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The Changing Place of Religion in Canada Kyle Jantzen 1 THE CHANGING PLACE OF RELIGION IN CANADA KYLE JANTZEN 1 Background In the United States of America, the First Amendment rejected the estab- lishment of religion, leaving Christianity and other religions to develop largely free of political interference, under the principle of the separation of church and state. In Western Europe, over a millennium of church- state rivalry resulted in the centuries-long establishment of a variety of Christian churches, both Catholic and Protestant. In Canada, aspects of both these systems have been applied. In part, this is because Canadian political and religious history is comprised of two main stories: French and English. 2 French Canada ± chiefly Quebec ± was long dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, which ruled uncontested before New France even be- came a colony. Even after the British conquest of the colony, under the terms of the Quebec Act of 1774 and the Constitutional Act of 1791 the Roman Catholic Church was practically autonomous, anchored to power in part through its vast land holdings. Largely immune to the forces of the French Revolution, Quebec Catholicism grew markedly in the nineteenth century, and its leaders asserted that the Church alone should set the lim- its of its socio-political responsibility. Even after Confederation in 1867, Roman Catholics enjoyed all manner of privileges. Confessional schools 1 I would like to thank my research assistant, Ruthanne Williams, for her aid in uncovering numerous news articles, Internet sources, and scholarly publications relating to religion in contemporary Canada. Thanks also to my colleague Joel Thiessen, who graciously shared from his expertise in contemporary religion in Canada. 2 Terrence Murphy and Roberto Perin (eds.), A Concise History of Christianity in Canada, Toronto 1996; Mark A. Noll , A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, Grand Rapids, MI 1992; David A. Lyon and Marguerite Van Die (eds.), Rethinking Church, State, and Modernity: Canada Between Europe and the USA, Toronto 2000; George A. Rawlyk , The Canadian Protestant Expe- rience , 1760-1990, Reissue edition, Montreal 1993. 86 Kyle Jantzen were the only schools allowed in Quebec, while a Catholic separate school system was created by law across the rest of the country. Quebec civil registries, marriage, and divorce were all in the hands of the Church. Ecclesiastical property was not taxed, the tithe was legally enforced, and the Church controlled education, publishing, the media, social welfare, and health services. The climax of this Catholic establishment in Quebec came during the reign of Premier Maurice Duplessis, who held power from 1936 to 1940, and then from 1944 to 1959. The English Canadian story is very different. In the Maritimes, many Christian denominations planted churches and won adherents, including Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists. In Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec), however, the Constitu- tional Act of 1791 effectively established the Church of England, grant- ing Anglican ministers the sole right to perform marriages and empower- ing governors to reserve one-seventh of all the lands granted in their col- onies for the support and maintenance of the clergy. Although these ³FOHUJ\ UHVHUYHV´ DGYDQWDJHG $QJOLFDQV WKH\ ZHUH VRRQ FRQWHVWHG E\ other Christian denominations, and in Western Canada were divided be- tween several leading denominations. In 1853, hardly 60 years after their creation, these clergy reserves were secularized, with the profits from the sale of church lands distributed to urban and rural municipalities across the country. This disestablishment of institutional Protestantism did not mean that Canada suddenly lost its Christian character. On the contrary, after 1840, church building increased, church agencies were founded, denomination- al structures enlarged, Sunday schools proliferated, Bible classes sprang up, religious book rooms and libraries were established, home missions programs were launched, church attendance burgeoned, religious colleges were founded, and religious newspapers grew in number and circulation. $V KLVWRULDQ 7HUUDQFH0XUSK\ SXW LW ³7KH QHWUHVXOW RI WKHVH GHYHOR p- ments was to extend the influence of organized religion into almost every EUDQFKRIOLIH´ 3 Political and religious leaders believed it was necessary to maintain the Christian character of society, in order to serve the public good and preserve social stability through the cultivation of moral charac- ter in the private spheres of home and church. Christians with high moral 3 Murphy and Perin (eds.), A Concise History of Christianity in Canada (note 2), 167. The Changing Place of Religion in Canada 87 standing infused public institutions with bourgeois and Protestant values, a trend which remained dominant until the middle of the twentieth centu- ry. It was this Canadian consensus around Protestant values that made possible both the religious rhetoric and the political success of prominent Christian politicians like William Aberhart, Ernest Manning, J. S. Woodsworth, and Tommy Douglas. And so it was that institutional Protestantism and the Canadian gov- ernment retained their symbiotic relationship, even after disestablishment. Through laws and policies protecting the Sabbath, enforcing temperance, and opening schools to Christian teaching, the federal and provincial governments provided the legal framework that the churches required to do their work of moral formation. In turn, Canadian churches laboured to produce citizens of integrity whose lives contributed to the public good. Dechristianization All this changed after the Second World War, however, and particularly VLQFHWKHV6LPSO\SXWERWKWKH³&DWKROLFHVWDEOLVKPHQW´LQ4XHEHF and the ³Protestant consensus ´ in English Canada dissolved. In his semi- QDODUWLFOH³:KDW+DSSHQHGWR&KULVWLDQ&DQDGD"´0DUN1ROODUJXHGWKDW the Duplessis era in Catholic Quebec and the postwar conservatism of Protestant English Canada both suppressed the emerging trends of mod- HUQL]DWLRQZKLOHWKH³DSSDUHQWYLJRURIWKH&DQDGLDQFKXUFKHVGXULQJWKH 1940s and 1950s owed more to the cohesive nationalism of the war effort and the search for normalcy during a postwar economic expansion than to UHOLJLRXVG\QDPLVPLQWKHFKXUFKHVWKHPVHOYHV´ 4 In Quebec, the election RID/LEHUDOJRYHUQPHQWXVKHUHGLQD³4XLHW5HYROXWLRQ´GXULQJZKLFK Quebec society was radically secularized by a combination of events and forces: the Second World War, the rise of the mass media, the overexten- sion of church financial commitments, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of secular nationalism. Labour unions cut their ties with institutional Catholicism. The state assumed control of education, health care, and social services. 5 As traditional authorities were thrown 4 Mark A. Noll ³:KDW+DSSHQHGWR&KULVWLDQ&DQDGD"´LQ Church Histor y 75, no. 2, June 1, 2006, 256. 5 Murphy and Perin (eds.), A Concise History of Christianity in Canada (note 2), 361-364; Reginald W. Bibby , Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in 88 Kyle Jantzen off, French language and Quebecois national identity rapidly replaced Christian faith and church institutions as the basis for political identity in Quebec. The chief symbol of this dramatic change was the founding of the nationalist and separatist Parti Québécois (PQ) in 1968. Led by the truculent René Lévesque, the PQ won the 1976 Quebec provincial elec- tion, enacted a new French-language policy (Bill 101), and called a refer- HQGXP RQ ³VRYHUHLJQW\ -DVVRFLDWLRQ´ VHSDUDWLRQ IURP &DQDGD LQ which they lost by a 60 to 40 percent vote. In the rest of Canada, the effects of large-scale immigration, urbaniza- tion, suburbanization, 1960s social liberalization, the rise of consumer culture, and a federal policy of multiculturalism eroded the traditional position of Anglo-Canadian culture and the mainline 6 Protestant churches which supported and were supported by it. The best example of this trans- formation was the approach to religion at Expo 67, the world exposition KHOGLQ0RQWUHDOGXULQJ&DQDGD¶VFHQWHQQLDODQQLYHUVDU\\HDU$FRPLQJ of age event in Canadian history (only two years after the adoption of &DQDGD¶V ILUVW RIIL cial flag), Expo 67 both displayed and forged a new &DQDGLDQ LGHQWLW\ FRUUHVSRQGLQJ WR WKH H[SRVLWLRQ WKHPH RI ³0DQ DQG +LV:RUOG´7KH&DQDGLDQ3DYLOLRQSUHVHQWHG&DQDGDDVDODQGRIXQLW\ in which cooperation, intelligence, and technology had enabled Canadi- ans to overcome nature and build a prosperous nation. In contrast to every RWKHUQDWLRQ&DQDGDZDVSRUWUD\HGDVDPXOWLFXOWXUDOPRVDLF³DQLQWH r- QDWLRQDOQDWLRQ´ 7 This theme of unity in diversity was carried over to the religious aspects of the exposition. The traditional importance of Catholic and Protestant Christianity to Canada was ignored, replaced by a com- mitment to interfaith religion. This was embodied in the Sanctuary, a ³VLPSOH SODFH IRU PHGLWDWLRQ´ FRQVWUXFWHG DV D ³VDFUHG VSDFH´ ZLWKRXW reference to any particular religious architectural style. As historian Gary Miedema has argued: The Sanctuary joined in with the rest of the Canadian Pavilion to display Canada to Canadians and the world as a country Canada, Ottawa 2004, 16, 18; Noll ³:KDW +DSSHQHG WR &KULVWLDQ &DQDGD"´ (note 4), 257. 6 Mainline Protestant denominations include the United Church of Canada, An- glican, Lutheran, and Presbyterian. 7 Gary Miedema , )RU&DQDGD¶V6DNH3XEOLF5HOLJLRQ&HQWHQQLDO&HOHEUDWLRQV and the Re-Making of Canada in the 1960s, Montreal 2005, 122. The Changing Place of Religion in Canada 89 where people of all ethnic and religious
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