I have a mixed reaction to this article in The Vancouver Sun regarding the influence of US evangelicals on the Canadian scene.

It’s mostly true.

Scholars and pollsters who track the links between conservatives in the two countries say the American religious right has gained more clout in Canada in recent years, particularly by bolstering right-wing elements in the Conservative party.

Big-name American Christian conservatives are warning the faithful that what is happening in Canada could soon infect the United States.

“The U.S. religious right certainly sees Canada as a place where liberalism runs amok,” says Bruce Foster, head of the political science department at Calgary’s Mount Royal College.

“And they’re saying if Canada is going to hell in a moral handbasket, it will happen in the U.S. It’s the slippery-slope argument,” says Foster, whose PhD explored the link between U.S. and Canadian religious groups.

Roger Robins, a political scientist at Marymount College in California, says the numerous American evangelicals trying to sway the Canadian scene want to remain below the public’s radar.

I’d argue this is not only happening in Canada. Australia the UK, New Zealand and non-english speaking countries are experiencing the politicalization of their evangelicals along a Republican/US evangelical model.

“U.S. evangelicals have helped create a Republican Christianity in Canada,” says Dart, who teaches at the University College of the Fraser Valley, a campus that he says is frequently visited by U.S. conservative Christian groups.

Giant global evangelical organizations such as Focus on the Family, Dart says, draw in millions of people by offering advice on how to raise children and warning about the dangers of homosexuality. “Then, before you know it,” Dart says, “you’re into Republicanism and U.S. nationalism and imperialism.”

To be fair, Dart and other scholars emphasize that Canadian liberals and homosexual-rights activists also work with allies in the U.S., who can also show signs of their own ideology.

But the religion scholars say the size, wealth and sophistication of the U.S. Christian right gives it unprecedented influence north of the border (not to mention around the world, particularly in Africa and Latin America).

Right off the top of my head political examples would be Family First in Australia and Destiny in New Zealand. Canadians do perceive the Progressive Conservative Party as now being influenced by right wing former Alliance members.

The article looks at Canada’s shift to the right, and the polarization of single issue politics. I do agree the persecution/culture war/victim mentality has been imported to be used for political gain. And I think we were ripe for it with many Canadians well prepared to swallow the philosphy and theology, hook, line and sinker.

What’s the overarching religious difference between Americans and Canadians?

Most Canadians, including evangelicals, don’t feel comfortable thinking of themselves, as many Americans do, as blessed citizens of God’s chosen nation.

I think that many evangelical sectors in Canada have embraced negative politics as strongly as their US counterparts. How effective that will be remains to be seen. The sheer economic clout can’t be negated.

I found this article interesting because it enforces what one sees in the god-blog sphere. It’s not news to those of us that interact online, I think it articulates the unease and unawareness felt by both churched and unchurched Canadians.

Evangelicalism has been a quiet and potent force in Canadian society, doing a great deal in grass roots addressing of social issues.
Now that politics are being seen as a means to an end is at best a reality, albeit a confusing, noisy and increasingly influential one at times.