timeimmortal

I echo BCF’s question: can’t they both lose?

Fred Phelps is the lunatic in command of the Westboro Baptist Church, a lunatic-fringe religious cult (I refuse to call them “Christian”) that runs websites with such lovely names as “God HatesFags”, “GodHatesCanada“, and so forth. A more hateful man — and a less fitting witness for Christ — you would be hard-pressed to find. The Westboro cult are known from their habit of protesting the hell out of everything they disagree with.

They revel in the deaths of American soldiers, proudly proclaim that the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed by God, and claim that homosexuals are “worthy of death.” Not a nice bunch.

Conversely, Darren Lund is the anti-Christian activist and wannabe censor who hauled pastor Stephen Boissoin before the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The complaint was decided in his favour, and pastor Boissoin was essentially ordered to renounce his Christian beliefs as a result (an order he has not complied with, of course). Also not a nice sort.

And it looks like there’s going to be an activist vs. activist cage match in Red Deer, Alberta, coming up!

WBC will picket The Laramie Project - at
6:30 to 7:30 p.m. - Friday & Saturday,
August 8 & 9 - at The Matchbox Theatre,
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Darren Lund is organizing a counter-protest.

Oh, this should be good. Someone, please get this on camera!

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Bishop Fred Henry has tangled with the Alberta Human Rights Commission before, over remarks he made concerning gay marriage, and only avoided conviction by offering a clarification of what was said that apparently satisfied the plaintiffs to a sufficient degree. My own recollection of the incident is fuzzy, but I seem to remember that the clarification was nothing even remotely close to an endorsement of gay marriage.

Be that as it may, the good bishop has produced a scathing letter to Alberta premier Ed Stelmach, concerning the AHRC and its recent ruling against Red Deer pastor Stephen Boissoin.

Dear Premier Stelmach:

I have raised the issue of the Alberta Human Rights Commission several times with you in the past 18 months. On each of those occasions, you said that you understood the issues and shared my concerns. However, the situation is continuing to deteriorate across our country and the various levels of governments are seemingly non-responsive.

…

The conflict between social pressure and the demands of right conscience can lead to the dilemma either of abandoning a profession or of compromising one’s convictions.

Faced with that tension, despite the ruling of the commission, we must remember that there is a middle path that opens up before workers who are faithful to their conscience. It is the path of conscientious objection, which ought to be respected by all, especially legislators.

Every person has the right to have their religious beliefs reasonably accommodated.

Each judgment emanating out of our various human right commissions seems to be more brazen and bizarre than the one that preceded it. However, for inane stupidity and gross miscarriage of justice our own Alberta Human Rights Tribunal deserves to take first prize for its treatment of Stephen Boissoin.

June 2008: The Alberta Human Rights Tribunal fined Stephen Boissoin, $5,000.

Section 30 of the Alberta Human Rights Act states: “Evidence may be given before a human rights panel in any manner that the panel considers appropriate, and the panel is not bound by the rules of law respecting evidence in judicial proceedings.”

…

The tribunal effectively stripped Boissoin of his right to freedom of speech. “Mr. Boissoin . . . shall cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.”

…

The tribunal decided to extract a further pound of flesh by way of public humiliation. “Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. provide [Dr. Darren Lund] with a written apology for the article in the Red Deer Advocate which was the subject of this complaint.” What happens if Lund is not satisfied with the apology?

Mr. Premier, we have talked enough about the inadequate provisions of and appointment to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunals. It is time to repeal Section 3(1)(b) of the Alberta Human Rights Act and to protect the rights of religious freedom. Every person has the right to make public statements and participate in public debate on religious grounds.

The ruling against Pastor Boissoin was particularly egregious, and essentially amounted to forcing the man to recant some of his deeply-held beliefs; it was both an outrage and an absurdity, and highly offensive to anyone who places any value in the teachings of the Christian Religion. Bishop Henry has spoken out on divisive issues in the past, and his voice is a welcome addition to this cause.

Update: Welcome, Steynians! Binky raises an excellent point concerning how involved Catholics seem to be in the free speech struggle, especially when compared to the relative lack of vocal outpourings on the matter from Protestants. If your priest or preacher has spoken out on this issue, make sure to congratulate him or her for having done so. If your priest or preacher hasn’t spoken out on this issue…maybe take him or her aside for a moment to ask why.

We Christians, especially, have a real stake in this whole affair, and the body of Christ should be united on this issue. It should also speak out as one against the abuses of the HRCs.

Stephen Boissoin himself writes in with a comment — and perhaps even a clarification — concerning the letter by him which was cited in this article.

Just so people are aware, that letter was not just some baseless anti-homosexual rant. The newspaper gave it the title and it was published in the middle of the heated gay marriage, hate crimes bill, gay school books being added to the public school curriculum yadayadayada debates all across Canada. Had the gay activist not pushed for so much and destroyed so many or my liberties, that leter would not have been necessary.

In my own Province, the gay group Alberta — PFLAG had received funds from the AHRC, the same group of thugs that prosecuted me, to promote their very biased agenda to young people that homosexuality was “normal, necessary, acceptable and productive and has been for thousands of years.” To top it off, a pro-gay teacher in my city, same guy who filed the complaint against me, was inviting a gay minister to come into the public school to teach what he called “the pro-homosexual interpretation of the Bible.” He refused to invite a minister that held the traditional view so as to ensure his students had a balanced presentation.

Enough was enough….that letter was written to open the Pandora’s Box. To get people thinking and asking questions about the present imbalance of ‘gay rights’ which are agressively hindering the rights of others.

That letter, though the cause of my present persecution, has done what it was designed to do and I thank God that I had the opportunity to stand for truth and do my part. Had [Darren Lund] not filed that complaint, the letter and my views would have been contained to my Central Alberta community and the debate would have most likely ended in 2002. Instead, the world has access to my letter and I have been provided with a global pulpit for six years going.

Blessings,
Stephen Boissoin

One could not, I think, ask for a better reason to speak out than Pastor Boissoin’s closing paragraph. The issue of homosexuality is a complex one, involving moral theology and natural law as well as many other considerations, and certainly the present progressive tendency to rush in “with guns blazing” to make homosexuality “mainstream” is very concerning. People should have a right to speak out about the issue from every angle, including the moral angle, and in defence of what could be called traditional sexual norms. As Chesterton noted, “progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative”, and progress for its own sake has in all ages of history been ruinous to the societies that have sought after it.

We, as Canadians, should have the right to have heady, long-winded, and powerful debates about matters which affect the fabric of our society, which threaten to alter it in ways that may be destructive to it. We should have had that debate about divorce. We should have had that debate about abortion, common-law partnerships, and a whole host of other things which have chipped away, little by little, and the centrality of the family in stable society. We need to have that debate about homosexuality, if only to avoid repeating past mistakes. When people are silenced, the opportunities for such debates shut down.

But silencing someone only works if a) you kill him or b) he agrees to be silenced. Pace what Ezra Levant noted previously, the one who speaks out anyway, in spite of being ordered to shut up, is something of a dashing rogue…and, as Pastor Boissoin notes above, it is precisely because he was initially silenced that he elected to speak out even louder, spreading his side of the debate much farther than it probably would have gone had events transpired even slightly differently.

It’s things like this which will, in due time, be the end of the human rights commissions — or, at least, the end of the role of HRCs as an office of censorship, both nationally and provincially. More and more, Canadians are beginning to wake up and realize that regardless of what the government says, human beings possess natural human rights that exceed those mere things which governments privelege citizens to do. These rights can’t be taken away by anyone short of God Himself.

So why not speak out? Why not act out? Like the Poles in the 1980s, the moral authority is not possessed by those who would demand order, censorship, and obedience to government stipulations and obscure tribunals. The moral authority belongs to the people who will not give up those rights which are theirs regardless of the government’s opinion. Let us not give that up.

Update: Welcome, Sleepy Old Bear readers, and thanks for the kudos, Stillman! I like that term of yours…”pansexual”. Mind if I borrow it occasionally for future use?

Meet the Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Ezra Levant is in a positively giddy mood after having posted, in its entirety, the letter that got Red Deer Christian pastor Stephen Boissoin convicted by the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

I feel like a dashing rogue, like the Scarlet Pimpernel. Now I know why men ride motorcycles; now I know how it must feel to sport a moustache, to wear a tattoo (and not just the Chinese pictograph for ginger beef, but a tough one, a home-made one, that says “mom”).

There’s something ineffable about being a free man, about saying what you want, about not being afraid of what someone else thinks.

It feels pretty good.

I’d encourage you to try it.

Go ahead.

Publish Rev. Stephen Boissoin’s hate crime. I don’t care if you’re Christian, or gay, or both. I don’t care if you agree with it or not. Just republish it. Do it because you’re not supposed to do it. Because and Ed Stelmach and Darren Lund say you can’t. Do it because the Red Deer Advocate caved in and copped a plea bargain, instead of fighting like Rev. Boissoin (and Maclean’s and Mark Steyn) did.

Do it to show that you have natural rights that predate, and exceed, any “human rights” given or taken away by Alberta’s human rights commission.

Do it to show that you’re alive. To feel alive. To show that democracy and freedom are still alive.

I have to tell you, I feel great. I’m going to post it again, right now.

Hey, why not? I need to drop a few pounds!

Homosexual Agenda Wicked

The following is not intended for those who are suffering from an unwanted sexual identity crisis. For you, I have understanding, care, compassion and tolerance. I sympathize with you and offer you my love and fellowship. I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied. Many outspoken, former homosexuals are free today.

Instead, this is aimed precisely at every individual that in any way supports the homosexual machine that has been mercilessly gaining ground in our society since the 1960s. I cannot pity you any longer and remain inactive. You have caused far too much damage.

My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume. With me stand the greatest weapons that you have encountered to date - God and the “Moral Majority.” Know this, we will defeat you, then heal the damage that you have caused. Modern society has become dispassionate to the cause of righteousness. Many people are so apathetic and desensitized today that they cannot even accurately define the term “morality.”

The masses have dug in and continue to excuse their failure to stand against horrendous atrocities such as the aggressive propagation of homo- and bisexuality. Inexcusable justifications such as, “I’m just not sure where the truth lies,” or “If they don’t affect me then I don’t care what they do,” abound from the lips of the quantifiable majority.

Face the facts, it is affecting you. Like it or not, every professing heterosexual is have their future aggressively chopped at the roots.

Edmund Burke’s observation that, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” has been confirmed time and time again. From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators.

Our children are being victimized by repugnant and premeditated strategies, aimed at desensitizing and eventually recruiting our young into their camps. Think about it, children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.

Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that men kissing men is appropriate.

Your teenagers are being instructed on how to perform so-called safe same gender oral and anal sex and at the same time being told that it is normal, natural and even productive. Will your child be the next victim that tests homosexuality positive?

Come on people, wake up! It’s time to stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness that our lethargy has authorized to spawn. Where homosexuality flourishes, all manner of wickedness abounds.

Regardless of what you hear, the militant homosexual agenda isn’t rooted in protecting homosexuals from “gay bashing.” The agenda is clearly about homosexual activists that include, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Supreme Court judges, and God forbid, even so-called ministers, who are all determined to gain complete equality in our nation and even worse, our world.

Don’t allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These activists are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.

The homosexual agenda is not gaining ground because it is morally backed. It is gaining ground simply because you, Mr. and Mrs. Heterosexual, do nothing to stop it. It is only a matter of time before some of these morally bankrupt individuals such as those involved with NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Lovers Association, will achieve their goal to have sexual relations with children and assert that it is a matter of free choice and claim that we are intolerant bigots not to accept it.

If you are reading this and think that this is alarmist, then I simply ask you this: how bad do things have to become before you will get involved? It’s time to start taking back what the enemy has taken from you. The safety and future of our children is at stake.

Rev. Stephen Boissoin

You know, Grace did tell me, the other night, that she thought I looked thinner.