When we look at the history

When we look at the history of the rise and fall of empires, with open and objective eyes, we can see that they all rose to power, enslaving and mass murdering millions, justified and legalized by religious beliefs, the same beliefs that ultimately have destroyed all of them through their ignorance and dismissal of physical realities.

To put it into strict scientific terms: You can't piss against the wind, no matter what the prophets and scriptures tell you.

Harper just sold Tar Sands oil, to be delivered by the Enbridge pipeline, and liquified natural gas, to be extracted by fracking, to Japan.

I have a feeling that our Japanese friends will get very cold waiting for either.

Ed Deak.

Good luck, Andrew Nikiforuk!

Canada needs to have an open conversation about the virtues of democracy over theocracy.

Point blank, there's no reasoning with a fideist.

And if one is a fideist, then isn't it just idiotic to even consider him for public office knowing he will be required to make rational and reasoned decisions on everybody's behalf?

Nothing to do with religion

Climate change skepticism has nothing to do with religion but more to do with reality. Canada ain't going to change it as we are such a minor contributor. The carbon dioxide theory is shakey at best and disregards other theories. It also disregards history like the medievil worm period. Just because someone doesn't play the politically correct card all the time they are branded by the far left as religious nuts. I say about time someone spoke out against the radical evnironmental groups.

Interesting that those

Interesting that those "radical environmental groups" want to conserve and preserve the world and humanity, while the so called "conservatives" want to destroy all,
in the name of "wealth creation" into the pockets of just another of history's traditional ruling classes.

The communists have left incredible environmental destruction behind in their former empire, now followed by their brother capitalists all over the world.

"The birds of a feather flock together"

Ed Deak.

Harper is even more dangerous that we ever imagined

Religion aside, he is just plain deangerous. Twice supsending parliament in the minority government, misdirecting voters with a computerised phone campaign, and mounting attack ads on opposition leaders as a matter of course, he is a fanatic.

Brigitte de Pape was absolutely right. We have to Stop Harper. We cannot be sure he was legally elected to office.

Woodworker

I'll assume this comment was a joke. What else could explain the statement "The carbon dioxide theory is shakey (sic)"? On what grounds exactly is it shaky? Please do enlighten us with your scientific credentials. Deniers love to say this kind of thing without offering any actual scientific evidence whatsoever.

It's incredible to think that this bears repeating time and time again but here goes...

No remaining scientific body of national or international standing is known to reject the basic findings of human influence on recent climate change. Again, the number of scientific bodies that dispute human-caused global climate change: Zero.

Our future stll dominated by the past

Thanks Tyee and Andrew for this much needed analysis. How crazy it is that the world in 2012 is still dominated by beliefs from centuries ago and most conflicts are a result of opposing religious beliefs. All that is missing from this commentary is the notion of rapture - does Harper is true believer of this absurdity? Is rapture one of the Alliance Church's tenets? If so, that explains many of Harper's policies, as environmental collapse, along with war in the Middle East, is thought to be a way to expedite rapture. And what the North American irony - right wing Christianity openly aspires to take power in the U.S., while in Canada it is now running our country with so few Canadians aware, except now those who read this column.

earth....You have to remember

earth....You have to remember that the stockmarkets rely on climate change denial to maintain their artificial "wealth creating" figures, and in our society the stockmarkets are the ultimate religion to keep this fraudulent system going.

Regardless, who or what suffers. Monetary economics are just another religion, based on imaginary values overriding realities.

Ed Deak.

Liked it so much it bears repeating

I've had my arguments with enviros in the past (carbon tax) but what Ed says is right

"Interesting that those "radical environmental groups" want to conserve and preserve the world and humanity, while the so called "conservatives" want to destroy it all in the name of "wealth creation" into the pockets of just another of history's traditional ruling classes. "

The environmentalists are on the right side of history.

Thank you Andrew.

There was a well sourced article a few years ago in The Walrus magazine about Harper's fundamentalist beliefs and this article by Mr. Nikiforuk is the latest and best warning I have seen. Prime Mistake Harper will follow his beliefs and the rest of us will suffer because of it for at least a few more years. Get the word out my brothers and sisters. The planets does not belong to the 1%, it belongs to us all. But we will have to fight for it again, and again.

What Harper and a cult leader have in common

"Faith is not the concern here."

Leave it to a believer to make that absurd claim. Of course faith is the concern here, because it is about dogma trumping evidence.

"Unknown to most Canadians, the prime minister belongs to the Christian and Missionary Alliance ..."

It is unknown because most media, including alternative media, never discuss Harper's religion. I have found only a few online articles that mention it, but with no deep analysis. I have written several blog articles trying to expose Harper's connection to a fundamentalist, evangelical, Christian church founded in the U.S., but I exist on the fringe wasteland of cyberspace so don't get much traffic. I'm posting a few links to those articles, but this is not an attempt to drive traffic to my site. I stopped writing new entries on that blog at the end of 2011, as I am working on a book, but I keep the blog online for educational purposes.

I hope someone at Tyee other than a religious person, especially a Christian, would do a more in-depth look at the religious beliefs of Harper, whether they are genuine or disingenuous, and how they affect public policy.

Canada's Christian fundamentalist Prime Minister tells millions of poor no need to protest
http://chainthedogma.blogspot.ca/2011/10/canadas-christian-fundamentalist-prime.html

Asbestos, Abortion and the Canadian Prime Minister's cats
http://chainthedogma.blogspot.ca/2011/10/asbestos-abortion-and-canadian-prime.html

Faith, Evidence and the Immoral Drug War
http://chainthedogma.blogspot.ca/2011/07/faith-evidence-and-immoral-drug-war.html

Beware of any religious organization with Family in its name
http://chainthedogma.blogspot.ca/2011/04/beware-of-any-religious-organization.html

That last article discusses another infamous member of Harper's church, The Christian & Missionary Alliance. David Berg was a pastor in a U.S. Alliance church for a few years in the 1950s. A few years later, in the 1960s,he went on to create a notorious cult, the Children of God, which is now known as The Family International.

Another article on my blog reviews a documentary about child abuse in African missions run by the Christian & Missionary Alliance. See:

Child sacrifice: a review of the documentary All God's Children - the ultimate sacrifice
http://chainthedogma.blogspot.ca/2010/10/child-sacrifice-review-of-documentary.html

the price of liberty

the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Part of that is the requirement that we must continue to be informed as to the true attitudes and inclinations of our major politicians...such that we should have KNOWN that Harper and his Refoooormmm party adherents are really religious fanatics, who are attempting to run this country according to their deluded beliefs...

we should have known this and NOT have given him that majority...but we apparently didn't know this...he hid his real agenda under his doofus wonk appearance, and claimed this and that policies, which Canadians of the "conservative" inclination could get behind...

and now we are confronted daily with Dr. Frankenstein's Monster, a Monster that WE allowed to take over our Canadian government. we should all be ashamed of ourselves...this is NOT the direction that Canada has been following for the last 100 years or so...it's going in the opposite direction...turning back the clock to the days of Victorian style religion and capitalism...

we do not need Republickan/Fascist Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian style government up here in Canada...but unfortunately, we've got it.

all due to the apathy of too many voters who didn't see the danger lurking in the wings....hiding under the black suits of the Harperites....

America's craziness moving north :(

I only hope that word spreads of Harper's true beliefs in this utter nonsense and that Canadians decide not to be governed by christian fundamentalists at the next election.

Mr. Harper is dangerous!

Our electoral system must be reformed. With 24% of the eligible vote, this man has declared war on much of what Canadians hold sacred. It is very clear in the Bible that we are to be "stewards of the creation". Now, whether you believe in the Good Book or not, what we are doing to our environment is disgusting! I am not a big fan of Brian Mulroney, but his speech to the US Congress back in 1988 contained some prophetic words, which could be paraphrased and adopted today. He left the Joint Session by saying:
“What would be said of a generation of North Americans that found a way to explore the stars, but allowed its lakes and forests to languish and die?”

Canada, enablers of Stagnation

"We had a chance to change the world but Canada chose to enable stagnation and steal future generation`s birth rite!

As a country we are enormously wealthy, most of the world`s fresh water, a diverse population that`s relatively well educated, thousands of miles of open prairies capable of growing huge quantities of food, we have world famous boreal forests, rain forests inhabited with spotted owls, spirit bears and species still undiscovered, we`re a nation blessed with pristine coastlines that are home to wild salmon, Orca, oysters and countless other delicacies of the sea, our air is still invigoratingly fresh,

As present day caretakers of this great Nation isn`t our number one duty to pass on a country as clean or cleaner than the one we found"....

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2011/12/canada-enablers-of-stagnation.html

FINALLY!!

So nice to see a publication that finally has the courage to stand up and address Harper's hidden evangelical agenda, which is being displayed on so many fronts.
Ottawa has been taken over by a religous CULT, plain and simple. But we dare not raise the subject, becuase it's "hate" speech. What an utter crock of BS.
They are totally intent on undermining democracy in Canada in all ways, and furthering their extremist evangelical agenda. Yet, no on has the spine to address this serious problem.
All of Harpo's lieutenants are of the same faith, and function as the devil's minions, and, it has long been rumoured that illegal funding is being funneled to them from radical US religionistas, thru evangelical churches in Calgary. I sure would like to see an investigation into THAT. This explains why the Cons donations so far exceeds the other parties.
I honestly don't know of a way to stop this destruction of Canada, short of an outright revolution, but the glaring spotlight must be intensified on this coup d'etat, before it's too late.
Kudos to you for raising the issue! Maybe people now will start discussing it, at least.

Richard Dawkins on questioning religious beliefs of politicians

Here is a 12 minute video interview with Richard Dawkins yesterday, March 25, on MSNBC. He discusses the following questions:

Does a politician’s private religious beliefs effect public policy? If a citizen has the right to question their lawmaker’s political opinions, should they also be able to question their outlook on religion?

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/up-with-chris-hayes/46848311#46848311

Canuckistan

Harper's "conservatives" (regressives in reality) are to Canada what the Taliban were/are to Afghanistan - know-nothing religious fanatics that need to be kept as far away from power as possible.

Apparently, the Taliban believed that if the people of Afghanistan adhered strictly to the fundamental tenets of the Koran - Allah would take care of everything - schools, hospitals, roads - clean water. So they spent all their time and energy making sure men had suitable beards, women wore berkas etc and zero on doing useful 'government' things for people - nada. Deluded Magical Thinking.

Harper too believes in the total power of Magical Thinking... I was sure the gospel he had in mind was Hayekian (neo-liberal) economics but now I see it could be more complicated than that.

People like the Koch brothers must view Harper and his cabal as the most useful idiots any corporate grifter could ever imagine. Karzai, I have no doubt, has to bought with bags of cash whereas ideologues are for all intents and purposes - "free".

Correction

Just a word of caution about painting all evangelicals with this brush. I would likely fit the label of "evangelical", having attended a non-denominational Bible college and having been a part of a few different kinds of "evangelical" churches.

The Bible says almost nothing about politics and economics. Jesus had many, many things to say about my personal finances (be generous, don't let it be your master, share with the poor, etc.) and how Christians/church handle money. The only government regulation or taxation verse I can remember would be this "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (meaning, pay your taxes to the gov't).

I also question the interpretation of "dominion." Pretty sure God put people in charge of creation/nature to take care of it, not to see how much they could get away with without destroying it. In that sense, #6 and #7 almost appear to be contradictory.

Not trying to stir the pot at all. Just seems like the above definition of "evangelicals" is very narrow. And I have a lot of friends who grew up in the Christian and Mission Alliance, and I don't think many of them share all those worldviews. That's pretty narrow.

Thanks for letting me chime in.

reader123 makes a good pont.

First, the reference book for Evangelicals is vague on so many issues. It is an combination of writings about 2000 years ago by no one who actually met the principle character but only heard about him. It combined a lot of Judaic myths and legends as well. Anyone who reads it and thinks it was intended to all be taken literally is way off the mark.

Second, this vagueness leaves the writings open to any interpretation and has become the origins of a lot of dogma not very much in keeping with the teachings it attempts to record. It is the certainty that some people assume in its writings that have led to a lot of wars and problems in history.

My experience is that if people give in to the demands that you have to turn off your brain to be one of the faithful, this is the result. It is also very difficult to debate any religious point with such a person as they will almost always resort to consider themselves martyrs for their faith if they don't have a logical answer. Mix religion and politics and you have a dangerous mix. People have long argued for the separation of church and state. It is the only way to govern democratically.

Christian & Missionary Alliance Statement of Faith

The Christian & Missionary Alliance believes, among other things, in creationism and rejects evolution, even theistic evolution, believes the Bible was verbally dictated by God and therefore without error, believes in faith healing, which has led to the death of untold numbers of innocent children, and believes Jesus was born of a virgin and will return any day now.

Here is their 11 point Statement of Faith from their website:
http://cmalliance.ca/beliefsc1421.php

A few hundred years after the Enlightenment, and we still have politicians who believe in that nonsense creating laws and public policies. Prime Minister Harper is either a fool or a liar with regard to his religious affiliation. He has no 'clothes', but not many journalists are pointing that out.

Cynthia

What a load of horse feathers, your analysis is so far out in left field it's laughable. Who cares what church Harper goes to or any other politician, there's not one iota of proof that Harper is using his religion which you admit he never speaks about, to forward any belief or agenda.

You are grasping at straws, non existent ones at that. You just lost your credibility on this one.

I Allow you this

"Who cares what church Harper attends?"

Are you reading for comprehension?

And who the hell is Cynthia?

Breaking news

John Von Dongen slams Christy Clark in the BC Legislature and quits the BC Liberals..Christy clark in hiding!

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/03/breaking-newsjohn-von-dongen-quits-bc.html

Von Dongen must be part of

Von Dongen must be part of the long standing plan of Harper, as I've been writing about ever since Cummins was sent to set up the BC Conservatives, to wipe out the BCLibs, with the cooperation of other ministers, and replace them with the Cons most likely before the end of this year.

The next few weeks will be very interesting to watch and then the rejuvenated Occupy movement will start again, all over the world.

It will be a long hard, hot summer, but not according to and following Harper's and the multinational corporate mafia's plans and dreams.

Very interesting times in history.

Ed Deak.

Having spent about 9 years at

Having spent about 9 years at a fanatically religous institution (and I use that word deliberately) during my formative years in elementary school and middle school, I was constantly harrassed by teachers and peers to become "saved" so that my tormented soul wouldn't end up in hell. So, I have some familiarity with people of little self-discipline who can be conned into accepting religious beliefs. Even then I couldn't be convinced. PBI (you may have heard of that school in Three Hills AB) was typical of an evangelical school, with its thunder and damnation principals and teachers, who brought in Southern Baptists (Billy Graham) who could make you quake in your boots, and make any non-Christian forget about the lunacy you were trying to fight. This group built all of is tabernacles, dormitories and schools out of wood in the 1940's and 1950's, assured that they would see the second coming of Christ before the wood of their buildings would rot. Interestingly enough, although they are still functioning, and the second coming hasn't come as predicted, they now build everything from concrete and stucco.
But, I didn't give in to their teachings and have enjoyed my agnostic beliefs ever since, having a more rational belief in Mother Nature. But, if you spend some time with the true believers, you realize just how fanatic they are. And, how often turn out to be the most corrupt and untrustworthy people you probably know. In my opinion.

Rupture

I have it on good authority, that anybody who defiled nature will, when the rapture occurs, fall through the cracks and will be stoking the fires below. They will not rise to listen to beautiful music.

NOT religion

The adherents of a real religion does not occupy itself with the relative worth of non-adherents. They consider that each to his own is a good rule, as it allows for peaceful coexistence. When you meet someone, in whatever guise, who aspires to make himself the master of you, by defining you as inferior and take action to 'convert' you, there is only one reason, the wish to exploit you. The so-called Abrahamic religions are rationalizations for doing whatever to whomever is not one of their own. The judaic crowd has figured it out. They do not commit atrocities in the name of their religion (I am not able to say with certainty, that they do not commit them for other reasons), while both the followers of the Koran and the Bible still defend or at least do not issue fatwa's or bulls against those who commit atrocities in the name of God's or Allah's supposed will. The kid who asked how many African souls were equal in worth to his had it right: They were not after African souls, but cheap factory workers.

There is no religion, no reverence, in those big massive organizations. They are brotherhoods against the rest of us, and their mission is stratification of our society, with themselves on top. There are many kinds of dhimmification, and we should not buy their goods, nor think them in the least religious.

Harper is a Evangelical Hypocrite

Stephen Harper and his clones, like many Tea Party Republican supporters, need to start reading their Bibles. While mankind is told to have dominion over the earth, mankind is not told that it is okay to dispoil the earth. Also, the Bible says to Love one's enemies - Harper and his ilk are becoming masters of attack ads (and don't seem to care if their informtion is acurrate or not just so long as it hurts those who oppose HIS views). If Jesus were walking the earth in an earthly body today, healing the sick, treating everyone alike and calling a spade a spade, Stephen Harper would probably call him a Socialist, which seems to represent evil in Harper's mind.

I think it is a mistake to try to ascertain a rational explain

ation for Harper's irrational decision making process. He has only one guide-what is in it for me and the interests I represent. Koch Bros 1st anybody with a buck second. There is no more to it than that.
RR

This truly belongs in the opinion section or worse.

I must say, I hate opinion columns or at least treat them with disdain when they have such a lack of evidence based journalism. This entire piece hinges on the author's unfounded opinion that Harper bases his policies on the protocols of an organization to which he has no proven tie. I feel that articles like this greatly discredit responsible opposition to Conservative environmental policy.

From now on, please provide evidence or at least some feasible tie between your subject and the object of the article.

Lucemferre Re: When we look at history

"we can see that [empires] all rose to power, enslaving and mass murdering millions, justified and legalized by religious beliefs"

Now I'm hardly a convinced theist myself but I must take you to task on your historical observations. Could you shine some light on what specific religions guided the ascension of the following empires (to list but a few):

- Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire that led to the conquest of most of Asia in the 13th century
- Attila the Hun and the Hunnic Emipre that dominated Eurasia and much of Eastern Europe during the fifth century
- Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid Empire of the 6th century BC that ruled vast tracts of Asia, Europe and Africa
- The Soviet Communist Empire of the 20th century

and of course...there's these credos...

...that Harper's Army adheres to:

"Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong."

"It is not truth that matters, but victory."

"It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge."

"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think."

"Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction."

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."

All quotes above are attributed to Adolph Hitler, "Mein Kampf"

Mission Impossible

Harper, as prime minister is a big disappointment and as a human being a very, sad man. What if the prime minister is making all these life changing decisions when it isn't what the majority of Canadians wanted? Things are changing, why, how, whatever but positive changes are coming and boy are they long over due. King Harper has Conservatives on their knees trying to clean up the mess he left behind.

Ed Deak

I don't think it is accurate to cut it so one-sided:

...You have to remember that the stockmarkets rely on climate change denial to maintain their artificial "wealth creating" figures...

The banking crowd will glom onto anything and hijack any cause to turn a buck.

Just as the Empire will piggyback a noble calling (like saving the children in Africa to ouster a butcher) as an excuse to pave the way for its resource colonization, the capitalist parasites will create Carbon Taxes and Credits and derivatives, etc to address AGW. But as a fallout, others will point to this exploitation as a sure sign of the fraudulent existence of AGW in the first place.

Rather than read the history of global warming for themselves found HERE [put aside a month to do so], they prefer to see AGW as a underhanded plot. But this in itself makes little, nay no, sense.

The premise is that the data supporting AGW is scientifically fraudulent. What this means is that ALL the data collected regarding Greenhouse Gases since the 1950s -- from Roger Revelle on, has been part and parcel of this banking and government conspiracy. And the bankers-governments involved continued funding this ongoing fraud until the mid 1990s when, at that point, they decided to cash out.

Isn't it far more likely that it wasn't until the mid-1990s, shortly after BigOil started the denial campaign, that the issue of AGW was fiscally bankable with the public and so the bankers responded accordingly? And that the consistent and diversely collected data evidencing AGW via greenhouse gases since the 1950s is real, despite the hiccups of some recently overplayed emails?

a few notes on Corinthians 3:18-23

Why become government if one hates it so much?

Perhaps Mr. Harper follows the following biblical ideology:

"Do not adopt the world's wisdom"... for it is better to be God’s fool than man’s genius.

In Corinthians 3:19-20 it states:

"For the wisdom of this world is folly with God." "For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

And those who take the Christian Bible out of historical context then interpret this to mean,

"We can’t win against God. If we say that we are wise through life experiences, the reading of many books, time spent in deep thought, and a high IQ, God says in return, “Sorry, Charlie.”

The problem with those who take a literal and non-historical view of what is written in a variety of versions of the Christian Bible is that they come up with what Nikiforuk has listed in his article as 'tenets".

A former evangelical missionary friend of mine liked to use an old saying to explain those so struck by their radical religious beliefs:

"They are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good."

What matters to them that the beauty of 'creation' is destroyed? What matters to them that their 'truth' leaves nothing for future generations? When you are heavenly bound what matters the degree of mess one leaves behind?

Out of some incredible and unfathomable degree of destruction did the origins of this little blue planet derive. So why do humans spend so much time seeking to return to this destruction? Why does religion promise such hope (heaven) for the human despair and misery it has created over the centuries? In Europe and elsewhere the fields are filled with blood by the hands of zealotry.

But who am I trying to kid...nothing will shake the fundamentalists from their deeply ingrained viewpoint. The movie "Jesus Camp" (2006) provides a good example of what education and wisdom one needs to follow in order to become a fundamental extremist.

How seductive and pleasant Stephen "Baby Huey" Harper seems to be for those Canadians who vote for Him but we need a full understanding of his religious beliefs to put into context his actions before too much destruction takes place.

Chesterton, really?

The most quixotic aspect of Nikiforuk's essay is an attempt to portray Chesterton as a Christian radical and to ascribe to GK a progressive ideology akin to his own. Is Andy really talking about the author of "Orthodoxy" here? It seems impossible that Nikiforuk could have read anything by Chesterton other than his famous quotations online.

Here is a passage from "Orthodoxy" that lays out Chesterton's thoughts about the modern progressive:

"But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. ...... In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."

baby & bath

There have been some Canadians 'of faith' who have truely enlightened us - two who come immediately to mind are Northrop Frye and Wiebo Ludwig. This to humbly indicate that the determining factor may not be faith per se.

Be well.

Harperland: The Politics of Control

Great article! It's good to see more journalists speaking-up and taking a crucial critical look at Harper and his particular religious world view. For those who doubt that his religious beliefs have any impact on his politics, I have land I'd like to sell you in Florida!

Another journalist who has been hard at work to inform the Canadian public about this man and his politics is Lawrence Martin. His book, "Harperland: The Politics of Control" may be about his background and first four years of minority government by the Conservatives, but it is still very cogent. http://www.posthypnoticpress.com/pages/on-sale-now-item?r=JU1VOI1DP5&send_to=%2Fpages%2Fon-sale-now-item%3Fr%3DTYRX96CINL%26send_to%3D%252F

After all this time on this globe . . .

. . . it is time to can all religion. It only serves to divide humanity and causes untold suffering across the complete spectrum.
The "religion" most responsible for the worlds ills, is the very same religion calling the shots not only in Ottawa, but Washington and London as well - it is called Zionism and is responsible for billions of dead throughout the ages and throughout the world. All the wars and revolutions were started by them, financing both, or all sides and stealing the wealth and the health of all people on this planet. Harper is just as evil as Obama and all those greedy people, that do not get voted in, but rather installed by this bunch.

theocracy fail

As an evangelical Christian, I am horrified by the underpinnings of Harper's reckless, arrogant agenda and his deceptive strategies to attain it--not at all the Christian values a true believer would espouse. I read the same Bible that he does, and there I find that God's will is for us to be good stewards of the land and its resources and to respect every living thing because in so doing we respect Him, the Maker of all that is. Those in power have a duty to maintain the balance between human need and good stewardship of resources. The Harper way is to rape and ravage as much as possible as fast as possible to make sure the rich get maximum profits by declaring ownership of what rightly belongs to us all, while those whose rights are stripped, ie first nations communities and landowners, are left with disease, destroyed wildlife and devastated land rendered unproductive. Harper is a Christian? Maybe insofar as it attracts a following of voters too ill informed to know the difference, but I call BS. A Christian is as a Christian does, and all we witness are lies, deceptions, criminal behaviour, mismanaging funds, and a sell-out of precious resources (our water is the next on the line). It sickens me that he has used religion and politics to consolidate power--not the first narcissistic egoist to this. He must be stopped. Now if this doesn't make your blood run cold about the theocracy agenda behind Harper: http://christiangovernance.ca/

Kwagmire

This entire piece hinges on the author's unfounded opinion that Harper bases his policies on the protocols of an organization to which he has no proven tie.

Perhaps you never noticed, or never read, the sidebar piece titled What Harper's Church Teaches, supra.

Here is a pertinent link within that sidebar.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=80f6fdff-cc0e-4a08-9b96-76f3db32808e

Harper's plans re environment

With the Senate stuffed with Tories, no checks and balances left, I am truly frightened for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren's future.
My vote was hopeless, my MP is Conservative. If only the Liberals and NDP would get their acts together, putting their differences on hold for the time being, they could end this man's appalling control.

I think Mr Nikiforuk shoild stick to dirty oil.

The blind hatred generated by this article is at least on a par with where people feel Harper is.

People you are starting to sound exactly like what you think you are trying to prevent.

The man was elected and can be unelected. That has not changed and is unlikely to do so.

Of course if you're in to unproductive whining (a euphemism for one sided debate) I guess this is the place for it.

Oleum.... All forms of life,

Oleum.... All forms of life, especially of human, survive on various forms of energy control for every second of their existence.

Religions, ideologies, all forms of economics etc. are theories of energy control, used by rulers, cannibals, and conquerors, to justify their actions, since the beginning of history.

The armies of all colonizers and empire builders have been accompanied by shamans, priests etc. who were praying, sacrificing white horses, goats, virgins and slaves to read their hairs and intestines predicting the success of the conquests.

This includes Genghis and Batu Khans, the Egyptians, Romans, Persians, etc. The Aztecs fought wars with their neighbours for rain, with the losers lining up by the thousands to have their beating hearts torn out with obsidian knives by the priests and thrown into towers built for the purpose.

Attila called himself the "Whip of God", When he croaked on his wedding night with Ildiko, hundreds of slaves were murdered to serve him in the Other World. His son Csaba rode his white stallion back East on the Milky Way to get help, and was never seen again. The last remnants of the Huns are the Szekely, or Sekler, in Transylvania, now in Romania.

Then we have the hundreds of years of the Wars of the Reformation in Europe, when the heads of babies were smashed by all sides, "to save their immortal souls"

All nazi and satellite armies had tens of thousands of Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran padres preaching victory and sprinkling holy water on the armaments.

The Waffen SS, the vast majority of it draftees of ethnic Germans, or Volksdeutsch, from other countries, would have never fought without their clergy and so they had about 4,000 of them in uniform. After the war I knew 2 Catholic priests who were SS padres with the rank of captain, or Hauptsturmfuehrer.

Marxism is a form of pseudo religion. The communists banned other religions to replace them with Marxism and the accompanying "dialectics", taught in schools as compulsory subjects, as religions used to be taught before.

The best example of the use of religions, as excuses for colonization and mass murder, is the conquest of the Americas. I'd suggest "Stolen Continents" by Ronald Wright as the best and most detailed chronicle of legalized enslavement and mass murder legalized by Christian religions.

Faith conquers all, especially logical thought. The vast majority of humans are decent, peace loving peoples of all races, and they always needed artificially installed beliefs to suppress their humanity and become murderous predators, always in the name of some "high purpose".

As we now have the priesthood of economists selling the present crime wave against others and the environment, theoretically, all the creations of God.

Ed Deak.

Ed

Marx was a social theorist whose writings were put into political practice by many, not only in eastern Europe and Russia. At the time it was instituted as an 'ism' in Russia and later in eastern Europe was at a time when religious practice, monarchies and aristocracy pretty well dominated the political landscape.

It is easy to see how any political practice at the time would have used similar religious orthodox practice to indoctrinate as that is what was familiar to the masses.

But I think you are right in asserting that whatever form of governing 'education' is used to indoctrinate citizens to the 'norms' of its society, including the political practice and religion of capitalism.

LET US PREY

From the Lords of Wall Street to the Rasputins of Bay Street the tenets of the profits are being preached by these Bishops of the economy to whom the bottom line is greater than the masses. The 99% be dammed by those who follow the "New World Profits".

The new world order is upon us and is registered as a "Corporation".

pwlg.... I used have a shop

pwlg.... I used have a shop and showroom on Powell St in Vancouver, when Mao's Little Red Book was the biggest hysteria among the faithful.

The sailors from the Soviet ships were well dressed by then, running to Army and Navy to load up on chewing gum and nylons for the black market in Vladivostok.

But the Chinese, in their blue "pyjamas", were always in groups of 10-12, each of them reading their Little Red Book, probably the hundredth time, excitedly pointing out certain passages to the others, getting them into circles, discussing the finer points of the faith.

Now they're buying up the houses and condos.

One of the most ridiculous cases I've ever seen was on a sunny day, when I was up on a ladder, working on the front of my shop.

A white guy was coming slowly down the street, reading the Red Book, went under my ladder, without apparently noticing it, then fell on his knees, just past, reading Mao's undying wisdom for a long time. I have seen some stupid things in my life, including the kids coming down the street pumping model plane glue into their faces from plastic bags, but that Mao maniac beat them all.

I've only seen similar cases before when people were reading their religious scriptures with tears in their eyes.

Interesting that EF Schumacher, one of the most rational and brilliant economists who has ever lived, refers to the "religion of economics" in his boooks.

Because that's what they are and so is our imaginary fiat (translated into "be it") monetary system now used as a weapon for colonization and enslavement, promoted by "conservative" politicians a "wealth creation".

Ed Deak.

Warmer than he thought

Presuming he goes anywhere, I think when he goes into the presence of the supernatural being he has been worshiping all his life, Stephen Harper will be heartily welcomed by him.

"Come in, Steve, come in."

But Steve might find "heaven" a little warmer than he thought.

OleumBenevolus

Genghis Khan:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3269384?uid=3739400&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=4&sid=55958353843
Attila the Hun:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Was_attila_the_hun_religious
Cyrus the Great:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great_in_the_Quran
Soviet Communism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_communism

well known previous to election

When I tried to bring this up during the campaign my comments would be blocked in the Globe and Str8.

The Big Oil funded MSM for obvious reasons and the oh so stunned ('m so nice) Iggy refused to bring this up. Jack already had made a deal with the Fascists.

While there are limits on corporate campaign donations to political parties, there are no limits on corporate donations to churches.

I can't imagine that Big Oil sends less than a few $hundred million to the wacky fundamentalist churches that based on their voting record 97% of Dear Supreme Fascist and Spiritual Leader for Life St Stephen the Pious MP's belong. Supreme's Alliance Party/church 's command is HQ'ed in Boulder CO where there are no limits at all on corporate political donations.

You can see Supreme's religious HQ sending the word down to all the churches in Canada.

Come Saturday/Sunday the preacher man down at the local wacky religious assembly gets up on his hind legs and extorts his sheep to contribute the max to Brimstone's CRAP party (Con/Reform/Alliance) as Big Oil has been so generous to them. Parishioners are enlisted in the cause and given a selection of comments to dump them on a list of news sites. No doubt then can deduct the contribution from their tithing.

Conspiracy theory maybe but Brimstone's policies are all Big Oil all the time, he gets almost all his money from the whacks.

Corporate donations to the MSM is well accepted, but...

do you really think Big Oil would make direct donations to a relatively small Alliance Church just to get them to vote for Harper?
We also accept the fact that BO gives very big donations to "think-tanks" like the Fraser Institute, but, religious fanatics who represent only a very small portion of the voting public?? I don't think members of most of the other Churches would be stupid enough to be taken in by Harper --Baptist, United, Luthern, Catholic, etc.
Well, maybe not, since the religious far right has certainly controlled the Alberta gov't so far.

The Authoriatarians

Boy Altemeyer - a Canadian psychology researcher (http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/) can provide people with a boat-load of insight into Harper's behaviour - read his free book (PDF) titled The Authoritarians...

If you go to the link above and read his comments - you will want to read his book I am sure.

Quid pro quo

"Signs mount that Canada's government is beholden to a religious agenda averse to science and rational debate."

True. But also true is:

"Signs mount that Canada's opposition is beholden to a socialist agenda averse to mathematics and rational economic debate."

Nikiforuk

The most disturbing part of this column is that which reads "Now let's be clear: I am a Christian and a social conservative." As much as I appreciate Nikiforuk's conservationist work, I don't see how anything I ever hear from him again isn't going to be tainted by that dismal news.

RickW

Thanks for the research but it's hardly convincing.

The Mongols certainly had their shamans and believed in the Eternal Blue Sky and the Sun as god-like entities. However, it does not appear that Genghis Khan took any of this seriously. The most powerful shaman in the Steppes was one Teb Tengeri who made the mistake of threatening Genghis' power. Genghis Khan had him taken from his Ger and had his back broken and was left to die. Also, wherever the Mongols invaded they never tried to replace the conquered peoples native religions, whether Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or Christianity. In fact, this is characteristic of Genghis, Attila, Cyrus and Alexander the Great.

With Cyrus, you do understand that Cyrus was dead for 1,000 years before Mohammed was born?

Your Attila link to answers.com is hardly convincing.

Finally, I wasn't talking about religious communes such as the Hutterites or the Kibbutz. I was talking about the real thing, God hatin' red Ruskie Commies. Now they may have outlawed organized religion with "religious" fervor, but that hardly makes them religious zealots.

RickOshea

"Harper's "conservatives" (regressives in reality) are to Canada what the Taliban were/are to Afghanistan - know-nothing religious fanatics that need to be kept as far away from power as possible."

Unfortunately, the religious fanatics are in power. Now what?

10 years past observation from the USA

Ten years back, a friend worked in Minnesota for 2 years. He got fascinated by all the Christian TV programming. e their was one evangelical sect who claimed that when Jesus returns to Earth, he will give us all the oil that believers need. Pretty convenient, huh? Jesus is an 'oal' man.