Is the March for Jesus a walk for hate?
Jun 18, 2014
One provincial PC leadership candidate is twisting in the wind right now after badly fouling up at a Christian rally on the weekend.
Ric McIver, MLA for the constituency of Calgary-Hays, appeared at the March for Jesus held in Cowtown’s Millennium Park last weekend. Seems harmless enough, doesn’t it? It was until some social advocates looked into the group behind the March for Jesus.
It seems the group sponsoring said walk is not exactly the warm, welcoming and compassionate throng one might expect so closely linked with the Lord. The march website, for example, offers up blog posts that live up to a bigoted, small-minded stereotype. One post accused LGBT people, for example, of being hedonistic Satan worshipers.
As Global News pointed out Monday, another group supporting the March for Jesus, Street Church Ministries, had plenty of venomous, hateful comments about the floods that hit Alberta last summer. Similar to the approach taken by some American fundamentalist Christians when New Orleans was flooded some years back, the SCM stated that last year’s Alberta floods were the result of a wrathful God.
Among the crimes Albertans were being punished for, according to SCM, were the 10,000 abortions per year performed in this province and, apparently, the fact that gays and lesbians are allowed to walk down public streets.
It’s astounding how people on one hand espouse a Christian philosophy of compassion, non-judgment and forgiveness, and on the other stream an ideology of pure intolerance and hate.
One has to wonder why McIver, who wants to represent Albertans from all walks of life, would support such a movement by appearing at its event. So, what did the leadership candidate have to say about all of this?
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, McIver stated that all Albertans, apparently including the March for Jesus and SCM, are allowed to believe what they wish, although he may not agree with them – or something to that effect.
As Alberta grapples with another leadership vacuum, pundits are suggesting the province needs a new direction from a leader with a clear vision for the future and which includes men and women of all faiths and walks of life.
Hopefully McIver’s biggest error here was in not doing his homework before becoming involved with this group and he now needs to clearly distance himself from it. Posting on Facebook that “this statement clears up any doubts about my commitment to the rights and freedoms of all Albertans, in the past, in the present and in my intentions for the future” isn’t good enough.
And it’s not only his commitment that’s in doubt. It’s his judgment.
