Liberal accuses rival of using churchesRichmond Liberal says evangelical pastors are handing out campaign flyers for Conservative Darrel Reid Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Richmond Liberal candidate Raymond Chan says his Conservative rival, Darrel Reid, is using evangelical Christian pastors to gain support in the riding's large Chinese-Canadian congregations.
"They are organizing the churches," Chan said Monday. "Some of my friends called me last Sunday, saying they are little uneasy about seeing church elders handing out Darrel Reid flyers.
"Someone told me they (the pastors) are urging them to support Reid," said Chan, MP in the last Parliament.
Reid is the former president of Focus on the Family Canada, an affiliate of the American Focus on the Family run by James Dobson, perhaps the most influential conservative religious leader in the U.S.
http://www.canada.com/national/features/decisioncanada/story_05.html?id=83d37a66-30cc-4b27-a11b-e0648e95f0d1And a couple of anecdotes here:Two women from a local church group came to our house (and presumably others in our neighbourhood) spreading the word that the Conservative party is "God's" party and that true "christians" must vote Conservative or face damnation. According to these two, the other political parties are anti-"christian" and want to take away the rights of "christians". They were also handing out literature from a local church that was filled with the same BS.
I was extremely offended and, unfortunately, didn't handle the situation very well. I told them that they weren't the religious right, they were the religious wrong; they weren't the moral majority, they were the immoral minority. I asked them when Christianity became associated with hatred and bigotry. I told them to try reading the bible rather than listening to a bigoted minister. Then I told them to get the f*** off our property and take their propaganda with them.
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I'm a practising Catholic, who's political beliefs are rather out of line with my church. At church this past Sunday, our priest informed us that there were four issues which we must consider when casting our votes: Abortion, same sex marriage, euthanasia, and polygamy. He told us that voting for any party that supported any of these things was a mortal sin. He stated that he could not tell us how to vote, but if we voted for the NDP or the Liberals that we would have to take confession to confess it as a sin. I was confident at some point in this little speech that he'd have to tell us to vote for the Christian Heritage Party candidate in our riding, but, no, he actually came out and endorsed the Conservative candidate.