Wednesday, March 16, 2005

What is CCC anyways???

After reading today's column by Mr. Chandler in the Globe and Mail regarding the current leadership of the Conservative party, I decided it was time to sit down and give some more serious analysis to Mr. Chandler's "Concerned Christians" group, and just who they align themselves with.

So going to their "moral links" page, I found the following:

Political Links:

The Conservative Party
The Christian Heritage Party

Media Links:

The Western Standard (anyone else remember "Alberta Report"???)

"Traditional Family" Links: (anti-{abortion/equality/homosexual...})

Canada Family Action Coalition
RealWomen Of Canada
Focus On The Family Canada

Anti-Abortion Links

British Columbia Parents & Teachers For Life
Campaign Life Coalition
Alberta Pro-Life
Birthright

Anti-Sexuality:

Pure Intimacy
NARTH
  • www.hopeforhomosexuals.com - sharing a message of faith, hope, and love.
  • Stephen Bennett Ministries - An organization run by a former homosexual who has "been there, and done that." After eleven years and well over 100 sexual relationships with men, Stephen Bennett was radically changed by the love of Jesus Christ.
  • www.settingcaptivesfree.com - An online course provided by the Georgia-based organization called Setting Captives Free, designed to help homosexuals find redemption from sin and their true purpose in life.
  • www.becomingreal.org - we're here. To talk about same-sex attraction openly, honestly and with a Christian perspective, in a way that will be helpful to you in your journey.
So...lessee what we have here - 3 links to political and media organizations; 3 links to "family values" groups {a euphemism for those that idealize the 1950's "nuclear family" model - and forget all of the problems with that model}; 4 links to anti-abortion groups, and 6 links to groups that want to save homosexuals (and others) from their supposed sins.

Essentially, 10 of the groups that this bunch align with want to dictate how the people of this land conduct themselves sexually. If you add in the 3 "family values" links - which are inevitably shrill in their horror over homosexuality, the vast majority of the linkage are to groups who want to poke their nose in your bedrooms. (Not to mention tell you how you should live an upstanding "Christian(tm)" life).

I am actually rather amazed by this. You would think that they might actually have links that would lead the reader to something persuasive - like scripture perhaps, or to the websites of their various member's churches. No, instead, they are spending all of their space and energy worrying about other people's sexuality.

The purely theological arguments don't bother me - you can pretty much make scripture say whatever's convenient at that time. Do a quick examination some time, and you will find it's relatively easy to find interpretations of biblical scripture that are quite accomodating of sexual variance.

More insidious are groups like NARTH and Birthright which cloak their position in words that attempt to claim a legitimacy of apparent impartiality. (Or at least a degree of "clinical" validity) Birthright does it by careful omission of the term Abortion anywhere in their literature; NARTH by making clinical psychological claims that are virtually impossible to substantiate.

You can look at this and say "so what?". The problem is that these organizations have no interest in rational investigation that would potentially call question to the conclusions they so desperately want to find. (e.g. that sexual orientation is mutable). How many people will they harm irrevocably in their zeal for achieving some social ideal that they've dreamt up based on history and biblical scripture?

How many laws would they demand a hypothetical Conservative government promulgate that would marginalize citizens of this country?

Although I suspect that the narrow-minded thinking of groups like this belongs to a very small percentage of the population, their vocal protestations make them very important to watch - carefully. I suspect the coming policy convention of the Conservative party in Montreal will have serious implications for the party's ongoing viability. How strong is the "social conservative" faction in that party? Are they strong enough to derail the party's move towards a message that will play well outside of Alberta? (Probable - in fact likely)

Will it be enough to cause the party to fracture? Possibly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you point out all of the sexuality links off of the CCC, it really makes it clear that Chandler and the CCC think about sex almost exclusively - does this make them just another group of sex starved maniacs?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, Birthright. I remember the bus ads they had. "Do you think you might be pregnant? We can help". The ads look even handed, and there was no mention that they were an anti-abortion group. If you took them up on their offer you got the don't-murder-your-baby lecture.

I shudder to think how many woman got trapped with kids they couldn't handle and didn't want because these creeps scared the bejessus out of them with bloody aborted fetus pictures.

If these people had the power of the state behind them, how long until the gays were given shock treatment and pregnant teens were forced to wear a big read "A" on their jackets. All to save their eternal souls you know.

Quixote
http://www.livejournal.com/users/quixote317/

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