Does it make you glad?

Wow.  The Premier of Ontario resigned!  Just like that – without any prior warning or hinting, he calls a press conference and announces that he’s out as soon as they can pick a new Liberal leader.   This news astonishes all who live in Ontario (including me) and pleases a great many of us (read the on-line comments being posted on the news services).  But why does it please us?  Is it right to be glad when a political leader gives up?

As a citizen, I believe that when a politician says they stand for something, they ought to stand for it.  That means I expect integrity from those who govern - most especially those who govern within the spotlight of up-front public service.  As a Christian, I believe everyone can have integrity  - for God gives His Spirit to all who receive Him, and by His Spirit we can live rightly.  Not completely without sin, mind you.  But in my opinion, to recognize when one is fallen into sin and immediately repent is as much integrity as anyone could ever expect in our broken world.  So those who confess have more honor than those who deny wrongdoing. 

Dalton and his close associates have made a series of promises to all the citizens of this province.  He promised to not raise taxes and then imposed ‘user fees’ and an onerous charge for OHIP premiums.  I call that a broken promise, not even mentioning the HST or the eco-tax.  Was it recognized as such and confessed?  No. 

Dalton and his party promised to balance the budget every year of their mandate, and then again promised to balance it by 2007.  That was long before the 08 economic crash and in spite of good times for Ontario they did not do it.  Today we have a record high debit, a 16 billion dollar defiit and there is only a slowing down of spending.  We are told that this slow down is excellent news and we should be satisfied with it.  Sorry Dalton, but as a citizen and a taxpayer, I am not. 

They committed to fund medically necessary health care services.  I still pay for chiropractic and eye exams.  My son’s diabetic supplies are still not covered by OHIP. 

McGuinty promised to govern with honesty and integrity. 

I am not sure how spending 40 million dollars to not build a power plant so that another party member can be elected falls into either ‘honesty’ or ‘integrity’.   Further, I find it highly coincidental that he resigned on Monday after 20000 pages of damaging testimony about this were brought to the legislature on this past Friday.  Those documents show that he knew it was actually 230 million dollars spent on building - well actually - on building nothing -  because it was spent on avoiding building anything.  How can anyone say they spend 230 million $ of public money on that and claim integrity?  Especially after repeatedly and publically saying it was ‘only’ 40 million dollars? {**see update below}

He promised to close coal fired power plants by 2007.  I think it was a good decision to backtrack, but did you hear him say ‘I was wrong’ about that?  

He promised to cut minister’s pay for running a deficit, and then defended the health minister for the e-health scandal.  In fact, the Auditor General released a review in which he revealed that McGuinty Government Officials actively obstructed his investigation into the billion dollar eHealth scandal. 

I didn’t see any provincial minister reprimanded for the Ornge scandal.  In fact, Deb Matthews only fired Chris Mazza after the scandal became public and people were made aware he was paid 1.4M$/yr plus benefits for his excellent service to us.  Then she said, the bankruptcy of the firm(s) involved was “vitally important and necessary steps needed to restore the confidence of Ontarians in the leadership team responsible for Ontario’s air ambulance service.”  Really?  Bankruptcy is a vitally important and necessary step in integrity?  How about avoiding it altogether?  BTW, Deb Matthews is being touted as a potential replacement party leader!

What about the Ontario Lottery scandal?  The G20 secret law that allowed mass round-up of legitimately protesting citizens? The Stewardship Ontario scandal?

Jesus called a spade a spade.  He told the Pharisees they were white-washed tombs, and He did that publically.  Rightly so, because they were deceiving the people.  Now before you claim I am putting myself in Christ’s shoes – something we ought never to propose to do – let me point out that all my critique of Dalton and his government is not spiritual in nature.  My critiques of his actions in this rant is entirely that of a citizen of the province and a thinking Canadian.  I don’t purpose to call Dalton and his government corrupt, or even label them as inept.  Let the courts decide that.  But as a taxpayer for government services – for Dalton’s services – I am highly offended. 

http://www.lfpress.com/2012/10/15/gas-plants-scandal-what-did-dalton-know

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/373419/mcguinty-admits-ehealth-troubles-continued-with-diabetes-registry/

http://www.politicsontario.ca/2010/07/dalton-mcguinty-must-take-responsibility-for-ehealth-style-scandal-at-liberal-eco-tax-agency/

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ont-gov-t-scrambles-to-control-olg-scandal-damage-1.430261

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/bentley-milloy-clarify-legislative-record-on-release-of-gas-plant-documents-1.996186

** Actually, the PC energy critic now says it was more like a BILLION dollars.  Hello!  

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/50363

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mcguinty-offices-project-vapour-tried-to-manage-power-plant-fallout/article4619960/

Culture Creep

In the paper Saturday was quite an interesting article by Sarah Boesveld[i].  It points out that the CRA is being campaigned on to revoke the charitable status of a number of Christian charities.  Why?  Because they specifically work with gays and lesbians in efforts to curb such behavior.  According to NDP Randall Garrison, the work of Living Waters Canada, Exodus Global Alliance, Courage and other like minded, “Christ-centered discipleship ministry that deals specifically with relational and sexual brokenness” is nothing more than ‘conversion therapy’.   The NDP is greatly encouraged by the fact that this practice has just been outlawed by California.  According to California’s governor Jerry Brown, conversion therapy (practiced by people that claim homosexuality can be overcome by the grace of God), “[have] no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery”.

I must agree that it is certainly true that such therapy has no basis in science or medicine.  It is a spiritual work against a spiritual problem, and will probably never be understood by any secular practitioner.   Nor will it be successful if the person so engaged in such “therapy” is unwilling to admit and face the spiritual aspect of such behavior.  Indeed, Sarah quotes Kevin Schultz, who sought help 10 years earlier and only attended 3 “therapy sessions” as saying, “You keep being told, ‘You’re broken, you’re broken, you’re broken’…like how long can you hear that and feel like a normal human being?”  Kevin subsequently divorced his wife and married another man.   How does the church feel about that?  HDM Spence (Dean Of Gloucester at the time) wrote, “Men have been found to sacrifice their best and dearest interests for the sake of some low lust, some evil propensity, or some sinful habit.”  Course - that was in 1909 when it was still OK to call it sin.

I expect that the popular media will not make much of this story, and the pressure on the CRA to delist Christian ministry focused on helping people escape what the Scripture calls “besetting sin” (behavior that God speaks against that you have a very difficult time escaping) will only increase in the background.  How long will it be till they recognize that the Church (not just evangelical, but all protestant and all Catholic too) actively encourages people to repent from a host of things that our society believes are perfectly fine?  Will a church loose its charitable status if they speak against porn, or gambling?  Both are culturally acceptable (indeed - even culturally encouraged) behaviors that the Scripture denounces.  Will it soon be a crime to discern between greed and ambition?

What we are witnessing is what I would call, “culture creep”.  Not just the seeping of a mainstream worldview into the culture of the whole society, but the mandated enforcement of that culture to all.  What used to be attacks on Christian identity and practice by fringe elements of society became attacks on Christian identity and practice by the leftist media and is now becoming attacks on Christian identity and practice by members of parliament and the courts.

Jerry Brown might take some satisfaction that his government has just criminalized conversion therapy, but I think the only crime committed here was calling a spiritual effort a therapy to start with.  Therapy is a secular work, not a spiritual work.  The church, and all Christian charity, ought to be clearly engaged in spiritual work and ought to rightly call it that.  Then the error of engaging those who do not want to be so confronted can be avoided altogether.  Of course, that would mean that only a few will sign up.  Besetting sin being such a friend of secularism, after all.

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[i] “You keep being told you’re broke’ – article by Sarah Boesveld in the National Post, Sat Oct 6^th, page A5