Canada isn’t a theocracy

LETTERS

Mr. Hoogerdyk’s guest column (Sept. 18) lauds the importance of parental engagement in education, but he hides his real purpose. He works for the biblical lobby group ARPA, the Association for Reformed Political Action. The name indicates just how ambitious the religious really are about ending the separation between church and state. What Mr. Hoogerdyk and his fellow believers really want is to impose their arcane doctrine on evolving human rights.

Consider these quotes from the ARPA website: “If civil government demands from us what God forbids, we need to obey God rather than man.” Talk about procrustean.

And… “Most of all, we care about what God says is good and right.”

And… “Sexuality is a gift from God, to be used for His glory. Of all gifts, perhaps this one has been the most misused and perverted since the Fall into sin.” To the thus “reformed,” gay people are perverts and sinners. The true agenda is to force LGBTQ students to continue hiding in shame until a better “conversion” therapy presents itself, or until they come to their senses.

Mr. Hoogerdyk says, “Alberta Education now allows for a student’s demands to trump parental responsibilities.” Well, who is AT school here? Parents or their children? And when it comes to the repositories of our unique human individuality, our bodies, and their burgeoning sexuality, nothing is more personal and private. Terrifying though that seems to be for the religious, (those poster people for helicopter parenting), the students in question are not five years old!

And “The government is forcing independent schools to adopt the ideas and worldview of the current provincial government,” meaning the secular, inclusive view. This rather than religious ideas and worldviews of which there are so many disputatious and arbitrary factions. Hence secularism.

And then to further say, “This is not reasonable or evidence-based.” Well that is very much the pot calling the kettle black isn’t it, speaking of poster people…

The unusual amount of parental involvement recommended by Mr. Hoogerdyk sounds more like home schooling actually, but clearly, the “faithbased” schools run a close second. It needs to be said that because these “independent” schools espouse an entirely alternate view of reality, they should be privately funded by their members alone.

This is why many are working at present to defund Catholic schools here and in Ontario and Saskatchewan, the holdout provinces.

Because Canada is not a theocracy.

Patricia and Tony Pargeter

Lethbridge