The art of survival is to know when to defend yourself and when not. Residents of Ontario could be just about to lose the most precious thing in live – their moral freedom – without even knowing about it.
The hidden threat is buried in something called Bill 7, which the Ontario Legislature is trying to rush through before the summer recess, while everyone is pre-occupied with other things, like the doctors’ strike, South Africa, and getting away to the cottage.
Bill 7 is an innocent looking bill against discrimination, designed to protect the rights of women in sports and to assist families who are refused apartment accommodation because of children. Under what innocent foliage creeps the serpent!
The serpent
Behind the scenes, lo, the serpent whispered to Eve and said, “Taste of this fruit and you shall be as gods.”
Now in this case, the serpent was the Gay/Lesbian Alliance which met with the Justice Committee of the Legislature on May 26, and demanded that Bill 7 should also include the rights of sexual orientation. MPP Evelyn Gigantes, playing the role of Eve, put an amendment forward, without any public debate, to include homosexuals and lesbians in the Human Rights Code.
In this form, the bill is now being presented to the Legislature – with the sex aspect carefully concealed under a fig leaf. It may even have gone through by the time these words are read.
“But surely,” some will say, “all that is not so important. I mean if any kind of discrimination is bad, then all kinds of discrimination are bad. You don’t want to be fair to some, but unfair to others, do you?”
The press is silent. The Churches are silent.
A clear case where a society does not know when to defend itself. Let us suppose for a moment that a bill like this goes through. Does this mean simply that the couple with children will no longer be denied accommodation in the apartment building, as was the original intent of the bill?
By no means. Pass this bill and the whole Gay/Lesbian Alliance can take over the apartment house. They can do whatever they want. Other undesirable lifestyles (heterosexual) – can be turned away. But members of the G/L Alliance are untouchable. Their lifestyle is now protected under the Ontario Human Rights Act.
In other words, Bill 7 doesn’t make everyone equal. It makes some more equal than others. It provides special protection for one group which other groups don’t have. We will have gained a new privileged class.
Do your own thing?
For example, if a member of the G/L Alliance applies for a job with the Boy Scouts or Girl Guides, they cannot be refused on the grounds of sexual orientation. Heterosexual applicants can be refused because of unsavoury moral background, but the G/L applicant cannot.
Look at the situation in Catholic schools. Under the amendments of Bill 7, a heterosexual teacher who teaches against Church doctrine can still be dismissed, but a G/L teacher who advocates a G/L lifestyle cannot, even though his/her teaching is contrary to Church doctrine.
Of course, no one wants the G/L individual to suffer any special penalties either. But there are no such penalties. If such an individual lives by acceptable community standards, they will enjoy the same protection as all other community members. It is the demand for special status which is so alarming.
You would think that the ramifications of all this would be clear to those responsible for the protection of their own interests and the interest of society at large. But this is where our weakness as a nation reveals itself.
The idea has gone abroad that we shall be all right if only we all do our own thing and do not force our ideas on anyone else. Thus no one wants to tell others how to live: what they may see on TV (even blood-curdling incitement to violence), whom they may marry (even members of the same sex), what they may do (even if it means killing unborn children), etc.
But by these standards, we should have approved of Sodom, and we all know what happened to that unfortunate city, now so like our own.
The point is that there is a price to be paid for everything in this world, and the lightning that fell on Sodom may fall on us too. It simply is not possible to build an anarchic society, and expect human freedom to survive.
Lightning comes in many forms. I do not wish to point to any special group, but the silence of our moral leaders is deafening. It is bad enough that our political parties of whatever stripe should turn a blind eye to it. It is only to be expected that our secular (and even religious) press should offer no guidance, no advice, no warning.
But where, or where are our men of God?
