Rise of militant secularism

A few weeks ago, Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s highest court, noted that “secularism has become militant.” He conveyed that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church would come under persecution just by “announcing her own teaching” which would be considered “engaging in illegal activity.”

In Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the US Bishops he stated, “No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society.”

I concur. Political, social and religious militancy has been on the rise for years. Few believe that a significant and bloody clash of values and agendas is not already occurring. The stage for determining what Canadian culture will morph into is in process right now.

Any thinking person would be concerned about the clear and present danger associated with the breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life. We seem to be surrounded by cynicism towards any staple value and authority. Our national ship is morally adrift, and the wind that blows the fiercest will eventually take us where it wants.

Right now that wind appears to be radical and militant secularism. Secularism’s roots are found in the ancient philosophy of Epicurus, the Enlightenment thinking of Voltaire and Paine, and find their way into our culture through agnostics and atheists like Bertrand Russell. Their highest value was the separation of government and religious values and beliefs. As modernists, they fiercely resist being impeded by religious or moralist thinking.

One case that illustrates that militancy is the Toronto District School Board’s policy of forbidding exemptions from the board’s radical pro-homosexual curriculum. Any parent who removes their child from class because they believe it promotes sexual behaviour contrary to their religious convictions would be penalized. Their child would be marked absent and “questions would be raised.”

At what point does questioning the primary rights of the parents in the raising of their children become intimidation and persecution on the basis of faith? Yes, we live in a multi-cultural environment and one where the human right of every citizen needs to be guarded and protected, but what about protecting the rights of a parent to remove their child from watching homosexuals engaged in simulated sex acts?

What about PayPal freezing the assets of a pro-life and pro-family activist because his agenda crossed purposes to a homosexualist organization? What about the full court press on legalizing euthanasia, which has less to do with pulling the plug on someone kept alive artificially and more to do with lethal injections? What about pro-life leaders being arrested just for praying on a public sidewalk?

Are public transit authorities allowed to be selective or censor expressive rights to private advertising on publicly owned property? Are our Canadian universities not subject to upholding student’s Charter freedoms (Sec 2.b) that stipulates that everyone has the “fundamental freedoms [of] thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication?”

Victor Hugo said, “You can resist an army but you can't resist an idea whose time has come." A clash of the titans is coming. Either secularism will rise and reign supreme in Canada or we are going to see the revival of religion. Canada will be profoundly affected by our choice. Rest assured: our freedom to be is hanging in the balance.