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Forcing Catholic school to teach “secular” religion course is 'totalitarian,' critics say
Life Site News ^ | 12-14-12 | Peter Baklinski

Posted on 12/17/2012 7:23:43 PM PST by ReformationFan

The government of Quebec is forcing Catholic schools to replace the Christian religion with the state’s “neutral” alternative based on moral relativism. That’s how defenders of religious freedom have responded to last week’s court ruling that a private Catholic high school must teach the state’s “secular” Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) course.

Barbara Kay slammed the judges’ decision in the National Post on Wednesday, arguing that it empowers a government to “compel a faith community to jettison its driving beliefs in order to promote the state’s secular religion of multiculturalism; or indeed, in the future, to compel promotion of any other theory or belief the state may wish to substitute for a faith community’s convictions.”

Kay said that the ruling treats religion merely as a “cultural preference, not a deeply held core belief.”

“For Catholics, on the other hand, everyone who is a Catholic or a member of another religious faith —or even atheistic — is respected as a spiritual pilgrim on a profound journey in pursuit of truth,” she said.

Marie Bourque, vice president of the Association of Catholic Parents of Quebec, told the Catholic Register that the mandated ERC program will make children skeptical of any kind of religion or faith.

“It sort of vaccinates children against all faiths by teaching them you can fabricate your own religion,” she said.

The ERC course purports to take a “neutral” stance on world religions, giving equal spiritual standing to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Wicca, Raëlism, aboriginal animism, and even a student’s own invented religion. “If you say that, you are rejecting the divinity of Jesus Christ and the whole of Christianity,” Bourque said.

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) called the ruling “a grand social experiment” that raised the “legitimate objections of religious parents”.

(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: canada; parentalrights; religiousliberty; religiouspersecution; tyranny
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Coming south of the border very soon......
1 posted on 12/17/2012 7:23:51 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: ReformationFan

This is what happens when a church worships Mammon.


2 posted on 12/17/2012 7:28:11 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Lurker

How so?


3 posted on 12/17/2012 7:33:42 PM PST by Lee N. Field ("You keep using that verse, but I do not think it means what you think it means." --I. Montoya)
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To: ReformationFan

Is The government of Quebec funding Catholic Schools? In Quebec, are students forced to go to Catholic schools ? If they don fund and they don’t require attendance, they don’t have a say.


4 posted on 12/17/2012 7:35:36 PM PST by oyez (Hell must be a Gun Free Zone.)
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To: Lee N. Field

Government money mattered more to them tha religious freedom apparently. Well. They took the cash. Now they’re all indignant when they’re expected to play the Government tune.

Fools...


5 posted on 12/17/2012 7:35:50 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: ReformationFan

What do you mean coming? It’s here and it’s ugly! There is no God in schools. He’s been evicted by the moral decay and corruption of our society. We have forgotten our heritage and have denied him time and time again. We were once a Christian nation, but now, we are secularist. No longer believing in heaven or hell. God forgive us for we have been blinded to the truth.


6 posted on 12/17/2012 7:36:06 PM PST by 41Thunder (The SUPPLY of Government is GREATER than the DEMAND of the people)
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To: Lurker

Lurker, maybe if you weren’t so blinded by your hatred of Catholicism that you’ll justify anything that harms the Catholic faith, you might actually learn what the laws of Quebec are before you proclaim as fact whatever thought occurs to you to defend your bigotry.

Quebec’s Catholic schools are not (usually) subsidized. (A minority receive vouchers.) Formerly, Canada had Protestant and Catholic “confessional” schools, through which the state instructed students in the religious beliefs of their parents’ choosing. Nonetheless, many Quebecois opted to pay their own tuitions and form their own schools, precisely because they DID reject the government’s entangling with religion; Quebec has the highest proportion of students going to private schools of any state, province or territory in North America.


7 posted on 12/17/2012 7:50:56 PM PST by dangus
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To: Lurker
"This is what happens when a church worships Mammon."

I wouldn't know, I don't go to your church.

Peace be with you

8 posted on 12/17/2012 7:53:22 PM PST by Natural Law (Jesus did not leave us a Bible, He left us a Church.)
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To: ReformationFan
History shows that the state can't keep it hands off religion.

Is already south of the border. Been here for years.

9 posted on 12/17/2012 7:54:27 PM PST by oyez (Hell must be a Gun Free Zone.)
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To: oyez

You write like you believe in freedom! What a silly, passe’ belief! No, the government long ago forced government-subsidized “Catholic” schools (called “confessional schools”) to abandon their religious instruction and simply parrot the godlessness of the federal government. Fortunately, the Church foresaw the danger, and maintained its own private schools. So the “free-thinkers” are moving to destroy even those.


10 posted on 12/17/2012 7:55:27 PM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

If you dig up the constitution of the USSR, you would find that it gives the people “symbolic” freedom of religion.

Today, that is what we’re getting in the West, freedom of religion as long as it suits the State.


11 posted on 12/17/2012 8:05:11 PM PST by oyez (Hell must be a Gun Free Zone.)
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To: dangus

You have me all wrong. I don’t hate the Catholic church. I hate they they won’t simply tell the Governent to go pee up a rope. The Canadian Catholics should announce that they will no longer accept a single Loonie from the Government in any way, shape, or form for any purpose whatsoever.


12 posted on 12/17/2012 8:10:46 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: ReformationFan

sionce when does the govenrmenth ve the right to dictate to a private school what they should teach? Does the constitution nnot mean anythign anymore?


13 posted on 12/17/2012 8:41:32 PM PST by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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To: ReformationFan

whoops- just read headlines- I see it’;s abotu canada- however- expect thsi here very very soon too-


14 posted on 12/17/2012 8:42:16 PM PST by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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To: ReformationFan; mgist; raptor22; victim soul; Isabel2010; Smokin' Joe; Michigander222; PJBankard; ..
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

15 posted on 12/17/2012 8:50:29 PM PST by narses
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To: ReformationFan; mgist; raptor22; victim soul; Isabel2010; Smokin' Joe; Michigander222; PJBankard; ..
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

16 posted on 12/17/2012 8:51:02 PM PST by narses
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To: ReformationFan; mgist; raptor22; victim soul; Isabel2010; Smokin' Joe; Michigander222; PJBankard; ..
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

17 posted on 12/17/2012 8:51:59 PM PST by narses
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To: ReformationFan

Well, I suppose this thwarts my recent consideration of Canada as a possible place to migrate to.

Back to the pondering.....


18 posted on 12/17/2012 8:56:24 PM PST by Scotswife
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To: ReformationFan

I suppose this would be an hour a week sort of course - I would teach it and then spend the following hour comparing it to Christianity and Church teaching. I think it would teach the students to think critically about other belief systems and value their own more.

Mel


19 posted on 12/17/2012 9:03:53 PM PST by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong....)
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To: ReformationFan

OMG!


20 posted on 12/18/2012 1:56:12 AM PST by Ann Archy (ABORTION........the HUMAN sacrifice to the god of CONVENIENCE.)
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