Voting Like a Christian - Quebec Edition

My last few posts on “Voting like a Christian” (part 1, part 2, part 3) have have been drawn from the dynamics of the presidential election in the US.  This is because in Canadian politics, the religious factor tends to be relatively muted.  And unfortunately, when religious issues make headlines in Canadian politics, it’s seldom “good press” for the faith involved.  It seems that it’s either an extreme religious voice making extreme comments that would make most Canadians cringe (or a moderate religious voice being grossly distorted) or it’s an angry secularist decrying the “secret agenda,” “nefarious plot” or “veiled bigotry” of an orthodox believer.

Well,  the most notable example so far in this election falls into the latter category.  Last week, Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois laid into a Conservative candidate in Quebec about her membership in Opus Dei - a Catholic society dedicated to helping lay Catholics pursue spirituality in their day-to-day life. Duceppe described the group as an ultra-Catholic, secret society that was opposed to Quebec’s modernity.  Here’s the lede from the Toronto Star story:

Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe has seized on the revelation of a Tory candidate’s membership in the controversial, ultraconservative Catholic sect Opus Dei – some of whose members practice self-flagellation – to further breed fear among voters that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are right-wing, religious zealots.

That such an attack is possible - not on the basis of a candidate’s statements, or their actions but simply on the basis of a religious affiliation - is worth mourning.  This particular case is even more pathetic than the typical religious smear.  Since the publication of Dan Brown’s Da Vince Code, which featured a sinister albino monk-assassin who was a member of Opus Dei, this particular organization has suffered unfairly in the public imagination.  So for a political leader to stand up and reinforce an inaccurate negative stereotype of the organization (based on a piece of pure fiction) is simply irresponsible. 

Opus Dei is not a secret society, far from it.  It has a public website (opusdei.ca), and has gone to considerable lengths to be as open and transparent is it can be in a modern society.  In fact, here’s a quote on the subject from the head of Opus Dei in Canada:

We’ve been making a big effort to reach out and making our message known all over the country. A lot of effort has been put into the web site. If you were to talk to people who know members of Opus Dei, those people would say they never stop telling me about what they’re doing. (link)

Duceppe’s real complaint is not that the organization is secret or dangerous but that it supports the teaching of the Catholic Church.  Duceppe (and the party he leads) differs from the church on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage and in a province like Quebec, where the Catholic church remains relatively influential, it is usually a good idea for socially liberal politicians to pretend that the church doesn’t teach what it does.  So, rather than stating the truth: this candidate supports the church and likely opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, Duceppe paired it with a blatant lie: this candidate is being influenced by a dangerous secret sect which we cannot trust. 

Now at this point full disclosure is warranted.  I’m a Liberal, and as a Liberal, I’m a member of a party that has engaged in this same kind of misrepresentation of candidates’ religious views. Each time it happens, I’m disappointed and frustrated and angry; and I let people in the party know.

Duceppe’s comments were greeted negatively by some in the media and yesterday, Michael Coren (writing the the National Post) went to great pains to point out the idiocy of Duceppe’s attack.  Elsewhere in the comments on various news articles related to the episode, there are some correcting the record and dispelling the myths. Here a bit from Coren’s article:

The more important point is that this is a game of gutter politics being played by frightened politicians. Opus Dei is entirely faithful to Catholic teaching, so if anyone objects to its people standing for office they should really say what they mean — that genuine Catholics are not welcome. That, however, might be too much even for the most ardent followers of the new religion of state secularism…

…There have been rumours of extreme right-wing sympathies but this is largely nonsense. Because of the Spanish history of the organization, it is strong in Latin America and, of course, in Spain itself. Some members have supported juntas in Latin America, but they have also faced deportation, torture and murder because of their support for social justice. Opus Dei obviously stands for Church authority and hierarchy and so has sometimes been in conflict with the Liberation Theology of certain Marxist Latin American priests. But then so did Pope John Paul the Great and now Pope Benedict, men who have shown quite extraordinary sympathy toward the victims of fascism and offered contrition for any Church failings in this regard.

I can’t help but feel that this kind of thing is so common in Canadian politics because far more often than not, the millions of Canadian Christians leave their faith at home on election day.  I like to imagine a day when issues of faith can be discussed fairly and openly and a view is not disparaged on the basis of it being “Christian.” Unfortunately, I have a hard time imagining that day coming any time soon.

Have you ever voted against a candidate or a party because they attacked a Christian on the basis of their religion?

Have you ever defended a Christian politician from smears or unfair attacks (whether privately or publicly)?