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Pierre Poilievre: sometimes access comes with too high a cost

During the English-language leaders debate on April 17, the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre was challenged to explain why he hadn’t gotten his top-secret security clearance. Prime Minister Carney noted that the other three party leaders on the stage had gotten their clearances, so why had Poilievre refused to do so too? The Conservative leader explained,

“…when the government made this recent offer, they said that if I got the secret security clearance briefings that I would be gagged under the security law and I could be prosecuted if I spoke freely about matters of foreign interference. Now, given that Canada has experienced Chinese interference by Beijing, the government of China, in two consecutive elections, I needed to do my job, to speak freely without fear of prosecution, and that was not something I would be allowed to do.”

He’s presenting a principle – silence can be too high a price to pay for access – that Christians need to take to heart too.

It’s safe to say that this magazine’s readership has very little interest in the other three parties represented on the debate stage. The Bloc Québécois, NDP, and Liberals all ban pro-lifers from running for them – only the Conservative Party is open to Christian participation. But what does the Conservative Party expect of Christians when we join its ranks? During the campaign Poilievre made this pledge:

“I can guarantee you there will be no laws restricting abortion passed when I’m prime minister…. There will be no laws or other restrictions imposed on a woman’s right to decide to do with her body as she wishes and that is something that I am guaranteeing to you and to all Canadians.”

He’s allowing more than 50 pro-life candidates to run for his party, but should he win, does he want any of his MPs, or any of their supporters, crying for justice for the more than 100,000 preborn children who are killed each year? He’s offered us memberships in his party, and the chance to have our people run for elected office, but he certainly wants something in exchange: don’t embarrass your party leader by demanding that the unborn’s blood “be precious in his sight” (Ps. 72:14b).

But like Mr. Poilievre, we mustn’t let our silence be bought.

What can we do instead? God’s people can take a page from the persistent widow of Luke 18:1-8 who wouldn’t stop presenting her pleas, even though the judge wasn’t interested in delivering justice. Why did he eventually hear her? Because she would not be quiet. So if Poilievre wins, we need to be every bit as loud as we can be, no matter what access it might cost us. If God’s people won’t advocate for the unborn, who else is left?

Of course, the primary lesson of this passage in Luke is not about persistence in politics, but in prayer. We can try what we might, but God can do what He will. And God tells us we should never stop praying to Him, because unlike the unjust in positions of power, He is sympathetic to our pleas: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” That’s something Mr. Poilievre also needs to hear from us, lest he ends his days standing before this just Judge in blood-soaked robes.

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Pro-life - Abortion

Pro-life memes and cartoons to share

Through the years Reformed Perspective has created a number of pro-life comics and memes, and this is where we are going to collect them, so that they are easier to find, to grab, and to share. Right click on the picture to copy it. Or, to put it more pointedly, murder is not a solution... This is an answer to the complaint that, if not for abortion, so many more children would be in foster care, or would be poor, or would be unloved. But if killing people is the best way to address those ills, then, why aren't we extending the principle and murdering the already-born kids who are also in those situations? Because we know murder is not a solution, and we know that's not what compassion looks like. My body, my choice? There are any number of answers to the most popular of all pro-abortion slogans, "My body, my choice," most noting that there isn't simply one body involved. But it is important to note, it isn't that the unborn have a head, heart, or legs that make them valuable, as, early on, they didn't have those things. Rather, what makes us valuable (and what is also the only basis for equality) is not what we have or what we can do, but in Whose Image we are made (Genesis 1:27). No one knows when life begins? This comic was inspired by a hunting incident involving former Vice President Dick Cheney, and an interview with Barack Obama back when he was still Senator Obama. In a 2008 interview, the man who would become the next president of the United States said that he didn’t know when life began – it was above his pay grade – and that regardless he still supported abortion. But back in 2006 Vice President Dick Cheney had already illustrated why, when we have doubts, it is immoral to kill. The Vice President made his pro-life case while out on a hunting trip with a man by the name of Harry Whittington. Admittedly, Cheney wasn’t trying to score pro-life points – he was trying to shoot birds. But what was a bad day for the birds, and for his fellow hunter, turned out to be an unforgettable defense of the unborn. Things took a pro-life turn soon after the two hunters separated –Whittington was searching for a bird they had previously downed. As Whittington returned to the group, a bird popped out of the bushes behind Cheney, and Cheney, without checking first where Whittington was, fired off a shot. That shot may or may not have hit the bird, but certainly impacted Whittington, spraying his chest and face with birdshot. Fortunately, the 78-year-old Whittington survived his wounds. Cheney went on to become the butt of many, many jokes, including one from President Obama, who said that Cheney’s memoirs were going to be titled, How To Shoot Friends and Interrogate People. Everyone, including President Obama, understood that what Cheney had done was foolish. A cardinal rule in hunting is that you can’t fire your gun unless you’re sure people aren’t in your line of fire. Pleading ignorance is no excuse – you have to know no human life is being endangered or you can’t fire. It’s that simple. Obama mocked Cheney for proceeding with deadly intent, not knowing whether or not he was endangering human life. But Obama’s justification for abortion is just as foolish. His plea that when life begins is above his pay grade means that he doesn’t know one way or the other whether what’s in the womb is human life. But as Vice President Cheney reminded us that if we’re unsure, we can’t kill. Same thought as above, is expressed another way down below. Supposing we didn't even know when life began, that would only be another reason to ban abortion. Because if we aren't sure whether or not what we're killing is human, then we shouldn't kill it! ...