Outside the low-rise office building that houses Canada Christian College, security was tight. Yellow police tape blocked the driveway, and plainclothes rcmp officers eyed the crowd for threats to two visitors inside: Canada’s ambassador to Israel, Alan Baker, and Major General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, chief of Israel’s military intelligence. Still, neither was the night’s main draw. Taking their seats on the stage of the college’s ground-floor auditorium, they were mere warm-up acts for the undisputed star of the show: Reverend John Hagee, the Texas televangelist who packs eighteen thousand born-again Christians into his Cornerstone Church in San Antonio every Sunday and whose fire-and-brimstone broadcasts reach an estimated ninety-three million homes around the globe.
Seated onstage, Hagee hardly looked capable of mustering such charisma. A squat fire plug in a brown shirt, brown suit, and beige striped tie, he stared out from behind owlish wire rims, no hint of a smile creasing his jowls. But the moment he strode to the mike, he had the audience in thrall. “As we sit here in safety and security, a nuclear time bomb is ticking in the Middle East,” Hagee intoned, his drawl gathering decibels as he rhymed off the litany of threats against Israel from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including his vow to see the nation wiped off the map. “In the twenty-first century, the president of Iran is the new Hitler of the Middle East,” Hagee thundered. “I believe Israel is in the greatest hour of danger it has known since statehood.”
But on this particular May night, Hagee chose not to elaborate on that discomfiting doomsday plot—discomfiting, that is, for all but Bible-believing Christians like himself, who bank on wafting heavenward in the rapture before all the bloodshed sweeps the globe. As he had warned in Jerusalem Countdown, “We are racing toward the end of the age. Messiah is coming much sooner than you think!”
The Second Coming has always raised an awkward theological hurdle in Hagee’s quarter-century of cheerleading for Israel. Even in his disputed reading of the Bible, there are only rapture provisions for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. For this audience, sprinkled with Jewish dignitaries, Hagee chose to focus on a more diplomatic, short-term action plan one he unveiled last February when he summoned four evangelical pastors, including Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, to San Antonio to recruit a grassroots lobby called Christians United for Israel.
This summer, as Israeli jets pounded Iranian- backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, killing an estimated 900 civilians, 3,500 of Hagee’s evangelical conscripts descended on the US capital to demand that Congress stand in solidarity with Israel. Any calls for a ceasefire ignored “God’s foreign policy statement” for the Jewish people, Hagee told the Washington crowd. “Leave Israel alone. Let them do the job.” No matter that such solidarity might fuel new waves of Islamic terrorism or, as Hagee details in Jerusalem Countdown, lead to a preemptive Israeli strike against Tehran’s nuclear installations, which risks igniting the final-days fuse. “I challenge you to be bold, be fearless,” he exhorted his Toronto audience. “Christians, stand up and speak up for Israel.”
To some Canadians, Hagee’s end-of-time sabre-rattling might seem like a marginal sideshow an exotic import from the sometimes raucous big top of the US Christian right. But here, political pulse-takers seem to have overlooked the signs and portents of a shift in the landscape where fervent religious conviction and realpolitik meet. Not a word about Hagee’s Canadian visit had crept into the mainstream media, nor had its organizers run a single conventional ad. Despite that lack of publicity, two thousand evangelicals had made the pilgrimage to this suburban campus, alerted only by Christian broadcasters and church bulletins, to hear a superstar pastor with a direct pipeline to the born-again occupant of the White House. As Hagee confided to a reporter before his Toronto appearance, he first broke bread with George Bush back in the Texas statehouse, “so I know that he is with us.”
Now he has reached the same conclusion about the man ensconced at 24 Sussex Drive. On stage, Hagee lauded one of Stephen Harper’s first post-election acts: after Hamas militants won power in the Palestinian Authority, Harper became the first world leader to cut off its funding, trumping even Bush. “God has promised to bless the man, the church, the nation that blesses the Jewish people,” Hagee purred from the podium. “I am so delighted that Canada’s prime minister immediately denounced Hamas terrorism when he became the leader of this great nation.”
Hagee’s assessment of Harper isn’t based on news clips alone. His Toronto host, not to mention his longtime Canadian major-domo, was Canada Christian College president Charles McVety, one of the most outspoken players in this country’s religious right wing. During the last election, as head of a handful of pro-family lobbies including the Defend Marriage Coalition, McVety emerged as a power to be reckoned with. He bought up the rights to unclaimed Liberal websites such as josephvolpe.com and stacked a handful of Conservative nomination contests in favour of evangelical candidates adamantly opposed to same-sex matrimony, a campaign he has vowed to repeat. As Harper navigates the tricky waters of minority rule—keeping the lid on any eruptions of rhetorical fervour from the rambunctious theo-cons in his caucus—it is noteworthy that he has continued to cultivate a man regarded as the lightning rod of the Christian right. Last spring, those around the prime minister drafted McVety to help sell the government’s contentious child-care policy, and on budget day he was the personal guest of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in the Commons’ vip gallery.
Comments (23 comments)
jmcdougall: This article must have been so difficult to write. The facts are so very terrifying - it is a real wake-up call. A lot of "Steve's" statements now have context. I'm so glad Maclean's was stupid enough to let some of its best journalists slip away to a great place like The Walrus. Thank you all. October 13, 2006 17:46 EST
wagner1979: chilling and horrifying. How can we so blindly follow the USA's lead? October 16, 2006 08:22 EST
Myles Leach: I would like to thank Marci McDonald for pushing aside the curtain which the Harper Conservatives have drawn tightly against media scrutiny. Only days after I finished reading Marci's article Stephen Harper, under fire for weeks regarding his government's lack of an environment policy, dropped the "Israel bomb" into the Liberal camp by suggesting that not only Michael Ignatieff but all the Liberal leadership hopefuls were "anti-Israeli." Within hours the national political debate had turned from a rout of the Conservatives' lack of policy direction to a "loyalty to Israel" contest. Harper proved that the wise serpent doesn't always spare his venom. Thanks for a very enlightening article. October 16, 2006 11:10 EST
sohailakhan: There is an elephant in this church that everyone is ignoring completely in US and Canada. It's the Israeli government officials who are directly involved in shaping the domestic and foreign policy of US and Canada. Their mediums are the Jewish advocacy groups in Canada and US. These Jewish advocacy groups' mediums are the Evangelical Christians groups who think they're simply following the scripture. The upheavals that the Christian Right is creating in the Middle East is misunderstood by North America. Israel has direct interest in creating these 'zealots' in North America since they serve its purpose, whether it's labelling Arab Organizations as Terrorists or labelling entire Middle Eastern Countries as rogue states. These are dangerous gambles that will haunt Canada's pristine image around the world for a long time to come. October 18, 2006 09:54 EST
The Cylinder: Additional material:
The Armageddon Lobby
http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/holy_land_studies/v005/5.1haija.html
Zogby Polling Results on the "Armageddon Lobby:
http://www.cnionline.org/learn/polls/czandlobby/ October 18, 2006 12:52 EST
sdovan: I guess we have our very own domestic (Christian) version of the Taliban. October 19, 2006 07:31 EST
zoedog: Brilliant and terrifying article. Every Canadian should read this and I suggest all subscribers pass along that article to anyone they know that may have the urge to vote Conservative in the belief they are benign. This is a dangerous and divisive path for our great nation. October 30, 2006 20:00 EST
Elnanorel: I am not at all sure why this article would be considered "terrifying." It would be naive to think that a single person enters political life without personal biases. All of us have formed opinions on the world through our own personalities and life experiences. In fact, I would be dismayed if I heard that our politicians did not have the ability to form reasoned opinions about the world around them. Stephen Harper has a perfect right to be a Christian and a politician at the same time. I applaud him for at once trying to be inclusive of all faiths without attempting to disguise the fact that he, like all of us, has personal biases towards a certain belief system. October 31, 2006 11:31 EST
davidbutorac:
While Miss McDonald uncovers real meetings and connections between the CPC and Evos, she draws too much on the Evos' perception of themselves. Of course, they think they're influential. But the funny thing about Canada is that it has a Charter of Rights of Freedoms and every person, government both provincial and federal is bound by it. It mentions something in there or other about, um, religion near the beginning. Were a province to invoke the 'notwithstanding clause', it would only last five years, after which point the citizens could vote out or keep in that government.
If a Conservative goverment were to show bias of any religion (we'll hypothesize Christianity, particularly its Evo strain), they would be voted out so hard and (again) for the next 40 years. As we are well aware, you are not going to form a majority without Ontario and Quebec, so you can find every and any connection between the CPC and evangelicals, but there is no chance these provinces would give a majority to a party which was going to do anything 'vicious' or overtly (and importantly) iditotic and Christian. Ever. This is wishful thinking on the Evos part. Giving money directly to parents for day-care has reasonable merits on both sides of the issue, but it is not explicitly Christian (or any other religion for that matter). So, you can have every Christian lobby in town praying and meeting and blah blah (which is their democratic prerogative in multicultural society, right?), but where the Charter could possibly be circumvented (using articles within it) or nudged in a certain direction, Canadians would violently react against it. (Canadians unlike Americans love to punish their politicians; cf. Mulroney's PCC.) There is no political acuity in her analysis, only a doomsday worse case scenario which borders on fantastical. The CPC will be driving right down the middle of the road for the next "ever", with the occasional tap of the wheel to the right. The next Conservative majority budget, if it does anything funny, will be the last Conservative budget for a long long time. One never knows, but I suspect the Conservatives have cottoned on to this.
If people haven't noticed, Canada since Conferderation has had a happy relation between state funded parochial schools and the government. I will grant that Evos are largely different bird, but they must operate within a very large and powerful common opinion about everyone being sympatico. Not so with the US, which from its beginnings there was a strong evangelical flavour (to put it mildly) to it. Again, the Conservatives know this; they'll find ways to shoot themselves in the foot, but not this foot. Ironically, this gambit of dividing the religious right against the secular left is simply uncandadian; it's American. (Gasp!)
I didn't know Harper had reversed Canada's Israel foreign policy. (We'll forget the tiny little anti-semtitic "none is too many" period...) What about (St.) Mike Pearson, The Honourable Canadian Middle-Soft Power guy? Aside from sending troops to fight communists in Korea (gasp! Fight? With soldiers? against Communists? how...american...), as chairman of the General Assembly's Special Committee of the UN, he helped, um, create Israel, knowing full well what that creation would mean in terms of Israel's neighbours. That is, he supported Israel. Canada supported Israel at the UN in the 50's and 60's (along with most Western democracies), but with PET Canada started abstaining and occasionally supporting it. Joe and Mulroney....supported it. So, pretty much, so long as one's memory belongs to the Chretien era (which showed so much leadership outside of the deficit), you could say that Harper had reversed Canada's position in this regard. A shift relative to recent absentions, yes. Reversal, no.
(Incidentally, Hizbollah (supported by two countries who want Jews, um, annhilated (their words)), who started the whole thing, and before the kidnapping had been sending 40 archaic (read: little accuracy) missles randomly into civilain areas of Israel a day, broke the first article of the Geneva War Crimes Convention, waging war from within civilian areas. Oh, and at the recent Francophonie, Harper (supported by Chirac) pushed to prevent the condemnation of Israel only. This was remarkably even handed.)
You would truly have to know nothing (I am being polite here) about any government or history or any facts at all to compare the CPC to the Taliban. Good try though.
November 05, 2006 13:12 EST
davidbutorac: November 05, 2006 13:22 EST
davidbutorac: My comment about the CPC and Taliban was not directed toward Miss McDonald (who said no such thing, but to the contributer sdovan, commenting below. November 05, 2006 13:24 EST
Lance Nielsen: I was interested in your magazine as a result of seeing it advertised on NatGeo. I find after investigating that it is simply a front for secular progressive neo-liberalism. You consistently attack values shared by many Canadians. Would you find China or the Russia more palatable than the society we have which has been founded on Christian beliefs based on freedom of choice.
Further, I find your article on Harper and the Theo-Cons amusing at best. Had your article been written about an Arab conspiracy to infect the land with Shariah Law - as has been attempted - your "newsmagazine" would have been met with the full clout of the law as being classified "hate" literature. I find your view of Christianity nears the threshold of "hate" literature.
Your attack on the Christian values of Harper are amusing given his track record of keeping church and state separate. He did have a vote on Gay Marriage and respected the outcome. He has shown full respect for all faiths as recently demonstrated by his vist to a new Vedic Temple near Toronto.
Perhaps a visit to the prisons of Cuba or China may serve you well in rekindling the wonder and amazement at how well Christian values have served to provide the foundation for the great and free society we have in Canada.
Regards,
Lance Nielsen August 22, 2007 10:00 EST
Lance Nielsen: "Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage."
What - I paid for this magazine! All the more reason why government should not recieve my money! This magazine is so hard left I am shocked to read that your mission is to provide a "general-interest magazine with an international outlook". You have certainly not achieved your aim. The only international outlook this magazine has is one as seen through the rose coloured glasses of Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro.
Canada's Magaizine of the Year! Is there any hope for balanced reporting from Canada's magazines if this is their finest.
August 22, 2007 10:13 EST
John Daudrich: This 60's style history lesson has clarified so much to the 10 or 20 people who have read it.
Lesson #1 Back in the 60's we learned all about sex, drugs, and disrespect for authority from these same people.
Lesson #2 We can now learn from this article from these same people 40 years later where the roots of the Pedophilia epidemic , Sodomy epidemic, and reefer madness epidemic come from. They hate God. "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are inconvenient".(Romans 1:28) The moral relativism of the left is bankrupt.
The ideological gatekeepers of the far left know nothing about religious freedom. Freedom for them is freedom to indulge, and trample over the rights of others. Freedom to them is to use your money to indoctrinate innocent children with their own pernicious ways.
Harpers position is nothing less than that of a modified Libertarian. That would be for each individual to promote their own philosphy using their own power and money.
There is no greater freedom than that which is found in a nation that upholds the Bible and what has been traditionally referred to as the Evangelical position. Right now, you and I are living on the residual freedom of our God fearing forefathers. Just try talking like this in Saudi Arabia, or Iran. Leftists are consistently on the same side as the jihadists of our day. They hate Christianity which upholds women and gives them respect and dignity. Yet hate the freedom that Muslim women have under the west created governments of Afganistan and Iraq. Countries that would otherwise treat women like farm animals.
At first the left accused conservatives of being anti Jewish. Now we are accused of being pro Israel. Well you can't have it both ways. The left accused conservatives of being against personal freedoms. Well they are right in some ways. We are against the right to murder. We are against the right to steal. But they steal from taxpayers everyday to fund themselves. We are against the right to have our personal reputations sullied by lies, innuendo, and half truths. But the lies continue to spew forth about Harper and anyone else that they disagree with. They have same attitude that Stalin, Hitler, and Mao had about their people.
We know better. We are the intelectual elite. We are liberal.
October 08, 2007 18:55 EST
Dan: "How can we so blindly follow the USA's lead? October 16, 2006 08:22 EST"
You haven't been paying attention. There are way, way more people in the US who are trying to keep this from happening, than the whimper of tsk-tsk in Canada. Canada is just waiting for it. October 14, 2007 18:38 EST
Viamund: All religions are the same... all superstitious nonsense. We - those who represent the light of reason - must do - by whatever means necessary - any and all acts required to prevent this American Taliban from gaining any sort of power or influence within our beloved Canada. To maintain that separation between Church and State is a Canadian value. Segregation is not a Canadian value. Those Neo/Theo-conservatives do not belong in Canada. They represent lies, shame, fear and superstition. October 17, 2007 16:43 EST
RALPH: .
LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT THE COMING RAPTURE!!!!
PLEASE DON'T SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIVES...AND ALL OF ETERNITY WITH PIAPS!!!!! November 09, 2007 08:36 EST
Jim Cyr: I didn't read the piece; I know, I know: "How can you make such accusations when you didn't even READ the article??" Well, look: I don't HAVE to (which in a way is great........a real timesaver during a busy, busy day!) This piece is UNDOUBTEDLY just more silly, leftist, shallow "disguised" attacks against traditional Christianity and conservatism. (I put disguised in quotes because, increasingly, authors like this don't even have the rudimentary cleverness to successfully disguise their attacks.)
This is all like Kabuki theater.....and BAD Kabuki theater at that. February 29, 2008 15:05 EST
Anonymous: Steven Harper is no different than any other Prime Minister except for the exception of Mr Trudeau who stood true to his promises. Our country once held strong to Canadians Christian values, now our Government has been dictated to and we no longer stand for what we once stood for. Its got to the point than immigrants who come over to our country now dictate how our country should be run. Its pretty bad when we can't even use the word Christmas, because other nationalities say it infringes on there belief's. Mr Harper is also guilty of the mass slaughter of all those helpless seals. What have we become. Its time the people of Canada took Canada back. We all need to take a stance and stand up for what is morally right. The states have no problem speaking out, what is wrong with us? Our national anthem does not stand for what Canada represents. Their is only one true living God and one religion and that is the word of God.In the end their will be everlasting life for those who worshiped the one true God and for the rest of us who chose to ignore the truth, they will suffer eternal damnation. Mankind cannot prevent the inevitable and they cannot change the scriptures. What is written will be done. March 09, 2008 15:43 EST
Enkidu: It is a miserable conceit to reference Christian values without the courtesy of either a definition or an example that illustrates the definition.
A casual assessment of Harper's approach to Christian values reveals contempt and petulance to be among his highest objectives.
So what is a distinctly Christian value? March 13, 2008 16:47 EST
scdg: i think what the author was trying to portray is nothing but fear, what if Harper is a Christian it isnt the end of the world...and what does it matter what church Harper goes to? I am wondering if the author would be happy if the Prime Minister professed no faith or beleif in anything. I also want to respnd to the person who asked about Christian values. Christian values have upheld this country, the legal system, and society since its inception; laws about murder, stealing and others are examined in the scriptures.
i dont necesarily agree with everything Harper stands for, but i respect his right to lead our country and also profess his faith in God...that freedom is part of being Canadian
to the person who said all religions are the same, and neo-cons dont belong in Canada has missed the point completely, Canada is a free country with religious freedoms protected in the Charter, anybody who applies for citizenship is rightfully able to live in Canada as much as you....
and Christianity is about Christ not a religious order or organization. Its about relationship with a living God.
April 16, 2008 18:37 EST
Barb: If you support anything that causes problems, you are aiding and abetting the problem. Taliban, evangelicals and fundamentalists don't even know that they are brainwashed, so it's not fair to rely upon them for clear opinions. Humans are naturally superstitious, since we need the feeling of control, even if it isn't real, to give us the impression we are safe. It is, however, just a delusion, and we can never lose sight of that. If someone needs religion as a hobby or personal support tool, go ahead. But since religion is a made-man fantasy, it is always manipulated by man, whether it be the pope, father, reverend, taliban or cult leader. Abuse and the hunger for power is rampant, and it's no wonder. Everything mankind can do, can be done right or wrong. Religion is a perfect example. The protection of religion was sought and received. Now it is terribly abused by religious people to try and smother the rest of humanity with their control and preferences. That is why, long ago, politics and religion remain separate. People like Harper are religious extremists and they have said that they want to trick regular religious people to vote for them. I know many religious people who are not falling for Harper's tactics, because they know that this type of extreme religion is very dangerous in it's lack of concern for anyone who won't join them. Harper and his church doesn't care to save the planet, because they want it to end as they are told it will, to bring their predicted end times to fruition. It'll be a sad day when the rest of the population realizes that we have let these people ignore real problems and let the planet suffer so badly. I think we've let religion dominate too far, and we will all end up with a pretty lousy planet because of it. Worse, I have no religious freedom, because apparently I'm not allowed to talk about what I believe to be true, that religion should be respected, but treated on the level of a hobby, which it is. April 27, 2008 18:31 EST
Anonymous: Posted by Barb:"I have no religious freedom, because apparently I'm not allowed to talk about what I believe to be true, that religion should be respected, but treated on the level of a hobby, which it is. April 27, 2008 18:31 EST"
Nicely stated. Religion is a hobby, and as such merits a dedicated section in a bookstore—right next to the fantasy section. April 28, 2008 16:45 EST