Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, who in February exhorted legislators to "move beyond" the Lord's Prayer, was absent from Queen's Park last week when Members of Provincial Parliament voted 58-0 in favour of keeping the Lord's Prayer, reaffirming the primacy of Christianity in the provincial assembly.Instead of scrapping the prayer in favour of a more inclusive invocation, MPPs voted unanimously to add a second, rotating prayer that will take at least nine other forms -- Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Jewish and Baha'i prayers as well as a moment of silence, a Native spiritual passage and a non-denomination prayer blessing Queen Elizabeth and her representative in the province.
"Some of these carvings, the coat of arms, our flags, our mottoes -- the very architecture [of ] these [legislative] buildings -- are based on Christianity and the British parliamentary system," said Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop.
"In our caucus, we're just not prepared to send that out the door. We believe that the Lord's Prayer is part of that. Christianity is part of the very foundation of our wonderful country."
With Quebec representatives recently voting unanimously to keep the Crucifix in the National Assembly, and now Ontario representatives voting unanimously to keep the Lord's Prayer, it would appear that a healthy dose of sanity still reigns in the Canadas. Amen to that.
Amen, Amen, Amen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for covering this one, Tweed. Those that wish to build upon traditions deserve our support and respect. Those like McGuinty who demonstrate a wish to tear it all down, thereby destroying our cultural inheritance, are truly loathsome degenerates. What a skunk.
ReplyDeleteThe prayer for the Queen and Lieutenant Governor, however, which was a daily occurrence and was the first prayer read, has now been sadly relegated to one of the rotating prayers.
ReplyDeleteThe point is not particularly Christianity, it's tradition, the inherent value of continuity, a sense of place and time grounded in something other than fashion and whim, both of which are dependably cretinous and no sensible foundation for anything. Not being a Christian, I don't especially care about the Lord's Prayer as such, but it is meaningful to me in that it contains principles of deep significance to the people who built this country. There is value in that fact alone.
ReplyDeleteBurton
"Instead of scrapping the prayer in favour of a more inclusive invocation, MPPs voted unanimously to add a second, rotating prayer that will take at least nine other forms -- Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Jewish and Baha'i prayers as well as a moment of silence, a Native spiritual passage and a non-denomination prayer blessing Queen Elizabeth and her representative in the province."
ReplyDeleteAhh....but the multicultural pluralists got in a wedge, I see. All in the name of "tolerance", I am sure.