I, Too, Remember Peter

It was during the 1980s—a time when Canadian evangelicals felt that no one in public broadcasting was making any attempt to understand us.

The American Right, led by Jerry Falwell, had cast a pallor of religious fundamentalism across our nation. Hence, whenever Canadian evangelicals surfaced in the news or on public affairs programs, they were introduced as “fundamentalists.” It was also during this time that Islamic and Seik fundamentalists were making headlines around the world. The inevitable happened—Christian fundamentalists were linked with religious extremists responsible for bombings and hijackings.

To this conundrum of public confusion over our identity were added Jim Bakker, promoting his form of religious narcissism, and Jimmy Swaggert, embarrassing us by his moral failure. To understate it, these were not the best of times for Canadian evangelicals.

Into this muddle came media icon, Peter Gzowski.

My relationship with Peter began when I was asked to respond to the shenanigans of Jim and Tammy Bakker: their financial dealings and Jim’s moral lapses had just been made public.

I recall—as I was driving down to the old CBC headquarters on Jarvis Street in Toronto—wondering how I could turn a discussion of this sordid affair into something other than a public apology. I rehearsed what I thought might be the patter of conversation with Peter—as an avid listener to Morningside I had a sense of his style of interviews. He would likely read out the litany of Bakker’s foibles, and then turn and ask, “Brian, how do Canadian evangelicals feel about this?”

“How could I move this conversation into a positive direction?” I wondered.

It occurred to me that after expressing sadness and embarrassment about it all, I could say, “But the media is missing the big story!”; and Peter, the good interviewer that he was, would not ignore the question.

I tried it, and it worked. Predictably, he asked, “And what is the big story?” I then pointed out the remarkable interest in spiritual issues which seemed to be sweeping across North America. From there we moved into the wider issue of “spirituality,” and then to a question about evangelicals. I reminded him that his forebear, Sir Casimir Gzowski, in the late nineteenth century helped start Wycliffe College, the evangelical Anglican seminary at the University of Toronto; and that Casimir’s son helped many evangelical ministries, including in 1894 what is today Tyndale College & Seminary. This first interview with Peter helped foster a relationship which led him to giving me opportunities to clarify on the CBC who evangelicals are and what we believe.

It was in the fall of 1993, during the federal elections, that Peter asked me again to bring clarity to evangelical concerns [or concerns about evangelicals?]. It was when the Reform Party was poised to substantially increase its presence in Ottawa. In the election debates there were public statements—especially against Preston Manning—which were mean spirited, unfair and nasty. One MP in Manitoba, in an attempt to generate support for her re-election, called Manning a “fundamentalist,” implying all sorts of negative images. In response, I wrote [a public letter or to whom?], asking for fairness in the debates, that people call us “evangelicals” and not resort to unfair names and innuendoes which the term “fundamentalists” trigger. To make my point I wrote, “To call me as an evangelical a fundamentalist is not unlike calling an African Canadian a ‘nigger’ or a gay man a ‘fag’: please call us what we call ourselves.”

Peter invited me to explain. I told him the problems being generated by unfair nomenclature, and then asked if this issue could be raised on the air. He agreed and invited to the interview Dr. George Rawlyk—the great evangelical and Canadian historian who was professor at Queen’s University—who I knew would be of great assistance in bringing clarity to the issue.

It was a pivotal interview for Canadian evangelicals. It led not only to the head of the CBC radio promising to use the word “fundamentalist” only when a person calls themselves that, but also to the Canadian Press reminding its reporters what “evangelical” actually means.

It was Peter Gzowski who provided opportunities to explain and defend the evangelical community. Peter went out of his way to ensure a fair and unencumbered platform on which could be stated what needed to be heard.

Many interviewers across Canada would so often by pejorative language or tone of voice demean the evangelical faith and community, but Peter defended our right to be heard. His radio pulpit he shared with us and by so doing modeled a fairness which we as evangelicals would do well to replicate.