Don't forget: there is no reference to Christ in the founding documents of the US or Canada. God is mentioned a few times here and there, but Jews and Muslims worship the same God as Christians.
You're free to believe whatever you want. Don't forget that everyone else is too, and that - as I said - Christ is not mentioned is those documents, so Christians don't have any specific special status.
not sure where I said christians are entitled to a special status in society
It was the "No one comes to the Father except through Me" quote from Christ. For everyone on the planet who believes that - assuming all Christians actually do - there are more than three people who believe something else.
As for Canada, for about 15,000 years there was no Christianity. In 1604, when the First Nations population was somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million, a French Catholic colony was set up, and its population grew to about 70,000 by the time the English took over in 1763, bringing a flood of Anglican and Protestant Christians.
It looks like the European immigrant population grew larger than the First Nations sometime in the early 1800s, and certainly Christian sects were in the majority for about 200 years. They weren't particularly loving to the First Nations, were they?
Anyway, Canada is a multifaith country these days. Christianity is ahead by a few percentage points, but 45% of its citizens aren't Christian, so the government shouldn't tie itself explicitly to one faith.
Being free to believe what you want predates Christianity by thousands of years, but it's nice that a lot of Christians espouse it. Some of them, though, not so much.
" the Canadian constitution recognises special rights for Catholicism and Protestantism."
For schools.
Period.
It was a political deal, made in order to establish confederation, and was strictly about education. You can't turn an agreement on education into an unstated characteristic of the state.
There was a 200 year period where Christians signed legal documents with the people who lived here and then failed to honour those agreements. There was nothing in those treaties about stealing the native children, using them for slave labour, beating them for speaking their language, feeding and housing them poorly, letting them die by the thousands from treatable diseases, burying them in unmarked graves, and stonewalling in the present day when asked about it.
Did this happen to every single native child? No. Did it happen to thousands? Yes. Are First Nations still living in 3rd world conditions in Canada with limited access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities? Yes, to the point where China and North Korea can laugh at us when we talk about Human Rights.
If that's the Christian heritage you're proud of, well, the facts are there and whether you care to acknowledge them is up to you. If you don't you better start working on your defense at the Pearly Gates. "I didn't know" can no longer cut it. "I didn't believe" sounds kinda shaky to me. I wonder what St. Peter will say.
The Christian majority in Canada has been shrinking for decades and now, at 55%, barely qualifies as one. Soon it no longer will.
Don't forget: there is no reference to Christ in the founding documents of the US or Canada. God is mentioned a few times here and there, but Jews and Muslims worship the same God as Christians.
You're free to believe whatever you want. Don't forget that everyone else is too, and that - as I said - Christ is not mentioned is those documents, so Christians don't have any specific special status.
It was the "No one comes to the Father except through Me" quote from Christ. For everyone on the planet who believes that - assuming all Christians actually do - there are more than three people who believe something else.
As for Canada, for about 15,000 years there was no Christianity. In 1604, when the First Nations population was somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million, a French Catholic colony was set up, and its population grew to about 70,000 by the time the English took over in 1763, bringing a flood of Anglican and Protestant Christians.
It looks like the European immigrant population grew larger than the First Nations sometime in the early 1800s, and certainly Christian sects were in the majority for about 200 years. They weren't particularly loving to the First Nations, were they?
Anyway, Canada is a multifaith country these days. Christianity is ahead by a few percentage points, but 45% of its citizens aren't Christian, so the government shouldn't tie itself explicitly to one faith.
Being free to believe what you want predates Christianity by thousands of years, but it's nice that a lot of Christians espouse it. Some of them, though, not so much.
No mention of Christ in the Magna Carta either.
For schools.
Period.
It was a political deal, made in order to establish confederation, and was strictly about education. You can't turn an agreement on education into an unstated characteristic of the state.
There was a 200 year period where Christians signed legal documents with the people who lived here and then failed to honour those agreements. There was nothing in those treaties about stealing the native children, using them for slave labour, beating them for speaking their language, feeding and housing them poorly, letting them die by the thousands from treatable diseases, burying them in unmarked graves, and stonewalling in the present day when asked about it.
Did this happen to every single native child? No. Did it happen to thousands? Yes. Are First Nations still living in 3rd world conditions in Canada with limited access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities? Yes, to the point where China and North Korea can laugh at us when we talk about Human Rights.
If that's the Christian heritage you're proud of, well, the facts are there and whether you care to acknowledge them is up to you. If you don't you better start working on your defense at the Pearly Gates. "I didn't know" can no longer cut it. "I didn't believe" sounds kinda shaky to me. I wonder what St. Peter will say.
The Christian majority in Canada has been shrinking for decades and now, at 55%, barely qualifies as one. Soon it no longer will.