“And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me.” (Mt 11:6) The recitation of the Lord’s Prayer has been a standard part of political meetings in this country since its beginning. The Christian hands which laboured tirelessly to build up our country up from a British outpost into a nation glorious in its own right knew that their stomachs were nourished by daily bread they received from a benevolent Father. Aware of their duties both to this past and their God, the statesmen entrusted with the navigation of the ship of state submitted the same prayers to the same God, trusting with simple, sincere faith that the blessings of bygone days would be renewed in their own.
Last month, Canada’s Supreme Court found in favor of an atheist who claimed that the recitation of this prayer – that perfect prayer which rightly bears the name of Its Perfect Author – at the beginning of Saguenay’s city council meetings was “offensive”; and he was awarded $30,000 in “damages.” Appealing to a tendentious definition of “neutrality” – a definition supported neither by our long jurisprudential traditions nor by our nation’s own history – the Court arrogated to itself the role of religion’s scourge. Ironically, Canada’s “multicultural” heritage was wielded against the very tradition from which our country emerged.
The prayer that Christ taught us will still be recited, but not in public, and not by the leaders who are in most need of the blessings it would bring. Instead, God-fearing citizens of this great country will raise this prayer in private, and attacks on our religious liberty will number among the evils from which we will ask to be delivered.
