Fidei Defensor?
By Pete Molloy
I DON’T WANT TO pile on to the recent dust-up concerning our newly-appointed Governor General’s rather patronising comments in which she lumps together all people of belief, be it in a creator God or horoscopes or the curative power of ‘sugar pills.’ In case it was unclear, in the mind of our honourable vice-regal we are all crackpots. Not since Hilary Rodham Clinton’s famous ‘basket of deplorables’ have we seen such condescension and disdain by a leading public figure towards a significant portion of the populace. I think enough has been said. Instead, I would like to draw out two points which I hope might help us in our ministry.
The first is this: Know your place. I don’t think it would come as a surprise to anyone that two months ago Ms. Julie Payette would hold these views. There is nothing in her biography or resume that would suggest that she has a developed understanding of the role of faith in society. Regrettably, with the aggressive secular agenda that has been in place for decades now, it would be surprising if she did have any appreciation for faith. And if she were a Member of Parliament, for instance, we would accept these sort of comments as being within her scope, calculated to signal her progressive values to her supporters. Which is fair play. However, for Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette to make the same comments is entirely inappropriate. She is, after all, there in the place of Our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth who is, amongst other roles, Fidei Defensor–Defender of the Faith. Canada, unlike many other commonwealth countries, specifically chose to retain that title. And thus our Governor General has very specifically run contrary to her mandate.
The application for us is, I hope, very obvious. We are called in to a more important role. “Thou hast made us Kings and Priests” Scripture tells us. We are to be the people that reflect God in this world. This was our created role, and it is what we were redeemed to be. Peter tells us that we are a Royal Priesthood and that our lives in this world should reveal the glory of God. To that end we must be very careful that we know our place. In particular, when we preach God’s Holy Word from the pulpit, or discuss it in Bible study or in our day-to-day lives, we must be very disciplined not to mix our own opinions in with God’s gracious truths. I was told early on in ministry that the gospel is offensive enough to this world, we should not give more reasons for people to close their ears to it.
Second: I do not imagine that the Governor General set out to irritate people of faith and their supporters within Canada. In fact, I imagine she was quite surprised that she caused such widespread offence. My basic take on it is that she did not really believe that reasonable people of faith, who might take offense, really existed. It is hard to imagine her making those remarks if she did. My hunch is that she was raised in a thoroughly secular context and has never really been exposed to real diversity of thought. It is funny to think of a person who is probably one of a few hundred to travel beyond the bounds of earth having such a narrow view of the world. This is the trouble with any type of insular community. It conforms our thinking in such a way that we cannot even imagine a rational person would hold different views and so we tend to caricature their views or dismiss them categorically. This is a significant problem for Christians generally, and I think a growing problem between two groups of Anglicans that have historically been allies.
Being somewhat long in the tooth, I remember that auspicious event held in Ottawa in the fall of 2004. It was at that event where the old Anglican Essentials coalition birthed what were to be two complementary strategies to deal with the growing heterodoxy within the Anglican Church of Canada: The Network (now Anglican Network in Canada) and the Federation (now Anglican Communion Alliance.) The hope was that these two groups, determined largely by conscience and circumstance, would work together towards a renewal in Canadian Anglicanism. There was a real sense that whilst formal divisions might exist, in substance we were to continue as the closest of friends. Regrettably as time has gone on that initial commitment to charity and continued fellowship seems to have waned and I perceive at times a sense of derision and dismissal of each other’s positions. I cannot help but think that in some ways this has grown because we stick to our self-reinforcing communities – and that is a dead end.
Whatever our institutional arrangements, we are brothers and sisters in Christ and missiologically and theologically about as close as it gets. Let us revive the spirit of Ottawa 2004 and commit ourselves once again to close fellowship and friendship. Let us commit to dealing charitably and graciously with one another. Remembering the words of the Apostle to the North, Red Green, “We’re all in this together.” TAP
To learn more about Rev. C. Peter Molloy, visit the “About Us” page.
