Dear pastors, missionaries, chaplains and friends,
Steve here… My daughter is working on her law degree out west. On a visit home a few months ago, I asked her if she had heard anything around her campus about the challenges that Provincial Law Societies are giving Trinity Western University about their new School of Law; her response was, “Oh yeah!”
The EFC’s Faith Today magazine had an interesting interview with TWU President Bob Kuhn in their May/June issue (view the article here), right around the time the Nova Scotia Law Society was challenging TWU’s right to train lawyers, the Ontario Law Society voted to deny future TWU Law graduates employment, and activist-lawyer Clayton Ruby launched a law suit against the BC Ministry of Advanced Education’s approval of TWU’s School of Law.
The Culture-Wars in Canada
All of this is due to TWU’s “Community Covenant”, which states the Biblical ideal of sex within marriage, between a man and a woman. This, of course, goes against the new ethics and common sense of the curren “culture-wars”. Opponents assume the TWU Law School will train up homophobic lawyers with discriminating beliefs who are bent on destroying Canadians’ rights. In essence, they’re saying that lawyers trained at TWU are unfit to practice law.
Steve here… My daughter is working on her law degree out west. On a visit home a few months ago, I asked her if she had heard anything around her campus about the challenges that Provincial Law Societies are giving Trinity Western University about their new School of Law; her response was, “Oh yeah!”
The EFC’s Faith Today magazine had an interesting interview with TWU President Bob Kuhn in their May/June issue (view the article here), right around the time the Nova Scotia Law Society was challenging TWU’s right to train lawyers, the Ontario Law Society voted to deny future TWU Law graduates employment, and activist-lawyer Clayton Ruby launched a law suit against the BC Ministry of Advanced Education’s approval of TWU’s School of Law.
The Culture-Wars in Canada
All of this is due to TWU’s “Community Covenant”, which states the Biblical ideal of sex within marriage, between a man and a woman. This, of course, goes against the new ethics and common sense of the curren “culture-wars”. Opponents assume the TWU Law School will train up homophobic lawyers with discriminating beliefs who are bent on destroying Canadians’ rights. In essence, they’re saying that lawyers trained at TWU are unfit to practice law.
This is NOT a New Battle… Remember 2001?
This is not a new fight for TWU and religious freedom in Canada: you’ll recall the 2001 legal battle, where the BC College of Teachers insisted that TWU could not properly prepare teachers due to their “Community Covenant”. There wasn’t a shred of evidence to justify their claims, and so TWU won the case. Nevertheless, this battle has become a hot-button issue among the legal elites across the country. Anyone in Canada who does not celebrate and affirm alternative sexual orientations is viewed as dangerous, bigoted and simply medieval. It’s hard to have a rational and reasonable conversation about the topic today. I recently tried to discuss the issue with a well-known CBC journalist, who said that any pastor with views like that “is an idiot”! Hmm…
Why is This Important?
This case has big implications for all Christian or religious schools in general: if orthodox Christian views produce unfit lawyers, then it’s a baby-step to conclude that it also produces unfit teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and other professionals.
This has huge ramifications for religious rights and freedoms in Canada. If TWU loses this case, there will be certain rights held above other rights—sexual orientation on the top, with religious rights somewhere down at the bottom of the heap. This could affect what our pastors can or cannot teach from the pulpits of our nation—activist-lawyers and lobby groups will make sure of this if TWU loses.
This is not a new fight for TWU and religious freedom in Canada: you’ll recall the 2001 legal battle, where the BC College of Teachers insisted that TWU could not properly prepare teachers due to their “Community Covenant”. There wasn’t a shred of evidence to justify their claims, and so TWU won the case. Nevertheless, this battle has become a hot-button issue among the legal elites across the country. Anyone in Canada who does not celebrate and affirm alternative sexual orientations is viewed as dangerous, bigoted and simply medieval. It’s hard to have a rational and reasonable conversation about the topic today. I recently tried to discuss the issue with a well-known CBC journalist, who said that any pastor with views like that “is an idiot”! Hmm…
Why is This Important?
This case has big implications for all Christian or religious schools in general: if orthodox Christian views produce unfit lawyers, then it’s a baby-step to conclude that it also produces unfit teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and other professionals.
This has huge ramifications for religious rights and freedoms in Canada. If TWU loses this case, there will be certain rights held above other rights—sexual orientation on the top, with religious rights somewhere down at the bottom of the heap. This could affect what our pastors can or cannot teach from the pulpits of our nation—activist-lawyers and lobby groups will make sure of this if TWU loses.
What Can I Do?
Pray for TWU President Bob Kuhn (left) as he carries the torch on this case, on our behalf. The case will be extremely costly, a cost that TWU is taking on for the benefit of Evangelical Christians nation-wide. What might you or your church consider doing to help support TWU financially in this legal battle?
Pray that Bob and other TWU reps will share the truth in love, making their arguments clear and compelling with gentleness and respect.
Our days are much like the first century: the church was counter-cultural then, and it remains so today. Pray for the power of the Gospel to transform our wonderful country.
Have a blessed week,
Steve Jones
Pray for TWU President Bob Kuhn (left) as he carries the torch on this case, on our behalf. The case will be extremely costly, a cost that TWU is taking on for the benefit of Evangelical Christians nation-wide. What might you or your church consider doing to help support TWU financially in this legal battle?
Pray that Bob and other TWU reps will share the truth in love, making their arguments clear and compelling with gentleness and respect.
Our days are much like the first century: the church was counter-cultural then, and it remains so today. Pray for the power of the Gospel to transform our wonderful country.
Have a blessed week,
Steve Jones
