Open Letter to Stockwell Day, Frank Klees & Preston Manning
by Brian C. Stiller
You three are writing a new and remarkable chapter in Canadian history. Never before have three evangelicals run for the leadership of a national political party. Not only is that unique, but it comes at a time when evangelicals are emerging from decades of avoiding public leadership and public policy (a major exception ironically, Preston, was your father Ernest C. Manning, premier of Alberta in the 1950s and 60s).
Your nation-wide profiles will fill television newscasts, your debates will be covered by newspapers and magazines, and your views will be ceaselessly broadcast by radio. Pressure will be enormous, your flaws exposed, differences flagged and words parsed. What is at stake is not so much the future of the Canadian Alliance as is a modeling of how to do politics as a Christian. You may wince, claiming this is unfair, asking too much of you three. I think not.
As you prepare for public debate, speeches, interviews and grassroots politicking, I offer you these suggestions on how to frame your platforms and public debates.
1. Remember the Christian community you reflect. This campaign is a public witness of Christian faith (more particularly, evangelical faith). Because conservative Protestants account for only 13% of the population, most Canadians have no idea what a “Bible believing Christian” is. Unlike the United States where that number rises to 30% (that is, 90 million), our critical mass is a little more than 3 million. The cultural gatekeepers—especially the media—are generally ignorant of who we are, mixing up “fundamentalism” with “evangelicalism”.
2. Model for us Christian worldview thinking. Evangelicals for too long have separated politics from faith, falsely assuming that our task was only to get people ready for heaven and to leave the running of society to others. Gratefully, your lives as politicians refute that error. But you too face the danger of compartmentalizing your faith. It can happen by a conscious (or unconscious) avoidance of letting people know that your faith informs all of your life—from policies on economics to social assistance.
3. Avoid using social policies as a litmus test for Christian orthodoxy. Already we know that two of you have sharply divergent views on public rights for homosexuals and lesbians. This has explosive possibilities. Explain to us the basis of your approach and the logic which leads to your conclusion. But don’t get trapped by using this (or any other hot topic) as a way to “prove” you are more orthodox than the other.
4. On the heels of the above, resist the temptation of moralizing. You may remember some time back an M.P. who denounced those who supported the rights of gays, making them to appear to be less good than she. Express your moral views, but stay away from moralizing, which is to infer that “I’m right and you’re wrong, and am therefore morally better.” By all means describe your moral framework and resulting public policies, but avoid becoming moralizers.
5. Don’t sacrifice the dignity of Christian leadership for a mess of votes. I understand each of you are in this race to win. Such leadership contests test your physical stamina, intellectual agility, wordsmithing skills, policy ingenuity and charm. But when these ninety days are over, you will have shown to us your character. You know the desperate need we have for godly leadership in Canada. So when you feel vulnerable to sell your birthright for the expedient, don’t, for your sake and ours.
6. Be fair. Your political experience has trained you to go for the jugular. Yet you know what it feels like to be misrepresented; to have a phrase taken out of context, an idea spun out of shape. Resist your learned patterns schooled in the years of rough and tumble politics. It’s been said, “Do unto others as . . .”
7. A few years ago Henri Nouwen and I were invited to speak at the Ottawa Prayer Breakfast; I did the evening dinner and he the breakfast. At the end of Henri’s message, he swept his eyes across the crowded room, eyeing first the head table (the P.M., Leaders of the Opposition, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, etc.), and suggested that what we all needed that day was a benediction. He paused and then asked, “Do you know what that is?” With a quick lesson in Latin, we understood it to mean “to speak” (diction) “well” (bene) of others. He paused, and looking across the hundreds gathered, in a quiet and commanding voice asked, “Will you speak well of each other today?”
You three have a unique and awesome responsibility in this leadership race. I pledge to pray daily for each of you so that in the end you’ll hear your Lord say, “Well done.” Now that’s a win like none other.
Your nation-wide profiles will fill television newscasts, your debates will be covered by newspapers and magazines, and your views will be ceaselessly broadcast by radio. Pressure will be enormous, your flaws exposed, differences flagged and words parsed. What is at stake is not so much the future of the Canadian Alliance as is a modeling of how to do politics as a Christian. You may wince, claiming this is unfair, asking too much of you three. I think not.
As you prepare for public debate, speeches, interviews and grassroots politicking, I offer you these suggestions on how to frame your platforms and public debates.
1. Remember the Christian community you reflect. This campaign is a public witness of Christian faith (more particularly, evangelical faith). Because conservative Protestants account for only 13% of the population, most Canadians have no idea what a “Bible believing Christian” is. Unlike the United States where that number rises to 30% (that is, 90 million), our critical mass is a little more than 3 million. The cultural gatekeepers—especially the media—are generally ignorant of who we are, mixing up “fundamentalism” with “evangelicalism”.
2. Model for us Christian worldview thinking. Evangelicals for too long have separated politics from faith, falsely assuming that our task was only to get people ready for heaven and to leave the running of society to others. Gratefully, your lives as politicians refute that error. But you too face the danger of compartmentalizing your faith. It can happen by a conscious (or unconscious) avoidance of letting people know that your faith informs all of your life—from policies on economics to social assistance.
3. Avoid using social policies as a litmus test for Christian orthodoxy. Already we know that two of you have sharply divergent views on public rights for homosexuals and lesbians. This has explosive possibilities. Explain to us the basis of your approach and the logic which leads to your conclusion. But don’t get trapped by using this (or any other hot topic) as a way to “prove” you are more orthodox than the other.
4. On the heels of the above, resist the temptation of moralizing. You may remember some time back an M.P. who denounced those who supported the rights of gays, making them to appear to be less good than she. Express your moral views, but stay away from moralizing, which is to infer that “I’m right and you’re wrong, and am therefore morally better.” By all means describe your moral framework and resulting public policies, but avoid becoming moralizers.
5. Don’t sacrifice the dignity of Christian leadership for a mess of votes. I understand each of you are in this race to win. Such leadership contests test your physical stamina, intellectual agility, wordsmithing skills, policy ingenuity and charm. But when these ninety days are over, you will have shown to us your character. You know the desperate need we have for godly leadership in Canada. So when you feel vulnerable to sell your birthright for the expedient, don’t, for your sake and ours.
6. Be fair. Your political experience has trained you to go for the jugular. Yet you know what it feels like to be misrepresented; to have a phrase taken out of context, an idea spun out of shape. Resist your learned patterns schooled in the years of rough and tumble politics. It’s been said, “Do unto others as . . .”
7. A few years ago Henri Nouwen and I were invited to speak at the Ottawa Prayer Breakfast; I did the evening dinner and he the breakfast. At the end of Henri’s message, he swept his eyes across the crowded room, eyeing first the head table (the P.M., Leaders of the Opposition, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, etc.), and suggested that what we all needed that day was a benediction. He paused and then asked, “Do you know what that is?” With a quick lesson in Latin, we understood it to mean “to speak” (diction) “well” (bene) of others. He paused, and looking across the hundreds gathered, in a quiet and commanding voice asked, “Will you speak well of each other today?”
You three have a unique and awesome responsibility in this leadership race. I pledge to pray daily for each of you so that in the end you’ll hear your Lord say, “Well done.” Now that’s a win like none other.