Posted on 06/09/2006 5:11:56 PM PDT by wagglebee
HALTON, ON, June 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The verbal sparring match began on May 28, when Conservative MP Garth Turner appeared in a television interview, alongside pro-marriage/Christian political activist Charles McVety.
The issue at hand was homosexual “marriage” in the RCMP.
During what McVety—who is involved in or represents the views of groups including Defend Marriage Canada, the Canada Christian College, and the Canada Family Action Coalition—calls a “spirited” debate, it came to the fore that one of the goals of Christian political activists is to work to ensure that anti-marriage, anti-life, anti-Christian Conservative MPs are defeated and replaced with more family-friendly and Christian candidates during the nomination meetings that will occur before the next election.
Turner responded, accusing McVety and those who share his beliefs of employing anti-democratic tactics. On his blog that same night Turner responded to McVety’s arguments, saying “I have no time for groups in our society who try to force their morals, or their culture, on the rest of us.”
He concluded his remarks saying, “Call it Defend Marriage Canada. Call it the Taliban. Fleurs de mal [Flowers of evil]” (http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/6/).
In a later blog entry Turner labeled those who share McVety’s political and religious views as “people who share his divine Kool-Aid,” (http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/5/) an apparent reference to the infamous Jonestown Massacre of 1978, during which 913 members of the Peoples Temple cult committed mass suicide by drinking grape-flavoured Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. And in another post he called those who would attempt to nominate politicians whose politics is informed by their faith as “religious vigilantes,” (http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/2/) and elsewhere, “single-issue monochromatic militants” (http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/6/). And elsewhere, mere paragraphs after back-pedalling and saying "No, I did not call the fundamentalism Christians Taliban," he continues and compares the very same Christians to Afghan Militant Muslims, although avoiding the explicit term "Taliban," saying, "But a faith-based government? Forget it. Our brave troops in Afghanistan spend every day tracking down and squishing the freaks who tried that one" (http://www.garth.ca/weblog/page/2/).
Joseph Ben-Ami, Executive Director of the Institute for Canadian Values, expressed his confusion at Turner’s accusations that recruiting supporters to attend nomination meetings is anti-democratic.
“When Garth Turner arranges to bring his family and friends to a nomination meeting on a bus he calls it democracy, but when a challenger who happens to be brown-skinned, or perhaps a member of the local church or synagogue, does the same thing for their family and friends, he calls them Taliban and accuses them of ‘taking over’,” observed Ben-Ami.
“Garth Turner’s behaviour is a sharp illustration of the vicious and deep-rooted bigotry lurking just below the surface of the secular-left in our society,” continued Ben-Ami. “People like him claim to be champions of tolerance, but when their own ideas and positions are challenged, they resort to name-calling and fear mongering, laughably invoking the principle of tolerance to justify their bigotry.”
Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, a group that works to help elect pro-life candidates, said of Turner, “We said right from the beginning that Garth Turner wasn’t somebody that could be supported. A lot of people said we just have to vote Conservative regardless of the candidates. And here we’re paying the price.”
Hughes continued, saying “The Prime Minister has had this man in already and told him to clam up. Now the only thing is for his expulsion from Cabinet. That would satisfy the bulk of people who supported Mr. Harper from the life and family movement.”
LifeSiteNews.com tried to contact party leader Stephen Harper’s office to find out if an apology for Turner’s remarks was forthcoming, but was unable to speak to anyone with information on the matter prior to publishing time.
Throughout the debate Turner has also—despite his often expressed approval of a majority-based democracy—repeatedly called into question the need for a free vote on the same-sex “marriage” issue in parliament.
In one post Turner admits that traditional-marriage supporters represent a large portion of the Canadian population: “In a moral sense,” he says, “they have a huge current behind them since most churches are solidly behind traditional marriage. In a cultural sense, many ethnic communities represented in Halton [Turner’s riding] are massively against same-sex marriage. In a political sense, these highly-motivated voters are not going to let their views be ignored.” Turner continues, admitting that he has also had strong reservations, “about the wisdom of the Liberal move to change the definition of marriage, especially without a whole lot more public input and debate.”
The Halton MP, however, dismisses the concern that the Liberal government side-stepped proper democratic processes in pushing through the same-sex “marriage” legislation, and failed to properly take into account public opinion on the redefinition of marriage.
“It is behind us,” says Turner about the passage of the legislation, “the Right has been extended, and there seems no compelling reason to take it back.” He did not say whether or not the majority of Canadians being opposed to the extension of the “right” would be a sufficient reason. Numerous polls have indicated that the majority of Canadians are indeed opposed to same-sex “marriage”. A CBC poll conducted in January of last year indicated 54% of Canadians were opposed to Bill C-38, while a National Post/Global National poll in February of the same year indicated 66% opposition.
“I’ll go down fighting to stop any faith-based group, Christian, Islamic or whatever, from using our precious political system to impose their value system and religious beliefs on the rest of us,” Turner wrote on his blog on June 6. “There’s a reason wise people decided the state and the church should be separate, and Canada – proudly multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-faith and multi-hued – is no d**n place to start gluing them back together.”
“That does not mean,” he continues by way of clarification, “we can’t be ethical, moral, responsible, principled and virtuous. In fact, our government should be an example of humanity gone nuts with goodness.”
Throughout the debate Turner has repeatedly labeled himself as a “Christian”, although it is unclear if he draws his beliefs of what is “ethical,” “moral” and “good” from his Christian faith, or from some other unnamed source.
To express your concern contact Stephen Harper at: pm@pm.gc.ca
Nice to hear you apologize for your failure to address the issues you brought up.
I am sure the posse must be a fun thing.
The posse thing again.
Just because several people believe you are overwhelmingly fixated on one subject, and some of us happen to be from Canada, does not make us a posse. We ping each other occasionally to let each other know what is happening.
My primary purpose, in the political sense, for joining FR was my anger over some conservatives total disrespect of GWB on the illegal immigration issue.
That is a bald faced lie. You haven't been discussing politics with anyone, you've only been casting blame.
The majority of your posts have been on literal scripture, and gay mounties in Canada.
Refute that!
What are your solutions to these problems?
The topics you've posted on since joining are mostly bible related, with a good bit of homophobia.
First, remember just how much self righteous crap has come out of Canada that has been uncooperative with and critical of the US.
First remember that Canada has been ruled by a liberal/socialist party for 13 years, and the Canadian people have voted the thieves out of power.
Second, don't take it personally when someone says Canada has an image problem, you do.
What makes you think I'm taking it personally?
It's your opinion, and you are entitled to it.
I am smart enough to take the opinion from where it comes, and discount it accordingly.
Third, don't expect you get a free pass just because you have changed administrations, let's wait and see what the new administration does, people have memories.
One would require KNOWLEDGE before one can remember.
You might want to see how we Canadian FReepers fought, for years, to achieve a Canadian Conservative government.
This is Jim's house. A wonderful place for conservatives to discuss life, game plans, and how great the world can be. I don't see you contributing in any way to this end.
Fourth, don't expect that everyone is going to like you.
You don't like me? I guess I'm shattered.
...and maybe you never get to know what others may be thinking.
I wish I would take Rush Limbaugh's advice.....never argue with an idiot.
Oh, that was excellent!
Thanks TC.
:-)
I am so sick of trolls.
Trolls make us all cranky. You can use James' picture if you want :-).
LOL!
"B. Your blase' (disingenuous?) assumption that all on the thread would check it out to find the stated conclusion about a Canadian issue was at least half justified via American sources."
I made no such assumption. I was clear, I assumed that you would look at it, I gave you the reference. As to the inadequacy of the opinion I do not have enough knowledge about the strategy to arrive at that conclusion.
wow.
I think this is the first time I've seen you tear someone a new gastroenterotic outlet.
well done.
Let's be honest. There are homosexuals in every society. As I recall up to 10% of any population is possibly homosexual. As for a Mountie being homosexual - so what! Rugby League is a pretty tough form of football. Some years ago one of our leading players came out. Did they kick him off the team? Of course not. While I think it inappropriate and politically unwise for gay people to encroach on traditional marriage, I think they are entitled to the right to act as each others next of kin etc and to have their relationships recognised through some form of civil union. In the past gay people occupied all sorts of positions and no doubt there were some in the RCMP and the FBI. However, unlike today, society did not know about it. Gay people did not come out. As for people who would continue to persecute gay people, perhaps they should remember what Christ said about throwing the first stone. If conservatism is to thrive and prosper, it must show some compassion.
I should have added that I find offensive the conduct of some of the radical homosexual groups. There is no need to march naked down the street to display 'gay pride'. That is blatant exhibitionism. However, such groups do not represent all homosexuals and more than the far left represent all Americans, all Canadians, or all Australians......
Well said, Fair Go
If there was a referendum on the issue, the gay activists would get trounced in almost every part of Canada. That is why they are fighting tooth and nail against such.
We need her as a candidate in the next election in one of the three London seats held by the opposition.
I have no doubt. I think it was very foolish of them to encroach on traditional marriage and it seems they have adopted a very aggressive approach.
You were discussing Job's life, and you think it's not literal?
What point are you trying to make?
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