Canadians call for state control of religion

OTTAWA, July 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Just as Senate approaches the final vote on the gay 'marriage' bill, C-38, Canada's national public radio CBC Radio has aired a commentary by a retired professor from the Royal Military College calling for state control over religion, specifically Catholicism. While parliamentarians dismissed warnings by numerous religious leaders and experts that such laws would lead to religious persecution, former professor Bob Ferguson has called for "legislation to regulate the practice of religion.""Given the inertia of the Catholic Church, perhaps we could encourage reform by changing the environment in which all religions operate," Ferguson began his commentary in measured tones yesterday. "Couldn't we insist that human rights, employment and consumer legislation apply to them as it does other organizations? Then it would be illegal to require a particular marital status as a condition of employment or to exclude women from the priesthood. "Ferguson continued, "Of course the Vatican wouldn't like the changes, but they would come to accept them in time as a fact of life in Canada. Indeed I suspect many clergy would welcome the external pressure."

"Couldn't we insist that human rights, employment and consumer legislation apply to them as it does other organizations?This can backfire on protestant groups, if for instance, 'employment legislation' meant a Christian organisation, such as a church or church office, could be forced to have a non-Christian working there. In the UK, the Evangelical Alliance helped to prevent this from happening, by pointing out the inconsistency of it. Now, churches have the same freedom to set their terms for employees, just as for instance, does the health service, for gender-sensitive positions.Then it would be illegal to require a particular marital status as a condition of employment or to exclude women from the priesthood. "This would be tricky to achieve!