Evangelical Fellowship of Canada VP and General Legal Counsel Don Hutchinson is disappointed in a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in which the EFC supported parental rights/religious freedom rights against the teaching of a mandated Ethics and Religious Culture course to be taught to students from grades one to eleven in Quebec.
At issue was the Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) program, a mandatory course to be taught to all québécois children, from grade 1 to grade 11, whether they attend public or private schools, or are homeschooled. The course, which states its objective as the instruction of children in a manner that will promote tolerance and respect, thus equipping them to live a pluralist society, has proven to be polarizing and controversial. Its mandate, while on first appearance seeming at home in Canada’s multicultural society, actually challenges the rights and values of parents and their religious beliefs. Parents who felt that the program conflicted with their religious beliefs had their requests that their children be exempted from the program categorically denied, following which they started legal action in the courts.
Dr. John Stackhouse eviscerates the EFC parental/religious rights argument in two posts which are well worth the read. The Supreme Court & Education about Religion, and Sectarians/Imperialists – Or Citizens:
3. What do the EFC, Cardus, and the various other Christian critics of this curriculum believe are indeed the legitimate interests of the state? These are smart people who doubtless have thought about this question, but I find precious little from this perspective in their discussions of this matter. Their attention seems trained almost entirely on “parents’ rights” and “religious freedom”–as if they have no responsibility to think as partners with their neighbours, as citizens ipso facto responsible for the decisions of the state as to what ought to be the best way to educate Quebecers and the rest of us about religion.
This attitude seems strangely sectarian to me: the mentality of minorities who insist on being left alone to do things their own way–like Old Order Mennonites, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Doukhobors, and other marginal groups in Canadian society. I’m quite disconcerted by what amounts to a tacit refusal to take on the basic responsibility to consider the best way to work with other citizens toward the common good in this matter of education about religion and religious diversity.
4. As with many sectarians in history, furthermore, this attitude of refusing to cooperate with the state or even to consider the state’s legitimate interests can reflect a not-so-covert desire to take over the whole show and run it right–the way we know Jesus wants it run. Sectarians often turn into imperialists when the opportunity arises. Is that what’s going on here?
If so, my Christian friends, then you need to come clean. In your heart of hearts, do you want the state to favour your religion? Then I wish you would say so.
SCC decision
Quebec Dept. of Education Ethics and Religious Culture Program
Thanks for commenting on this. I wrote a short, reasonable comment on EFC’s site to the effect that I could not follow their position on this issue. Days have past but my comment seems like it was never “approved” because I do not see it posted in the comment section.