Canadian Baptists respond to Dr. Frank Page

A few days ago I picked up on a comment by the President of The Southern Baptist Convention regarding Canadian ministers and human rights tribunals.
His comment was made within a larger speech to the American Family Association about bias in liberal media.

…Page, who completes his two-year service as top elected leader of the nation’s second-largest faith group in June, described the prospect of a future Supreme Court ruling that gay marriage is legal in all 50 states as “a frightening thought.”

“Just look to Canada,” Page said. “Already in Canada, if you are as a pastor, you speak against homosexuality, you can be jailed. And I’ve told my people in my church, ‘You just have to come visit me in jail, because they may be where we’re headed.’ I’m just saying life is going to change if that happens. Life is going to change as we know it.”

Canadian Baptists leaders responded to the SBC President at Ethics Daily.

“There is emphatically no federal or provincial jurisdiction that is punitive or creates sanctions against pastors who refuse to perform same-sex marriages,” Jeremy Bell, executive minister of the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, said in an e-mail. “No elected official on any level nor any court (federal or provincial) has intimated that this might be a possibility.”
…Bell said the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada “vigorously opposed” the redefinition of marriage and “sought to ensure that freedom of religion and expression is not only observed by all, but assured by the law.”

Canadian Baptist Ministries general secretary Gary Nelson:

“The same sex marriage law was passed a few years ago. Pastors are still able to decide who they will marry and who they won’t just as it has always been.”

The Canadian Baptist leaders are referring to Bill C-38, which was passed in 2005. The  federal government held a free vote on whether to revisit the legislation a year ago.

The Federal Government of Canada is responsible for the definition of marriage and rights under the Charter, provincial and territorial governments administer marriage laws.  Canadian priests/ministers have been suspended by their denominations for performing same sex marriages

Dr. Page was referring to Stephen Boissoin, a Red Deer Alberta Baptist youth worker who wrote an anti-homosexual letter to his local paper in 2002. A complaint was filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the ruling came down in November 2007.

Lori Mitchell, director of public witness and social concerns of The Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches addressed what the convention had lobbied prior to Bill C- 38 and Dr. Page’s comment.

We challenge the assumption that our Parliament has the authority to redefine marriage, since it is an institution which existed prior to the establishment of the Canadian Parliament,” Mitchell wrote. “However, we also believe that a strong case can be made for preserving the opposite-sex understanding of marriage on the grounds that the unique nature of marriage as a covenantal bond between a man and a woman is an important cornerstone of our society. The marriage relationship, as currently understood, should not be fundamentally changed.

Gary Nelson, general secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries is also puzzled by what Frank Page said about Canadian ministers facing jail; reiterating clergy are as able to determine who they will marry as they have always done. Nelson said humble sensitivity is required to live as biblical people in a country where we recognize Christians are on voice among many.

“You may not want to live there in the U.S.,” Nelson said. “We can respect that and appreciate it, but this is our world and we would appreciate understanding of its complexity. It is not easy, but it has been a great place of learning for the church in Canada. It requires much more courage and subtlety than is expressed in a simplistic statement such as the one attributed to Frank Page.”

Nelson said even churches “must respect that they are only one voice in a number of voices, and the ability to dialogue in a pluralistic world is not so much about prison as they are about creating healthy places where their voices can be heard.”

“I do not fear prison as much as I would be concerned about simply being ignored or marginalized even more because I have chosen to speak with a sense of entitlement and assumed moral authority that others around me have not granted,” he said. “In Canada we earn the right to speak, and speak we do with courage and sensitivity.”

Statistics Canada 2001 – marriage
Background on Boissoin at Canadian Christianity.

Calgary Catholic Bishop Fred Henry 2005 – AHRC complaints were dropped.
Baptists in Canada – wiki
Mainstream Baptist
Crossing the T
For God’s Sake, Shut Up!
April 2, 2007 khora: mapping the theological contours of the canadian experience received comments from Stephen Boissoin in two separate posts. They are similar to what was received here at BDBO, but rather than addressing Boissoin’s understanding of the ruling, he addresses khora’s theology.  Be it theology or law, khora and I do not mind Mr. Boissoin commenting. The difficulty we both face appears to be singular thinking and an inability to address our concerns  and questions, Mr. Boissoin responds as seeing critique and questioning as dissent.

Darren Lund v. Stephen Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc.  Panel Decision AHRC November 27, 2007 scroll to bottom for full .pdf report

Update: The Alberta Court of Queens Bench has overturned the AHRC ruling. Boissoin will not be paying any fines, the US religious right groups made themselves  a lot of money playing this AHRC case up to it’s base.