promoted racist white supremacist talking points, saying, among other things, that she is “somewhat saddened by the demographic replacement of white peoples in their homelands.”

UCP spokesperson Matt Solberg defended Wong on Friday, saying in an email: “It should come as no surprise that a pastor quoted the Bible (Ephesians 5) while delivering a sermon.”

The full Bible verse Solberg referenced reads: “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Pam Rocker, a gay Christian activist based in Calgary, called Wong’s comments “troubling.”

“I think that verse in particular has been used against women in really harmful ways, in terms of justifying abuse and not being able to get a divorce because you should be doing what your husband says. I think it’s really dangerous,” she said.

“When you look at Scriptures, there are Scriptures that seem to advocate for women not to even speak in church, for slavery, for all children in a village being killed. As a person of faith, you have to look at any sacred text in any religion with a huge amount of education and discernment.”

Rocker said Wong’s interpretation of the Scripture seems to reinforce heterosexism and assumptions that genders are not equal, and that men and women have to behave in certain ways.

“All of that translates into, when you are making laws, who do you prioritize? And that’s the thing that I would be concerned about,” she said.

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Wong also has ties to Journey Canada — formerly called Living Waters — a Protestant Christian organization that runs programs for LGBTQ youth promoting “sexual healing,” “reaching sexual wholeness,” and “repairing sexual brokenness.”

Some who have attended Journey’s programs say they are on par with conversion therapy, a controversial pseudo-scientific practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay or bisexual to heterosexual.

Wong is quoted in a 2013 report from the group, and Journey’s annual reports list the Calgary Chinese Alliance Church as a partnering organization.

Wong said in an email statement to Star Edmonton that he is not formally affiliated with Journey, but has attended some of its events in the past.

“In particular, I attended some spiritual support groups for adults that provide a safe and accepting place for people to share together,” Wong wrote.

“To be clear, I do not and would not support conversion therapy in any form, nor would I participate in such an activity in any way. I believe that all must be respected and treated with dignity, and that coercion has no place in our society.”

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Rocker said while Journey and its proponents don’t use the term conversion therapy, in part because they teach LGBTQ attendees to refrain from acting on their sexual urges rather than changing their sexuality, she considers it a type of conversion therapy.

“I don’t know how (Wong) could be involved in Journey Canada and not be involved in conversion therapy, because that’s what they do,” she said.

Calgary-Mountain View is a contentious riding. Alberta Liberal Party Leader David Khan, the NDP’s Kathleen Ganley, and Alberta Party candidate and former broadcaster Angela Kokott are all vying for the same seat as Wong.

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