“Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts of the Apostles 2:36).

These words spoken by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost some 2,000 years ago, lay down the divine nature and authority of the Church founded by Jesus, the son of God. To the question of the people, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The resurrection of Jesus, his human life dead by crucifixion only two days earlier, is mankind’s great liberation from enslavement to sin and to Satan. The gift of Christianity to the world is this new-found freedom and grace. It allows us to recognize our need for God, his commandments, and his mercy.

Canada has been a Christian society for 350 years but during the last 50 years its Christian culture has been  under siege. The principal campaign was launched 40 years ago with attacks against the family, the heart of every nation’s culture. Under Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, legislation approved contraception (1966), divorce (1967), abortion, and homosexual activity (1969). All four, plus their many auxiliary vices, are  glorified today, with public defenders of the traditional family  few and far between. Catholic Insight magazine is one of those. This  is the reason why today this publication  is under attack.

Unlike the victims of abortion, divorce and contraception who were either unable or disinterested in forming pressure groups, homosexual activists  specialized in lobbying politicians and public officials. They have been very successful in this age of cultural  relativism.  From the original 1969 permission to be exempt from public supervision “for acts done in private between persons eighteen years and older”  – which was followed at once with the defiant opening of public bathhouses in Toronto – they advanced to the legal recognition of their same-sex unions as “marriage” in 2005. In the process, the age-old definition of marriage as “a voluntary union between a man and a woman for life" was discarded.

More recently, they also successfully made use of  taxpayer-funded Human Rights  Commissions (HRC’s) in harassing and silencing Canadians for publicly  opposing their behaviour, or for  refusing to co-operate with them.

Opposing the homosexual lobby is a lonely task. Many Canadians are frightened,  hostile, confused, or indifferent. As the editor of Toronto’s Catholic Register put it about Catholic Insight in what was likely an unintended understatement, “it is not everyone’s cup of tea” (Jan 13, 2008). Witness the current controversy in the mainline media about the role of HRC’s. With a few exceptions, the writers have restricted themselves to the cases of Ezra Levant and Maclean’s magazine. Both concern attacks by Muslims whose extremism is already widely unpopular.

On the other hand, the role played by HRC’s in supporting complaints of hatred and discrimination by homosexual activists is being ignored. Yes, the media reports them but as yet have not acknowledged them as being in the same category of  HRC’s other activity in threatening Canadians’ freedom of speech and religion. They should, of course.

Catholic Insight’s February editorial called for reform of the HRC’s. We support MP Keith Martin’s private member’s bill to remove section 13(1) from the Human Rights Act. We are  dismayed  by  the memo warning Conservative MPs to stay away from this issue.  This is more of the spurious “political correctness” directed against religious-based family moral issues.

This government had better recognize the strong support it has received from social  conservatives. But, instead, it looks more and more like Harper has no intention – now or in the future – of doing anything about the killing of the unborn through abortion; halting the attacks on the family and school children through the equality of same-sex “marriage”; changing Canada’s pro-abortion delegation at the United Nations; cutting the funding of secularist feminists and, now also, reforming HRC’s.

If there is an election, these topics should be front and centre in the questioning of candidates. If answers are not forthcoming, moves should be made for the replacement of  Stephen Harper as party  leader.

Let us stop the elimination of  Christianity  from the public forum and instead heed the Bible’s warning

“Cursed are those who … turn away from the Lord

They shall be like a shrub in the desert …

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5-7).