Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

Choose life, not death, Canada

Is it merely a coincidence that a government that has legalized abortion, turned its back on child poverty and proposes to legalize same-sex "marriage," is now mired in a political scandal of apparently using taxpayers' money to fund purely partisan aims? Most would deny the connection or see such a thought as outlandish.

It is, however, a living example of what our new pope has called the "dictatorship of relativism."

The willingness to accept legal abortion and the redefinition of marriage can only come in a mindset that sees morality as fluid. Morality is only what we make it, argues the skeptic. It changes to fit the times. Today, we are in enlightened, tolerant times where everyone should be allowed the freedom to decide for themselves whether sexual activity should be allowed to lead to procreation or decide whether they marry someone of the same or the opposite gender.

Here we find the belief that there are no moral absolutes that would protect the right to life or the sanctity of marriage. Everything is relative or subjective. If I have the power to kill an unborn child and I want to do it, then it is morally permissible for me to do so.

Is it such a giant leap from such thinking to believing that my political party is the best one and therefore I am justified in surreptitiously using government money to further its interests? It is no leap at all.

And if the interests of the political party - not an inviolable norm in any sane order of morality - trump the right of citizens to prudent use of their tax dollars, then why not spray that money around to fund projects that will help the political party get re-elected.

Pope John Paul II wrote 14 years ago "Authentic democracy is possible only in a state ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person." We in Canada should see the importance of this statement now in the light of the current scandal and in light of the breathtaking recriminations hurled back and forth across the House of Commons.

Authentic democracy indeed! How can you have it without respect for law and morality?

Pope John Paul continued: "Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and skeptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life." We see this in the angry voices which contend that skeptical relativism is the only way for society to run itself, that anything else is intolerance and the imposition of one person's way of life on another.

The late pope added the coup de grace: "It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism."

Well, welcome to Canada 2005.

For nearly 40 years, our politics have slowly been taken over by the idea that there is no ultimate truth. We have legalized abortion and tried to make it seem normal. We are embracing same-sex "marriage" as a sign of our tolerance.

Now even the basic procedures of democracy are being mocked. The trusteeship the government has over the public purse has become a licence to spend. While many will not admit it, the root of these ills is the same. Skepticism about morality turns into unrestrained rule by the powerful.

The road to restoration and renewal lies less in replacing one gang of rascals with another than in regaining a sense of moral purpose. The only real renewal is for a nation to kneel before Almighty God to adore him and seek repentance.

The only hope for democracy is to have it based on values, eternal values. The way of faith is not an imposition, but a road to real freedom. Canada faces a choice between life and death, blessings and curses. Until we choose life, our nation is doomed to stagger drunkenly from one scandal to another, one heinous example of legislated "tolerance" to another.

A pitiful future!

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