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Ronald Reagan wasn’t afraid of Christian government, so why are you?
CHP Communiqué – Vol 19, No 36 * Sept. 4, 2012
Our Closest Friend
By Jim Hnatiuk, Leader of the Christian Heritage Party
Sound political advice that is built with integrity is not only valuable; it’s also become a rare commodity. As my pastor put it again last Sunday, “Eyes that look are common, eyes that see are rare.” Especially in today’s culture, seeing the truth and speaking it will most often take courage and conviction. It also takes tact, patience, and an ability to endure criticism.
In the public square it makes good sense that politicians choose their words carefully so they don’t unnecessarily offend, but that shouldn’t keep them from declaring their true convictions, even when a negative reaction from those holding a contrary worldview is nearly guaranteed. Candidates representing the Christian Heritage Party often come under “fire” and/or suspicion simply because of the party we choose to represent.
I’m reminded of a story my son told me a few years ago after he returned to Nova Scotia from working in the Alberta oil fields. At a Conservative candidate’s BBQ that he had been invited to, he asked the candidate what he thought of the Christian Heritage Party. Not knowing that he was speaking to the CHP leader’s son, the candidate responded by saying “I really appreciate having a CHP candidate in an all candidates debate because they are asked a lot of those hard questions I then don’t have to answer.” Well that speaks volumes doesn’t it? Not only about the quality of candidates who will speak their convictions, but also about those candidates who prefer to hide their convictions from voters.
Imagine for a moment now that as a political candidate you were deciding whether or not to include in your speech one or more of the following statements:
• “We have to be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, the real question is: are we on His side?”
• “Within the covers of that single book [the Bible] are all the answers to all the problems that face us today if we would only read and believe.”
• “I think I understand how Abraham Lincoln felt when he said ‘I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
• “I know it’s fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible, that we are told we will violate the constitutional separation of church and state….that [statement] was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values, it was written to protect those values from government tyranny.”
• “I also believe that this blessed land was set apart in a very special way. Our forbearers came not for gold but mainly in the search of God and the freedom to worship in their own way.”
• “The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those [Christian] principles by design and we abandon them at our peril.”
Which of those statements might you include in your speech? Any? Would it help you to make that decision if you knew that all of those statements were given in various addresses by a former president of the United States, Ronald Reagan?
He was a president who declared that his closest friend was Jesus Christ, and it was that relationship he often shared with the public.
Men and women of Christian character and conviction have stood firm and prepared the way for us—making the God-given lands we stand on in our own country and in our closest neighbouring country, the USA, both free and prosperous; it will take the same calibre of men and women to keep them that way.
CHP Canada can only entrust our work to those who represent these values; our candidates will fight hard to restore to our nation the unchanging principles that dwarf by comparison any of the shallow human philosophies being peddled in today’s political marketplace. Our candidates—when they have attained office as members of parliament—will always have the freedom to express their deeply-held convictions in the House of Commons for the entire nation to hear. Add your support today and join CHP Canada.