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Playing for Keeps: the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the Public Sphere, 1983-2006

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Playing for Keeps: the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the Public Sphere, 1983-2006 Playing for keeps: The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the public sphere, 1983-2006 by Margaretta Linda Patrick A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2011 © Margaretta Linda Patrick 2011 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract This thesis is an intellectual history of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and its public policy activity from 1983 to 2006. The EFC represents many of the major evangelical Protestant denominations and organizations in Canada. Although some commentators interpret its work in light of the American Religious Right, the EFC is non-partisan and strives to be more politically moderate. This stance reflects the historical political moderation of Canadian evangelicalism. EFC leaders give direction to the evangelical community by contributing to the development of an evangelical identity that assumes political engagement, ecumenism, persuasion, and a high view of the state. Their model of engagement is politically pragmatic and emphasizes the imago Dei principle and the common good. The two concerns that contributed to evangelical political mobilization in the early 1980s were the increasing secularization of Canadian society and the privatization of religion. The EFC responded to these concerns in two ways. First, it defined secularism as intent on limiting religion in the public sphere. This interpretation enabled EFC leaders to mobilize their constituency, argue that public policy can never be religiously neutral, and insist that liberalism is not a neutral philosophy. However, it also meant that they did not critique the most secular of all spheres, the economy, or recognize the degree to which Christianity continues to enjoy cultural privileges as compared to other religions. The struggle against secularism took the EFC to Parliament Hill and into the courts. Second, the EFC called for religious groups to be at the policy making “table.” This “table” is a liberal-democratic one that often requires participants to engage in discussions in a secular liberal manner. The impact of these requirements was evident in the EFC’s participation in the public debates surrounding the definition of marriage. Many of its arguments employed liberal reasoning and de-emphasized religious convictions. Over time the EFC moved toward the social consensus about the need to protect same-sex relationships. This movement, however, did not indicate secularization on the part of the EFC. Rather, its leaders desired to develop publicly accessible arguments and thereby they contributed to civil society. iii Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge the support of many people in the production of this thesis. As my supervisor, Dr. Scott Kline provided valuable feedback at each and every step, reading many drafts of each chapter. Dr. David Seljak shared his knowledge of religion in Canada and did a marvellous job of editing the penultimate drafts of the chapters. My husband Mike spent countless hours talking through the ideas presented here. In addition, I am grateful for the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. Any omissions or errors are mine alone. iv Table of Contents Author’s Declaration ..............................................................................................................................ii Abstract .................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................................v List of Abbreviations...........................................................................................................................viii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................1 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................3 Themes ...............................................................................................................................................7 Who are Evangelicals? .......................................................................................................................8 Outline of Study ...............................................................................................................................12 Chapter 1 Evangelicals and Canadian public life.................................................................................14 1.1 Pre-confederation British Toryism.............................................................................................19 1.2 Nineteenth century evangelicalism: A Protestant consensus (1760-1880s)...............................23 1.3 Social Gospel: A partial rupture of the Protestant consensus (1880s-1920s).............................26 1.4 Fundamentalism: A further rupture (1920s-1940s)....................................................................28 1.5 Post World War II changes: The decline of Christian cultural domination (1945-1980s) .........32 1.6 Public unease about evangelical political engagement (1990s-2000s).......................................37 1.7 Themes from Canadian history and the EFC..............................................................................43 1.8 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................46 Chapter 2 The history of the EFC: Contributing to a Canadian evangelical identity...........................48 2.1 Creating the EFC........................................................................................................................50 2.2 Brian Stiller: 1983-1997.............................................................................................................53 2.2.1 John Redekop ......................................................................................................................63 2.2.2 Paul Marshall.......................................................................................................................66 2.2.3 Redekop’s response to the Kuyperian view of the state......................................................72 2.3 Gary Walsh: 1997-2002 .............................................................................................................75 2.4 Bruce Clemenger: 2003-present.................................................................................................81 2.5 A return to the Stackhouse/Redekop debate...............................................................................86 2.6 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................89 Chapter 3 Defining the secular public sphere.......................................................................................91 3.1 Developing a definition of secularism........................................................................................92 v 3.1.1 Stiller’s identification of secularism as a threat .................................................................. 95 3.1.2 Developing a discourse of resistance to mobilize evangelical political action................... 99 3.1.3 Stiller’s turn toward pluralism .......................................................................................... 104 3.1.4 Walsh and Clemenger ....................................................................................................... 106 3.2 Contextualizing the EFC’s definition of secularism................................................................ 111 3.2.1 The emergence of secularisms in the West....................................................................... 111 3.2.2 Analyzing the EFC’s interactions with secularism ........................................................... 116 3.3 Political implications of being “at the table” in a secular liberal state..................................... 119 3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 124 Chapter 4 Developing a model for political engagement................................................................... 126 4.1 Abortion................................................................................................................................... 127 4.2 Euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.................................................................................... 137 4.3 Reproductive technologies....................................................................................................... 144 4.4 EFC contributions to the public sphere.................................................................................... 149 4.5 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................
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