A longtime Conservative who opposes same-sex marriage has been appointed to the tribunal that decides whether gays get refugee status in Canada.
Doug Cryer, a former director of public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, has also publicly defended the right of churches to denounce homosexuality.
“Doug Cryer of the EFC said the church has a right to say that homosexual behaviour is sinful, just as it can say that adultery is sinful,” according to a November 2006 edition of CanadianChristianity.com.
“It is part of God’s teaching,” Cryer told the publication.
Cryer is among a dozen people appointed by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney last month to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board — an independent administrative tribunal that hears applications for refugee status.
Cryer’s faith honours and accepts the stranger, churches are free to preach whatever they want about homosexuality. He is on a board which should he ever show a pattern of rejecting homosexuals in physical danger and needing refugee status, committee work has checks and balances.
Ottawa Sun
Canadian Christianity
MP Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology who is known for his temper is receiving concern and vitrol for not answering questions that had to do with his religious beliefs about evolution. Most Christians aren’t anti- evolution, the ones that are are often as inarticulate as anti-religionists. Goodyear gets no marks for his short fuse and unChristian behavior and unprofessional conduct. Goodyear had pr patching up to do and admits he does believe in evolution.
Is the Pope Catholic? He is on a tour in Africa and said this:
AIDS is “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.
As The Dallas Morning News Religion blog points out:
If the Catholic pontiff wants to express his understanding of God’s will about condoms, that’s totally in his job description. Opining about the public health effects of that position, not so much. Particularly since pretty much every reputable public health researcher says that easy availability of condoms sharply reduces the spread of AIDS.
A Raelian is suing game company Ubisoft’s Montreals office for 10 thousand dollars claiming religion discrimination. Daniel Chabot was hired in 2003 to conduct a three day team training exercise for employees when he was asked not to finish the third day. He was paid the full amount after he was featured in a newspaper story and employees expressed discomfort with his connections.
Why does The Vatican hate the future? As ICANN the international board tasked with assigning domain space, opens up beyond .com, .org, . country; Â The Vatican has come out saying it does not want to see . religion and .denomination.
The Vatican warned ICANN of the “perils†of allowing new internet domains such as “.catholic, .anglican, .orthodox, .hindu, .islam, .muslim, and .Buddhist.â€
ICANN, could find itself having to decide who gets to represent an entire religion on the internet, His Holiness pointed out, in a letter from Monsignor Carlo Maria Polvani.
What are you saying, Ian? The pope ISN’T an expert on anything and everything? C’mon man. God must have just told him that condoms won’t do the job.
I think you might be understating the case a bit with respect to Cryer’s appointment. As I recall, refugee hearings can now go forward with only one IRB member present. That one member could be Cryer. So much for “checks and balances.”
The alternative, which I believe was eliminated, was to have hearings held by two Board members. Either way, maybe too much of a voice for someone who may have a serious conflict between his expressed personal values and his legal responsibilities.
I would hope that my fears are misguided and that you are correct about Cryer accepting strangers as his faith should guide him to. Perhaps he could even make a public statement to that effect. It might counter his previous public statements, which leaned in the opposite direction. Personally I would say that where refugees are at stake, we can’t afford to wait until someone shows a “pattern” of sending them back to persecution before taking action.
The alternative, I suppose, and this could also work, is to do what a lot of us do when a situation comes up that could cause a personal conflict: recuse ourselves from that case and let someone else handle it.
You raise some valid concerns, I haven’t followed Mr. Cryers past statements, while I respect the EFoC and figured he was just being a lobbiest for the more conservative members, he didn’t come up much on my personal radar screen. I softballed him because I don’t know him.
Thanks, I appreciate your insight.