By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.
A Saskatchewan church is promoting a conference this fall. If Tommy Douglas has internet in heaven, he, for one, would read their notice, and sigh.
I, for one, was unaware that Brad Wall’s government was sent by God, but there you go…
It’s a notice from Ray Jelinski of Lighthouse to all Nations Church, in Regina, which I spotted here on the Embassy of God website.
It case it disappears, it reads:
Contending for Our Inheritance – SEP 19-24, 2011
In November 2007, the province of Saskatchewan witnessed a dramatic change of Civil governmental leadership that triggered enormous prosperity, favour and attention to Saskatchewan in the midst of the economic downturn of the last 3 years. The media was stunned by the once “have not Province” becoming a “have Province”. It caught the attention of many with CNN actually doing a documentary on Saskatchewan’s economic circumstances.
This was in partial fulfillment of God’s prophetic promise stewarded by the Church in Saskatchewan. We are at the threshold of God fulfilling the remainder of the promise; the coming Glory of God. Consequently, we are being stirred to mobilize the army of God in this region to prepare and align us for the manifestation of that Glory. There is an expectancy to see what we have been trumpeting for the last 2 years and to see “EXPECT THE GLORY” becoming a reality.
We invite you to these strategic meetings sponsored by Witness To All Nations, and please register early as space is limited.Sincerely
Ray Jelinski
This strikes me as kind of obnoxious.
If nowhere else on Earth, Christians in Saskatchewan should be aware of the “social gospel” tradition that led former ministers, such as Tommy Douglas to pursue progressive policies.
Absolutely, you can argue that conservative policies are more likely to “bless” your province, but if you see your progressive friends as wrong, it then follows that you have to be very careful to see the imperfections in your own “side”.
Even from a small-c conservative perspective, is the Wall government godly enough to build the Millennium on?
Interestingly, I’m currently reading Dale Eisler’s Rumours of Glory, which is about Ross Thatcher and his 1960s Liberal government in Saskatchewan.
When thinking about the book, in relation to this post, I recall Eisler’s account of the Thatcher government’s imperfections. Progressives had much to worry about, but from a conservative point of view, Thatcher wound up increasing taxes and not decreasing the size of government.
Thatcher himself, Eisler argues, was an angry, bull-like politician, who concentrated authority in the government in his hands.
Politicians, of course, should be extended grace. However, the notice of the conference assumes that the Saskatchewan Party can do little wrong. And that is…wrong.
Perhaps God isn’t finished with the Saskatchewan Party yet. Both sides can agree on that, surely?
It’s funny how short people’s memories are. Saskatchewan has indeed undergone an economic recovery and has weathered the recent recession fairly well. Government policy has probably been a factor in this. The drift towards lower taxes started in the Romanow NDP era after they balanced the books. and accelerated again late in the Calvert NDP era. The Calvert NDP even lowered corporate taxes.
The lion’s share of Saskatchewan’s prosperity is linked to record high commodity prices. In short lots of things we pull out of the ground or grow on it are very valuable. That isn’t to say the Brad Wall government hasn’t done a good job, most people would say they have. Record commodity revenues make it very easy to cuts taxes further stimulating more economic activity. The Brad Wall government is right of centre, but only modestly so. The NDP are left of centre but only modestly so.
There isn’t a big difference between the two.
I, too, live in Saskatchewan. The Brad Wall government is a hard right government. It’s hard to know, when attempting to characterize the Saskatchewan NDP, whether to talk about the leadership or the ‘grassroots’. The current leadership is only somewhat left of centre, I’d say. But quite a few of the ‘rank and file’ are pretty significantly left of centre.
Saskatchewan has been in the midst of a boom; it’s entirely due to commodities. I suppose a government of complete idiots could have brought utter economic disaster out of this but it would have been hard work! We’d be doing even better if we owned our own resources, instead of letting big corporations exploit them in exchange for the privilege of working for them and a pittance in royalties.
Back to the church in Regina. I am amazed and appalled. Has anyone notified Revenue Canada?
Take a look at this: http://bit.ly/jPhiys