CLC Blog

Will it soon be illegal to say “Merry Christmas” in public? Not likely. Not yet. But if the Liberal government gets its way and passes Bill C-9, we are one step closer to living in a country ruled by Ebeneezer Scrooge wannabes.

“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” – Ebeneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

With the amendments that are now being proposed for Bill C-9 (the upcoming “speech control law”), the very heart of the Christmas message is under threat. Prime Minister Mark Carney is working with his cabinet to tighten the noose on Canadians’ freedom of speech – especially when it comes to religious speech.

Believe it or not, they are planning to make it illegal to publicly quote, read, or preach from certain passages of the Holy Bible that Liberals find offensive!

In a recent closed-door agreement between the secularist Bloc Quebecois and radical Liberals, the new speech control law will remove all religious exemptions in hate speech prosecutions. This means that Christians who share certain portions of Scripture will be at risk of arrest under the charge of “promoting hate”. They will no longer be able to claim a “good-faith” legal exemption for sharing the Word of God and expressing their sincerely-held beliefs.

There are certain texts of Holy Scripture that some would love to label as “hate speech”, and Bill C-9 will embolden them to do just that. For example:

• “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Leviticus 20:3). Some will call this hateful to other faith groups.

• “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…” (Mark 10:6-8). Some will call this hateful “anti-trans” and “anti-homosexual” expression.

• “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). Some will claim it is “hateful” and even “genocidal” to teach that sinners will experience death and hell if they reject God’s gift.

Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, has stated: “In Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans — there’s other passages — there’s clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals… there should perhaps be discretion for prosecutors to press charges… there are clearly passages in religious texts that are clearly hateful.”

Above: Minister of Culture, Marc Miller. Source: Somos Hermanos.

Under Bill C-9, it is possible that you could face two years in jail for sharing the unpopular truths of the Bible in public or online! The police will have the power to arrest you, and a judge could convict you, if they misconstrue your Christian words or actions as being “motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”

Furthermore, you will face a heavier prison sentence if you are found guilty of some other Criminal Code offence while expressing your Biblical beliefs. For example, if the police charge you with “mischief” for being a part of a protest they deem “illegal”, your sentence can be increased from five to ten years if the judge determines you are acting on “hateful” Christian values. In other words, Christians can expect a double punishment for being Christian!

No, this is not some law out of North Korea or Communist China. This is Canada.

We need to call on our elected Members of Parliament to scrap Bill C-9 and stop the Carney Liberals from going full-Scrooge on Christian speech!

Bill C-9 will make “hate speech” charges easier to lay on Christians, turning police and crown prosecutors into modern-day politically-correct inquisitors.

For several years now, vocal Christians have been the target of prosecutions by aggressive left-leaning crown attorneys across Canada. Bill Whatcott, a stalwart Christian activist, continues to fight the charge of “promoting hatred” when he passed out biblically-based tracts at a homosexual pride parade in Toronto in 2016. Father Tony Van Hee is still fighting his alleged violation of a pro-abortion “bubble zone” in Ottawa in 2018. Pastor David Lynn faced frivolous charges of “hate” for his street evangelism in an LGBT neighbourhood in 2019. Pastor Derek Reiner was arrested last week for refusing to apologize to a librarian for criticizing her promotion of the drag queen lifestyle to little children.

Above: Arrest of Pastor David Lynn in 2019. Source: Christ Forgiveness Ministries.

And I could share several more stories of faithful, outspoken Christians who have faced hardship for their faith in Canada.

Imagine what will happen if Bill C-9 passes!

I firmly believe we will see a new drive to arrest even more Christians and suppress their witness all across our land. Mr. Carney is taking Scrooge’s “humbug philosophy” to the extreme!

Now it is true that the message Christians proclaim – “good tidings of great joy” – has an offensive element to it. The “good news” is only good because Jesus Christ has dealt with the “bad news” that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).

People have broken God’s Law in many different ways – lying, stealing, sexual sin (fornication, adultery, homosexuality), idolatry, covetousness, murder (abortion, euthanasia), etc. That truth is sure to offend! However, we need to first know what we have done wrong before we can repent and receive the good news of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Under Bill C-9, it will become very difficult to proclaim God’s Law in public. This means it will be very difficult for Canadians to understand their need for the Good News at the heart of Christmas – that “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11).

Christ saves people from their sin, but what if we can not mention sin in public?

My hope is that God will break through the hearts of the Liberal leadership, through our prayers and as we present the signatures from this petition. Even as Ebeneezer Scrooge eventually saw the light and changed his ways on Christmas Day, we wish for the same change among our political leaders in the Liberal party.

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Petition to key Members of Parliament to cancel Bill C-9: https://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/petition/id/99