REAL Women, Promise Keepers and the Promotion of Violence

I Burned my Bra For This? REAL Women of Canada and the Men Behind Them

It is a massive masculine shadow,
in a hall or crowded room,
lifting something indistinct up into the resonating night.
ROBERT BLY, "FIFTY MALES SITTING TOGETHER"

Robert Bly is an American author and poet who became the inspiration for the Mytho-poetic men's movement.

Fearing that the women's movement was turning men into "yogurt-eaters", Bly was determined to instead create a cabal of "wild men", who would seek traditional roles for the male species, many based on, believe it or not, Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The tales that portray the powerful king, the handsome prince, the beautiful maiden, and of course the witch determined to destroy them all. (He must have some mother issues)

No "round shouldered" men need apply.

Author Susan Faludi attended one of his few retreats that were open to women and asked why everyone was told in advance to bring a large stone. Bly's spokesperson explained that they were to build a monument to Hermes, but didn't want to go into too much detail, with women present.

An Olympic god. Of course. Patron of shepherds and cowherds. In fact, the spokesman, Walter Bliss, had legally changed his name to Shepherd Bliss, and his profession from army officer to psychologist.

Bly made his appearance to the sound of conga drums, and with the stance of a Viking, reminded those in the audience that he is Norse.

We no longer have images of "real men," Bly says, as the men continue the drum beat. Stereotypical sissies have replaced macho men. "Woody Allen is just as bad—a negative John Wayne," he says, raising his voice to a nasal squeak in imitation. "Men used to make models for what a man is from the Iliad and the Odyssey and places like that."

On the all-male weekend, he promises, he will bring back these role models for male edification: "One of the things we do is go back to the very old stories, five thousand years ago, where the view of a man, what a man is, is more healthy."(1)

A former peace activist, and strong opponent to the Vietnam war, Bly needed a new cause and found it in male bonding.

By the early '80s, he was, he confessed, starting to feel less than manly. "I began to feel diminished," Bly writes, "by my lack of embodiment of the fruitful male—or the moist male." It wasn't his loss of early prominence, however, that he identified as the problem. It was his "missing contact with men" and his overexposure to strong and angry women, including his own mother. (told 'ya)

He feared that he and men like him had allied them­selves too closely with such women, and consequently taken "a female view" of their fathers and their own masculinity. He de­cided he'd made a mistake with his earlier recommendation: "If someone says to me now, 'There is something missing on your feminine side,' I say, `No, what is missing is the masculine,' " Bly told Whole Earth magazine in 1988. He worried that he was only "superficially" manly. Men had awakened their feminine princi­ple only to be consumed by it. They had gone "soft." (1)

So he began running all-male workshops to reintroduce men to "the deep masculine."

This led to wilderness weekend retreats where men dressed in tribal masks and wild-animal costumes, beat drums and rediscov­ered "the beast within." His success inspired scores of imitators, creating a "cottage industry" for the men's movement.

And one of those "imitators" was the Promise Keepers. A New Age Journal article noted that Promise Keepers combined the secular men’s movement (founded by New Age poet Robert Bly) with the political evangelicalism of Pat Robertson. And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated that: "Promise Keepers combines the Jesus Saves preaching of Billy Graham with the male-bonding message of Robert Bly.

Promise Keepers was brought to Canada by Conservative MP David Sweet. In 2004, when he ran, he posted on his website, the fact that he had been instrumental in creating the Northern chapter.

Women read that, reminded us of what PK stood for, and he lost the election.

In 2006, he got smarter, and removed all mention of the "wildmen" club, only saying that he ran a non-profit organization. He continues to represent Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough- Westdale.

Bly's teachings also fit well with the anti-feminist groups, like REAL Women of Canada, who promoted so-called "family values". Bly attacked not only domineering women, but single mothers.

In short, the Great Mother's authority has become too great. "Men's societies are disappearing, partly under pressure from women with hurt feelings," he writes. Too many women are "raising boys with no man in the house." The single mother's son has become "a nice boy who now not only pleases his mother but also the young woman he is living with."

To restore the nice boy's male identity, Bly proposes, he must quit taking cues from mother and "go down into the psyche and accept what's dark down there." As a key guide to the journey, Bly offers "The Story of Iron John," borrowed from a Grimm's Brothers' fairy tale. In the story, a hairy "wild man" is locked up in an iron cage near the royal castle; the key to the cage is under the queen's pillow. One day the young prince loses his prized "golden ball" when it rolls into an abandoned pond, and he can only relieve it by stealing the key from mother and freeing the wild man. The young man, in the words of Bly's sidekick Keith Thompson, has to take back the power he has given to his mother and get away from the force field of her bed. He must direct his energies away from pleasing Mommy." (1)

At Bly's all-male weekends, the "wildmen" build lairs with plastic chairs, grunting and groaning, and whatever other male sounds they can muster.

Journalist Jon Tevlin, attended a weekend of frolic and fun, run by Bly, at a Bible camp in Mound, Minnesota. On the first night, Tevlin reports that Shepherd Bliss, dropped to his knees.

"Some of you may want to temporarily leave the world of the two-leggeds, and 'Join me in the world of the four-leggeds," he said. One by one, we slid from our orange Naugahyde chairs onto an orange shag carpet ripped straight out of the 1960s. "You may find yourself behaving like these four-leggeds; you may be scratching the earth, getting in contact with the dirt and the world around you."

As he spoke, people began pawing at the ground. . . . "You may find yourself behaving like the most masculine of all animals—the ram," Shepherd said in a coaxing voice. . . . "You may find unfamiliar noises emerging from your throats!" . . . There were gurgles and bleats, a few wolf calls. . .. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shepherd coming toward me, head down, tufts of white hair ringing a bald spot. . . . Meanwhile, I felt a slight presence at my rear, and turned to see a man beginning to sniff my buttocks. "Woof!" he said. (1)

"Woof" indeed!

How to Handle Your Women

As men are given instruction on how to find their "beast within", they are also told how to treat their women, and "wrest the power from their hands".

Inspiration came from objects they were asked to bring from home, including a .380-caliber automatic pistol. A rather odd trophy for what was called a "battle on the domestic front".

And what if women are not so enthused with their new butt sniffing menfolk?

Promise Keeper's Tony Evans says “I am not suggesting that you ask for your role back, I am urging you to take it back. There can be no compromise here.” .

Robert Bly is not so subtle.

At one seminar, with more than a thousand men in attendance, a man in the audience told Bly, "Robert, when we tell women our desires, they tell us we're wrong." To which Bly responded: "So, then you bust them in the mouth." (1)

People are not taking this movement seriously enough. Stephen Harper is tearing down the Status for Women, and reversing gains made over the past decades.

But the media look at all the women in his caucus, and determine that he is not a misogynist.

If we had to select one photo that would define this period in our history, the following would definitely be in the running.

A frightened Diane Finlay making an announcement, with Pierre Poilievre in a Gestapo style stance, watching on. Women in Harper's party are mere window dressing. They have no power.

When Jason Kenney rewrote the citizenship guide, he all but excluded any contributions made by women.

Historian Margaret Conrad said of the new guide, that it “represents a new kind of Canada, one that is less sympathetic with my personal sense of a progressive, forward-looking nation, but the new slant is no doubt in keeping with the sentiments of the current administration in Ottawa ... It's kind of like a throwback to the 1950s, ... It's a tough, manly country with military and sports heroes that are all men."

We are being written out, reduced to the "witches" in Grimms Fairy Tales.

Sources:

1. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, By Susan Faludi, Crown publishing, 1991, ISBN: 0-385-42507-4, Pg. 304-312

Some Interesting Comments and Updates on Marci McDonald's Armageddon Factor

I haven't blogged on the Armageddon Factor for a while but there was an interesting review of her book, as seen through the media's reaction and the Conservative party's attempt to discredit the book.

It was written by Dr. Kenneth Paradis, an assistant professor of contemporary studies at Wilfred Laurier University's Brantford campus. Dr. Paradis noted that in reading columns and comments sections, he noticed similar phrasing.

The odd thing about these responses is that a very quick media search will show that the letters share an almost identical pattern, right down to the adjectives and “arguments” chosen to denigrate the book: the phrase “anti-Christian bigotry,” for example, the label chosen by political operative / media mover and shaker Kory Teneycke, for example (formerly Steven Harper’s spokesperson, now the prime mover behind the Sun TV / Fox News North initiative), comes up fairly regularly, probably because it has the twin virtues of being inflammatorily and derogatory, without actually requiring the denouncer to demonstrate actually having read the book.

This is not unusual, and in fact on many issues there are common "adjectives and arguments", often easily found on the Conservative website. In fact they even tell you what to write or say on radio call in shows.

Dr. Paradis also picked up the connection with the Globe and Mail piece written by Ray Pennings of Cardus. I had posted a lengthy article, linking all of the players, and the large multi-million dollar grant given to a private religious school with connections to Harper MP David Sweet and Mr. Pennings.

Paradis did find the book lacking in places, and don't disagree. I think there may have been a bit too much on dispensationalism and not enough on some of the key cabinet ministers and their involvement with the Religious Right, especially American groups. Jason Kenney is in much deeper than the book suggests, as is Jim Flaherty.

But it was the second best seller in June and Amazon, while listing it as #89 overall, places it in the first spot for non-fiction and religion.

I think it was a very good first effort, on a subject that was difficult, especially given this government's reputation for combative behaviour.

There is a recent event though, that validates the need for this and further research.

Vic Toews has announced a $90,000 fund to protect some religious groups from hate crimes.

A group of religious centres in Toronto will receive government funding to help protect their communities against hate crimes. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced almost $90,000 in government funding today for security infrastructure for six religious organizations in the Toronto area. Mr. Toews says he wants to ensure that vulnerable communities are able to protect themselves against hate-crime incidents.

There is nothing wrong with this, but as Montreal Simon points out, hate crimes against homosexuals are on the rise, so why is there no funding to help them?

Police services are reporting a big jump in hate crimes, and they say gay men are being targeted more often and in the most violent incidents. But Statistics Canada says the numbers could be more a result of better reporting than of increased violence.

The agency says all three major categories of hate crime increased in 2008, but the largest increase was among crimes motivated by sexual orientation, which more than doubled from 2007 to 2008. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were also the most violent: 75 per cent were violent compared with 38 per cent of racially-motivated incidents and 25 per cent of religiously motivated incidents. Among violent incidents motivated by sexual orientation, 85 per cent of the victims were male.

This is where religious fundamentalism becomes ugly. They validate hate crimes against homosexuals because of their own language in referring to gays.

Things like this:


All vulnerable Canadians need protection.

David Sweet, Spiritual Capital and Reconstructionism

When Darrel Reid was defeated as a Conservative candidate in 2006, he became "Vice President of Project Development for the Work Research Foundation, an organization with the stated mission to “influence people to a Christian view of work and public life.”"(1)

I must admit that I'd never heard of the 'Work Research Foundation' and wasn't quite sure what was meant by a "Christian view of work and public life". So I perused their site, and though they are now calling themselves Cardus, what I found was a bit alarming, beginning with this:

"Our mission is to rethink, research and rebuild North America's social architecture."

If you link to their audio section and scroll down to a 2005 recording, you can listen to a lecture series on something they call "spiritual capital." And just so there's no mistake, the re-introduction by Michael Van Pelt, clearly states that Cardus is the new name for Work Research Foundation. And Darrel Reid, Stephen Harper's deputy chief of staff, went right from there to Harper's office. From their site:

The third installment of our thINK audio series is here, and our latest WRF product is just in time: spiritual capital is a concept which provides the tread for walking faithfully in a society that gets more secular every day. First, David Sweet introduces, in layman's terms, the idea of "spiritual capital." (2)

For those who don't know, David Sweet is the MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, a backbencher in the Harper government. He introduces himself as the Vice-President of Business Development for the group.

I listened to all of the speakers and if there was ever a scripted mandate for a theocracy this is it. On his website, Sweet refers to himself as a motivational speaker, and it's pretty clear after listening to 15 minutes (twice) of his speech, that he is motivating business leaders to create a Christian workplace.

He praises one such leader for printing that his "Purpose was to honour God" on his business cards. Sweet goes on to describe what spiritual capital is, by suggesting that it could be equated to social, physical and human capital, all requirements to maximize profit. "Faith" economics and devoting your business to the "Glory of God". (when I was roaming I was linked to The Christian Labour Association, that even encourages companies be unionized by Christians)

The next speakers continue along the same vein, and what they describe is a Utopia where a company's mission statement is reflective of "Christian values", with a healthy dose of redemption.

They suggest that if a company bases their business on these "Christian values", it will be a workplace with integrity and little conflict. And rather than discouraging employees from discussing their religious beliefs, they encourage open discussion, even for non-Christians.

It's not too difficult to see what would take place here. You have a business with a stated Christian hierarchy. You employ non-Christians and then encourage open discussion of religious beliefs. Sounds like proselytizing to me. And what happens if those non-Christians don't see the light? Will there be accusations of religious harassment, that would be similar to sexual harassment, where an employee is "saved" or risks losing their job?

Darrel Reid once suggested that gay rights are a form of Nazi tyranny. Is there a place for gays in this wonderful, non-conflict workplace?

Templeton Foundation

One of the groups that David Sweet promotes is the Templeton Foundation:

The mission of the Templeton Foundation is: to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. We support research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. We encourage civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights.

One of those 'Big Questions' is answered through intelligent design, rather than evolution. The foundation has also been embroiled in controversy, because despite the fact that they claim to be non-partisan, they regularly provide funding to Conservative groups, including Ari Fleischer's Freedom's Watch.

They have also garnered "criticism from some members in the scientific community who are concerned with its linking of scientific and religious questions."

Another speaker mentions that they had just completed a project with the Max De Pree Center, in Pasadena California, where they promote a 'servant leadership' program, and recently hosted a seminar on the "Morality of the Market."

So what does this all mean?

David Sweet and Darrel Reid from the Harper government are both involved with the Work Research Foundation, now Cardus, who are working to 'Rebuild North America's social architecture' by promoting Christian businesses.

Michael Van Pelt, another speaker on the podcast, is a new appointee at Rights and Democracy, which has been embroiled in controversy after their hostile takeover by the Harper government.

Ray Pennings, another speaker, is the chair of Redeemer University College, where the 4th speaker, Gideon Strauss is one of the faculty.

David Sweet hosted a National House of Prayer 'dessert reception' there, where the faithful were invited to "Come and hear what God is doing in our Government." And Redeemer College recently received three million dollars of public money - our money; despite the fact that they are an elite private Bible school.

Welcome to Reconstructionism 101. Leave your souls at the door.

Sources:

1. Wikipedia: Darrel Reid

2. Spiritual Capital, By Ray Pennings and Michael Van Pelt, CARDUS, July 1, 2005

How Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons Helped to Engineer an Election

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"For Harper, the courtship of the Christian right is unlikely to prove an electoral one-night stand. Three years ago, in a speech to the annual Conservative think-fest, Civitas, he outlined plans for a broad new party coalition that would ensure a lasting hold on power. The only route, he argued, was to focus not on the tired wish list of economic conservatives or “neo-cons,” as they’d become known, but on what he called “theo-cons”—those social conservatives who care passionately about hot-button issues that turn on family, crime, and defence.

"Even foreign policy had become a theo-con issue, he pointed out, driven by moral and religious convictions. “The truth of the matter is that the real agenda and the defining issues have shifted from economic issues to social values,” he said, “so conservatives must do the same.

"Arguing that the party had to come up with tough, principled stands on everything from parents’ right to spank their children to putting “hard power” behind the country’s foreign-policy commitments ... " (1)

Stephen Harper's exploitation of the Religious Right was planned and nurtured over many years. Even back in the Reform Party days, he tapped into many front groups, who were able to enjoy enormous tax benefits, while claiming to be religious, charitable or civic enterprises; when in fact they were highly motivated to get the Reformers elected. Many fell under the Northern Foundation (2), a group to which he was as founding member (3) and included the anti-feminist REAL Women of Canada. (4)

But it wasn't until Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney hit the federal political scene, that their armies became mobilized. This was going to be a culture war that not only pit Christian extremists against government, but "Bible-believing fundamentalists against their Christian brethren." (5) It was not merely an attempt to replace politicians at all levels with Christians, they had to be "born again" Christians. People who believed in the absolute, literal word of the Bible. Or at least how they interpreted that word.

And one of the people leading the charge was Charles Mcvety, a close personal friend and long time supporter of Jim Flaherty.

McVety .. turned to key strategists who choreographed the religious right’s takeover of the Republican Party to help ... In February of 2004, he imported Jerry Falwell for an “Emergency Pastors Briefing” to rally six hundred evangelical clergymen against a bill that included making denunciations of homosexuality a hate crime. In December of 2005, he helped to launch the Institute for Canadian Values with a gala dinner tutorial from Ralph Reed "the boyish tactical wizard behind Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, which succeeded Falwell’s Moral Majority and helped mobilize the South for Bush." (5)

With nearly two million believers in his grassroots guerrilla force, Reed terrified liberal Republicans with his organizational stealth. “I paint my face and travel at night,” he once boasted. “You don’t know it’s over until you’re in a body bag. You don’t know until election night.”

... his appearance a day after the federal election call drew a sold-out crowd of evangelical and Conservative activists, including Senator Anne Cools and McVety’s old friend Jim Flaherty who, as Ontario’s attorney general, had once called for jailing the homeless.

But Reed also offered a lesson on how to take over a nomination contest or a riding. “He taught us all that only a handful of people actually go and seriously volunteer to get someone elected,” McVety says. “We’re talking about 150 people per riding. Tiny numbers! This is the size of a small church.” (1)

Rondo Thomas and Equipping Christians for the Public Square

Working through another Flaherty supporter, Tristan Emmanuel, founder of a group called Equipping Christians for the Public Square; Mcvety began his covert operations. I don't know if he painted his face and travelled at night, but he set his sights on a few dozen ridings scattered across the country.

McVety himself zeroed in on one particular target: Mark Holland, the Liberal MP in his own riding of Ajax-Pickering, who had organized the pivotal caucus petition that convinced Paul Martin to push Bill C-38 [same-sex marriage bill] through before the Commons’ summer recess last year. (1)

McVety helped to engineer the nomination of Rondo Thomas, his longtime deputy at Canada Christian College, but then a video surfaced of Thomas that questioned his ability to function in the world.

A video has recently surfaced showing Ajax Pickering Conservative candidate Rondo Thomas whipping up his troops in the battle against equal marriage for same-sex couples. As the top lieutenant of Defend Marriage Coalition leader Charles McVety, Mr. Thomas played an active but mostly low-profile part in the
fight against passage of Bill C-38, the equal marriage bill.

In the video, Mr. Thomas was quoted as saying:

“There is going to be a clash of morality views between those who believe in righteousness and those who believe in immorality and when we collide there is going to be conflict…It doesn’t matter what the media says, it doesn’t matter what the government says — the facts don’t count. We are going to win this conflict.” Rondo Thomas is one of the top leaders of those against equal marriage and he is intimately connected with everyone from Charles McVety to Campaign Life Coalition to American Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition.”(6)

But McVety did something else that even more disturbing. He phoned Mark Holland, the Liberal candidate who went on to win the election.

“How are your constituents going to feel about you not being married?” Almost no one knew that Holland and the mother of his three children had never tied the knot in their fourteen years together. The MP was stunned. “To me it was a veiled threat,” he says. (1)

Tristan Emmanuel

Emmanuel was a candidate in the 1997 federal election for the Christian Heritage Party, and has been a long time political activist for Canada's far right. He was behind a group called Canadians for George Bush, who rallied for Canada to join the Iraq War. Speakers included Jim Flaherty, Stockwell Day and Tim Hudak, who is Mike Harris's protegee.

Galloping Beaver discusses how Tristan Emmanuel and his Equipping Christians for the Public Square worked behind the scenes to get Stephen Harper elected.

If anything is not receiving sufficient attention during this election campaign it is the hard link between Stephen Harper's Conservatives and the likes of Tristan Emmanuel ... which should be a clear reminder that the Conservative Party of Canada is not the old Progressive Conservative Party. In fact, the CPC is rapidly becoming more and more like the US Republican Party and that is particularly so with respect to the influence of the dominionist bible movement or, the "Christian right".

He has been active in promoting "Christians" to run for the Conservatives who now have at least nine candidates sporting radical Christian credentials. All of them openly campaign against same-sex marriage, most want abortion made illegal and some are virulent racists. A good proportion of them have been or are leaders of the Canadian branches of organizations such as Focus On The Family and the Promise Keepers.

Emmanuel has some rather disturbing beliefs of his own. He praised Franklin Graham for his openly stated opinion that Islam was an "evil and wicked religion" and endorsed the belief that Christians and Muslims did not share the same God, which in Emmanuel's view made Muslims infidels. He has described gays and lesbians as "sexual deviants". Canadians have a reason to be nervous. The CPC is moving closer to the position in which the US Republican Party finds itself. If the Conservatives form government, the differences will be difficult to distinguish. (7)

It has been four years since that election and the Religious Right has actually become even more powerful, a force that is going to be very difficult to remove from "office".

Religious front groups now dominate the political landscape, and as Stephen Harper and his Reform movement work diligently to turn Canadians off politics, they will continue to strengthen their hold on Canadian governance.

Unfortunately, our media ignored this threat simply becasue they didn't want to attack someone's religious beleifs. But we are under attack now. And you have to remember that these Christian extremists are even going after mainstream Christians who promote a social gospel.

They only want fundamentalists like themselves.

Sources:

1. Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons: The rising clout of Canada's religious right, By Marci McDonald, The Walrus, October 2006

2. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper demonstrates continued ultra right wing affiliations by blocking pro social justice Toronto candidate, By Dr. Debra Chin, The Canadian

3. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. Author: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 100

4. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 121

5. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8

6. Rondo Thomas: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: Campaign cover-up going on, Egale Canada, January 16, 2006

7. The Albatross Around Stephen Harper's Neck, The Galloping Beaver, January 2, 2006

"Godly Men" and Access Codes. What is David Sweet Up To?

Many of the threats from the Religious Right are visible and already on our radar. However, there are a great many more that don't get as much attention as they should, and one of those comes from a Harper backbencher, David Sweet, and his group the "Promise Keepers".

When Sweet first ran in the 2004 federal election, in the Ontario riding of Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Westdale; he posted on his website the fact that he was the Canadian founder of the Promise Keepers. When the media and others did a little investigation and discovered what PK really was, they went public and Sweet lost the election.

Learning his lesson, by 2006, he had removed all mention of PK and his name was all but purged from their website. At issue then was an old quote where he had said something to the effect that there was a reason why Jesus only called men as his disciples, because apparently they are "natural influencers" while women are "natural followers". Whatever.

I had researched the group a bit then, but most of the information available was from their U.S. counterpart, and according to Sweet and his supporters, they were quite different. Fair enough. Besides for awhile it appeared that the movement was fizzling out. Membership was down and their budget was shrinking. What was so threatening about a bunch of cowboys, getting together for a bit of scratch and sniff?

However, I came across an article from last summer, and apparently they are back and stronger than ever. Their founder has re-emerged and they have expanded their ministry. And guess what their goal is now? According the the Los Angeles Times, they are Plotting the Exit Strategy, with the help of McCartney's new organization "The Road to Jerusalem."

For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it. Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah. For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon.

With that goal in mind, mega-church pastors recently met in Inglewood to polish strategies for using global communications and aircraft to transport missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission: to make every person on Earth aware of Jesus' message. Doing so, they believe, will bring about the end, perhaps within two decades.

WHAT???!!!

I'm getting too old for this.

And they have already "re-created priestly robes of white linen, gem-studded breastplates, silver trumpets ...." What no balloons? This sounds more like a Jason Kenney bachelor party for one.

It would appear that the PK have now invited Messianic Jews to join their club because as McCartney claims: "The Bible says Jews will be brought to jealousy when they see Christians and Jewish believers together as one -- they'll want to be a part of that. That's going to signal Jesus' return." Even the 700 Club Promotes this movement.

With this new information, I thought I'd take another look into David Sweet and his fundamentalism again, and I have discovered a pattern with the PK, that is disturbing without the whole white robe, gold breastplate thing. (and Sweet is still involved, mentioned as a speaker at their events)

David Sweet and the Promise Keepers

In the 1998 Canadian Christianity magazine, they ran an article about Sweet: Calling Men to Walk Together.

PROMISE KEEPERS (PK) want to be catalysts in the renewal of men across the nation. David Sweet, the 41 year old president and first CEO of the movement in Canada, is adamant that we're living in a time when Holy Spirit-driven men's ministries are crucial.

Citing the decay in moral and political authority that's increasingly becoming evident, Sweet observed that in any age we err if we take a look at the fruit of the age and determine what our behavior should be.

"This is the first time . . . historically that we have decided that we'll march to a morality drum that is governed by the voice of the day rather than having any bearing on what we've lived by in history" ... we have developed a psychology in our culture that we can divorce politics and morality. That is impossible to do."

Sweet goes on to tell the story of how he was arrested at the age of 12 for stealing cars and spent four years behind bars. I can imagine at that age, that it would have been quite traumatic and I'm glad he gave up that career choice.

At the time, PK was on their 'Living a Legacy' tour, and Sweet was appearing with some pretty heavy hitters in the evangelical trade. David Ring has been on all of the main mega church shows including John Hagee's. The late Selwyn Hughes also on the circuit and had written, according to his bio, 50 books on Christianity. Lee A. Jenkins runs a corporate Bible industry, promoting a theory of personal wealth paving the way to salvation (I paraphrase).

Steve Masterson and Brian Warren are both involved with the Canadian PK group. Masterson is listed as the Director of Teaching, Training & Development. David Warren is an ex-CFL player turned pastor, who is also on the PK 'team'. You can hear him speak a bit here.

So far, so good. Nothing yet to make you want to hide under the bed. But let's take a closer look at these 'Godly' men and their ministry.

Chest Thumping and Cross Bearing

Journalist Matt Taibbi went undercover on a weekend retreat with John Hagee's Cornerstone Church, and wrote a very revealing piece: Jesus Made Me Puke. Now some people might think that he was being sacrilegious, but I understand why the need for levity. It's often a defense mechanism.

Anytime I investigate these groups, I eventually have the same reaction, especially if I watch the videos. There is something about them that can be overwhelming. Watch the video at the bottom of this posting, and I think you'll see what I mean. They kind of tap into a raw emotion, and I can understand how the vulnerable could become mesmerized. The fact that I have to put it at the bottom says a lot. I'm not prepared to watch it again, and it's not the worst I've viewed in the past few hours. There were many I would never share with anyone.

But what Mr. Taibbi describes is an indoctrination.

Here I have a confession to make. It's not something that's easy to explain, but here goes. After two days of nearly constant religious instruction, songs, worship and praise - two days that for me meant an unending regimen of forced and fake responses - a funny thing started to happen to my head. There is a transformational quality in these external demonstrations of faith and belief.

The more you shout out praising the Lord, singing along to those awful acoustic tunes, telling people how blessed you feel and so on, the more a sort of mechanical Christian skin starts to grow all over your real self. You may think you know the answer, but by my third day I began to notice how effortlessly my soft-spoken Matt-mannequin was going through his robotic motions of praise, and I was shocked. For a brief, fleeting moment I could see how under different circumstances it would be easy enough to bury your "sinful" self far under the skin of your outer Christian and to just travel through life this way.

And what makes it more compelling to the average sinner are the people delivering the message. They will tell you stories of their own wasted lives, and as you identify with their 'anguish', there's a familiarity that develops. He's trusted you with his secrets.

But in relation to the PK and their retreats and conferences, they take on a 'macho' element. Some of it was witnessed during that weekend when a former athlete was whipping up the crowd.

The grown macho man unashamedly breaking into boyish tears in public is one of the weirder features of the post-Promise Keeper Christian generation, and Fortenberry - himself a Promise Keeper, incidentally - had it down to a science. "You never came to my ballgames, Dad," he'd screech, his face wrinkling like a raisin with grief at the word "ballgames

So you can imagine a conference where all of the motivational speakers are athletes and military leaders. Tough, virile men; crying and hugging each other, and encouraging others to cry and hug and each other. To take charge of their households come hell or high water. They are the kings of their castles and they now must head home to subjugate their queens.

I used to think however, that all that unleashed testosterone might encourage some men to take by force what would not be conceded, but after studying this movement a bit, I think there is a different strategy. They "love" their wives into "submission".

Love Your Wife Sacrificially

I think it's time to Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. Ephesians

That term "love your wife sacrificially' is heard a lot at these meetings. Now I can't imagine ever being loved sacrificially. And of course it's always wives, never girlfriends, fiancees or significant others. There must be a husband. There must be a wife. And there must be a "sacrifice".

I've read several "testimonials" and articles on the PK site, describing how a man must define his relationship and win over his woman.

But first, according to one of their books that you can purchase for $ 24.95, you must "crack her access code". Sounds painful.

But only then will she "... grow in becoming who God designed her to be." And after cracking their "access code", it's pretty clear that God designed her to be; a baby making machine, subservient to her husband. She just had to be "loved" into submission.

Scared Straight

Another angle, or 'promise' is sexual purity. And that's where all these 'manly' men come in. When you peruse the 'sexual purity' part of the site, there is a bit on pornography, but most of it has to do with homosexuality. They have a cure. Unfortunately they don't have a clue.

They use a 'reduce an athlete or military leader' to a snivelling wreck and then show his tough side. Their little skits are always about an abusive father, believing that caused the 'poor' man to 'choose' this 'lifestyle'. Author, historian and political activist, Anton Chaitkin, wrote an expose on the "mind control" techniques used by the Promise Keepers.

He refers to them as a "cult" and after watching some of their videos, I agree. I think that's what Matt Taibbi was sensing when he stated that Jesus made him puke. You know that there is something happening, as you watch the robotic movements, flushed faces and glazed eyes. These people are no longer thinking for themselves.

And they believe they can use this power to convince their followers that they can now 'control' their wives and 'cure' homosexuals, or possibly be 'cured' themselves.

Chaitkin refers to them as a 'military ministry', and even 'religious terrorists'.

But what happens when this group of manly, muscular Christians, who feel they now have the power to subjugate women and cure homosexuals; start turning their attention toward "Plotting the End Times"?

Their messages are not terribly subtle. Play the video on the right of this page. It's pretty clear that they see a final struggle between Gentiles and Jews. And not just any Gentiles, but Gentiles moved to tears by the Bible.

They've already ordered their white linen robes and jewel studded breastplates.

So to borrow a phrase from Rick Mercer: If you find yourself in Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Westdale, and you see David Sweet. First cross the road, make sure your access code has not been broken, then run like hell.

We really need to get this government out, because sadly Sweet may not be the craziest member of Harper's caucus. Oye!

David Sweet Must be Removed as Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale

David Sweet is the Reform Conservative Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, and one of the ridings I will be going after next election.

As a card carrying member of the Religious Right, his views and actions are moving this country in the wrong direction.

Sweet won the election in 2008, by a margin of more than ten thousand votes; though vote splitting and apathy played a huge part. We have to make sure this doesn't happen next election

Interestingly though, he lost his bid in 2004 because he mentioned his involvement with the anti-women movement, the Promise Keepers. (He founded the Canadian chapter)

In 2006 and 2008, he dropped that information from his campaign, so I'm bringing it back to the surface.

Since strategically the Liberals will be the best option to take out Sweet, I'm throwing my efforts into promoting their candidate. I'm not sure who that is yet, but you can visit the website here.

If you live in this riding, here's what you can do to help:

1. Join the Liberal Party. It's only about $10.00 and is a great way to show your support. They will keep you up to date with what's happening in the community and on the federal scene.

2. If you are able to find a bit of time, volunteer; perhaps with canvassing or some other promotions.

3. If you can afford it at all, donate a bit now and then. I'm set up to contribute a regular monthly donation, but it's whatever you feel comfortable with. Remember that the Conservatives have a lot of wealthy backers and it takes money to launch a campaign.

4. Join Catch 22 Harper Conservatives to learn more tips, and encourage others to join. They also have a website that is currently under construction. Sweet isn't one of their 22, but you will get some idea of how this works.

5. Join Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. There are more than 30,000 links to stories with reasons to vote the Reform-Conservatives out. The better informed you are the more motivated you will be.

I'll keep this page updated as often as possible and will continue to provide more reasons why David Sweet and these destructive Reformers have got to go.

************

More Postings on David Sweet

David Sweet Should Not be Allowed to Vote on Women's Issues

David Sweet's Promise Keepers are Part of a Larger Political Movement

Pro-Sex Feminists and a Feminized Curriculum are to Blame for Everything

Maurice Vellacott at it Again Reminding us of What his Party Stands For

Roots of Reform, Stephen Harper and the Stepford Wives

Pro-Sex Feminists and a Feminized Curriculum are to Blame for Everything

We learned this week that Canada has slipped to 25th place in terms of gender equality,
most of that decline during the four years that the Harper government has been in power.

Much of that can be blamed on the anti-women movement REAL Women of Canada, and other faith based organizations, now driving the Conservative machine.

David Sweet, Reform-Conservative MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, is the founder of the Canadian branch of Promise Keepers, an organization that promotes male dominated households.

The National Organization for Women, an American feminist group has suggested that the Promise Keepers are a threat to women's rights:

The group encourages inequality within marriages and teaches a doctrine of male superiority. According to Amy Schindler, "the discourse of masculinity found within conservative religious movements, such as the Promise Keepers and the Victorian era movement 'muscular Christianity,' is inherently political. Any masculinity project aimed at restoring or reclaiming a 'traditional' male role for privileged white, heterosexual males has a political impact within the tapestry of class, race, and gender power."

This organization was founded by former football coach Bill McCartney, and according to the Canadian Encyclopedia:

A coalition of liberal clergy called Equal Partners in Faith condemns it as "divisive and potentially dangerous." And a New York City-based group called the Center for Democracy Studies warns that Promise Keepers is nothing less than the "third wave" of the religious right - after Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. Alfred Ross, the centre’s executive director, points to close ties between Promise Keepers and such luminaries of the American religious right as Robertson and James Dobson of Focus on the Family as proof that McCartney’s movement is no spontaneous eruption.

James Dobson is one of the founders of the Council for National Policy, where Stephen Harper delivered his 'I really Canadians' speech in 1997, and was integral in the election of Harper in 2006, by buying radio ads against same-sex marriage; one of the hot button issues of the campaign.

Reformers Rob Anders, Maurice Vellacott and David Sweet are also members of Focus on Family, along with a large number of their colleagues.

One of the things that PK preaches is purity in men, much like the group that Stephen Woodworth promotes; Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong. Both Jason Kenney and Rob Anders claim to be virgins, though I'm not really sure that's by choice.

Any of us who have been following politics at all, since the Reform movement first began in Canada, are not really surprised by the results of the study. This party has always been very patriarchal, pro-Anglo and Christian fundamentalist.

One of their mentors and co-founder with Stephen Harper of a right-wing extremist group, the Northern Foundation, William Gairdner; always had some very disturbing views on women.

In fact, in 2007, Donna L. Lillian, Assistant Professor of Discourse and Linguistics in the Department of English at East Carolina University, wrote a paper entitled: A thorn by any other name: sexist discourse as hate speech, which centered around Gairdner: "...analyzing Canadian neoconservative discourse as racist, sexist, and homophobic." According to author and journalist Murray Dobbin, Mr. Gairdner's The Trouble with Canada functioned as ‘the de facto manifesto for Preston Manning’s Reform Party’ (Dobbin, 1992: 134).

Another co-founder of the Northern Foundation was Link Byfield, who has spoken at REAL Women conferences. In a 2002 lecture he stated: "Women, men and families must be defended against those forces that enslave us as we speak. That's why it is necessary for REAL Women to exist and to persist in its work on behalf of the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and family life."

At that same conference, Jeffrey Asher, former Professor at Dawson College in Montreal, opened by saying:

The so-called New Male is a creation of classroom radical feminism, media hype and politically correct governments. For more than thirty years, our culture has rigorously censored information which shows that males and females choose and need sex-specific roles in life. Every parent knows that girls and boys behave differently. Boys choose to play noisy, competitive games that test one against the other, while girls prefer co-operative fantasies that develop emotional skills.

Co-operative fantasies that develop emotional skills? Wow. But wait, he's just getting started:

Men and women respond very differently to stimuli. The male alarm system is more protected from fear and panic. The male brain needs more stimulation than those of females ... Girls show more success in artistic, emotional, verbal and communicative subjects ... Men have superior vision compared to women. Almost all mechanical, chemical, electronic and cybernetic inventions were made by men ... .However, the lives of women have been transformed by independent work and income and the pill, allowing them freedom to choose motherhood and financial independence from fathers or husbands ... [and] can also lead to an increase in divorce, an epidemic of single-mother families, and rising unemployment for men. (Men define their lives by their ability to earn money through work to support a family.)

And he taught this crap at Dawson College, while claiming that by 1980, the women's movement was increasingly co-opted by the lunatic fringe.

The President of REAL Women, Gwen Landolt, also spoke in 2002, where she:

"... highlighted the takeover, by feminist ideology, of the judicial system in Canada, as well as its takeover of the UN. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, the radical feminist ideology was gradually instilled into the cultures of education, work, government and societal life.

Gwen traced the growth of feminism in Canada back to the Royal Commission Report on the Status of Women, which was tabled in the House of Commons in February 1970. It called for both federal and provincial governments to establish and fund Status of Women Councils to work for the "equality of women." This recommendation led to millions of dollars of tax monies being used to establish networks of women's groups across the country. These groups became paid "agents of change" to promulgate feminist orthodoxy.

So do you see what we're up against?

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?

Google This Trolls of Dean Del Mastro

When I read recently that Reformer MP Dean Del Mastro's staff google his name every day, looking for new posts on 'their boss', I thought I'd have a little fun.

I might actually start typing 'Dean Del Mastro' on every page and link it to a big 'BOO!' sign. It'll freak them out.

Mind you now that Del Mastro's 'boss' has given him a two month vacation, I'm sure his staff will be laid off until he has to go back to work, right? Ha ha ha ha. Yeah, right.

I came across an article that made me think of Dino, about an attempt by a Texas Senator to help end abortion ... or slow it down ... I don't know ... the guy's nuts.

Senator Dan Patrick is the perfect little Promise Keeper though.

Rolling Stone journalist, Matt Taibbi went undercover at Pastor John Hagee's ministry and discussed this new phenomenon.

"The grown macho man unashamedly breaking into boyish tears in public is one of the weirder features of the post-Promise Keeper Christian generation, and [Philip] Fortenberry -- himself a Promise Keeper, incidentally -- had it down to a science ... there is something very odd about modern Christian men -- although fiercely pro-military in their politics and prehistorically macho in their attitudes toward women's roles, on the level of day-to-day behavior they seem constantly ready to break out weeping like menopausal housewives... "

And of course at the top of the agenda for their 'macho attitudes toward women's roles', is their desire to end a woman's right to choose. They call themselves pro-lifers, but their pro-military attitudes suggest otherwise. They are just anti-abortion.

I can envision Dino's eyes lighting up as we speak. And poor little Cheryl Gallant is trying to get Dan Patrick on the line, but can't find the number for 'Idiots are Us'.

Dan Patrick and the Abortion Issue:

Just as you hear Del Mastro above, vow to continue fighting, so too does Dan Patrick, a 'macho' sportscaster and Senator from Texas. But rather than just spouting rhetoric, this clever senator has a plan. He wants women to sell him their babies. OK, not him personally, but the state of Texas.

Apparently, he drafted a proposal suggesting that Texas buy the babies from women who would have otherwise chosen to abort; for $ 500.00 a pop. Just when you thought you'd heard it all from these Religious Right Kooks, they always manage to come up with something dumber.

Of course, now that Harper is the official dictator of Canada, he won't have to buy them. He'll just close up the abortion clinics, and shackle all pregnant women, until the big day; then send them back to the kitchen where they belong.

Chris Kelly, blogger for the Huffington Post says it well:

Make Big $$$ By Selling Texas Your Baby
Huffington Post
Chris Kelly

Texas state senator Dan Patrick has a bold new plan to reduce abortions. It involves legalizing the slave trade, and putting it in the hands of big government, but hear him out.

Here's how it works: If you're a U.S. citizen, Texas resident, pregnant, and you want an abortion -- and you can prove you really want it -- you may be entitled to $500. All you have to do is carry the fetus to term and sell it to the state.

It's kind of like those ads where Art Linkletter says you can get a tax break for donating your car. Which raises an interesting question: Isn't he dead?

Anyway, five hundred dollars is (almost by definition) five hundred dollars. Which seems like pretty good money, compared to my shifts at Waffle House, and I'd make and sell fetuses to the State of Texas in a second... but there seems to be a lot of paperwork involved.

And what about my older kids? What'll Dan give me for them?

Dan Patrick (nee Dannie S. Goeb) is the author of S.B. 1567, a bill that was referred to the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday. It calls for the health department to "develop a program to encourage pregnant women to place their children for adoption rather than have an abortion... The program must include a $500 payment to each woman who is a resident of this state and a citizen of the United States who places a child for adoption rather than have an abortion."

And who could object to that? Sure, it sounds like social engineering. But at least there's money involved, so it's also creepy as shit. And the stuff about proving you're not Mexican gives it a nice nativist edge, too. Here's the problem: How do you make sure the pregnant woman you're screwing with isn't just in it for the money? Goeb is way ahead of you:

Sec. 50.002. APPLICATION FORM.

(b) The department may only distribute the application forms to abortion providers.

The only people who can get the money to have a baby are those who've proven -- by going to an abortion clinic -- that they don't want a baby. If you don't want to have a baby, you can get $500 to have a baby, but only if you don't want it. That's some catch, that Catch 22.

Another way to think about it is like the popular game show Deal or No Deal. Only with human lives.

Of course that's not what this is really about. The $500 offer is just more paperwork to make terminating a pregnancy as unpleasant as humanly possible. Because otherwise it would be such a lark. Texas law already says the doctor has to tell his patient: The risks of infection, hemorrhage and future infertility, the risk of breast cancer; that counseling is available, that adoption services are available, and that the father can be legally compelled to pay child support.

Time he'd otherwise just waste asking about her symptoms.

He also has to tell her that Jesus sees everything and cries easily.

Yes, it sounds sort of onerous, but it's not as if privacy is a really important right. It's not like she's buying a gun. (I think the breast cancer link has been pretty thoroughly debunked, too, but what the hell. It's Senator Goeb, not Doctor Goeb.)

(Although he did run for office warning that illegal aliens spread "tuberculosis, malaria, polio and leprosy.") (Malaria can only be spread of mosquitoes. So not only do we need to build a wall; we could also use some screen windows.)

There will be some unintended consequences if the bill passes. There are about 77,000 abortions in Texas every year, and at $500 a pop, they'll run the taxpayers $40 million dollars to buy off. (A small price to pay, when you're doing the lord's work, by creating unwanted children.) Also, passing the law will require vacating another Texas law, the one about not buying and selling people. And, I guess, the emancipation proclamation. But that may turn out to have its upside and downside. That's for history to judge.

Now, Dannie Goeb is obviously just a hateful street corner crank, and he'll get his in hell, but if the law passes, there's a way it can actually help people: If you want to have a baby, move to Texas. Pretend you want to abort it, get $500, put it up for adoption, and then adopt it back.

More Postings on Dean Del Mastro:

1. The Dean Del Mastro Story: Tax Payer Abuse, Corruption & Scandal

2. Dean Del Mastro Might Want to Change the Record

The Media Have Finally Woken up to The Religious Right in Canada

There is something that is rarely discussed here in Canada, and that is the influence of the Religious Right on our current government.

But this is more than just a religious influence on policy, it goes much deeper. They have been behind cuts to science, medical research, and inaction on climate change because they believe that it is one of a number of catastrophes, that we must allow to happen on the road to Armageddon. They are also behind the new Anti-Semitism nonsense, because as another milestone on the road to the Apocalypse, all Jews must be put in boats and forced back to Israel.

And then of course, there are the obvious things like abortion, same-sex marriage, gay rights, health care and daycare; but the most troubling for me is their influence on foreign policy.

I'm glad that the mainstream media is finally waking up and accepting that they have to include this in their reporting, and we as Canadians must start including it as part of normal political discourse.

The religious right is not a religious movement but a political one, and they make a great deal of money feeding off people's insecurities.

I was hesitant to delve into it, fearing that I might offend; but then they themselves became so offensive when discussing the gay community, single mothers, working mothers, etc.; that I decided it was time to fight back.

I grew up poor in a rather rough neighbourhood, and credit the churches in our area with helping me stay on course. I attended Catholic school, played soccer for the United Church, belonged to a Baptist youth group and attended dances in the Anglican church basement.

I don't remember them at anytime trying to convert me, but they may have all had a hand in saving me. Not that I ever really lost my way. I had great parents who though Catholic, allowed me to explore. Mind you, maybe they were just happy that it kept me out of trouble.

Fortunately, most churches are still like that, especially in small communities.

But the religious right represents the mega churches. The wealthy evangelical movement that judges people, and tries to inflict their twisted moral values on the rest of us.

And if anyone believes that a Harper majority won't be their final victory, you're just fooling yourself. Listen to him in this video.

National affairs writer for the Toronto Star, Linda Diebel; wrote a great article on the subject. I have been investigating this for a while, so have added some of my own notes in brackets where comments needed to be corrected, or where I had additional information. I have also included links to my former postings on a particular subject.

Boom times for PMO's God squad
Do Harper's 'theocons' give a Christian tint to policy or simply keep the base happy?
By Linda Diebel National Affairs Writer
December 19, 2009

Darrel Reid used to shoot from the lip. Few Canadian evangelists can match his record for the controversial quote, whether accusing single moms of using welfare to have babies or likening hate crime laws protecting gays and lesbians to Nazi tyranny. Nowadays, not so much.

In 2006, with the advent of a Conservative minority, Reid, once a catalyst for the evangelical movement in Canada, began to go stealth. He became chief of staff to former environment minister Rona Ambrose, then moved to the Prime Minister's Office as an adviser. Last February, he dove further below the radar, apparently gaining more influence with Stephen Harper. He's not up there with Laureen, mind you, but arguably more important than many warm bodies around the cabinet able ....

...However, if he were to do something, McDonald concludes, it would be irreversible by the time it was detected and "would change Canada in a profound way... People seem to wake up to what Harper is doing too late."

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?

Maurice Vellacott and Steven Blaney Want to Remove Protection of Women and Children to Promote Promise Keepers Agenda

Conservative MPs Maurice Vellacott and Steven Blaney have drafted a bill under the guise of protecting the rights of fathers; Bill C-422, "Equal Shared Parenting".

However, anything drafted by Vellacott always has hidden meanings, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what his are.

Using the Promise Keepers "oh, we just want men to take responsibility in the family" smokescreen, the intent of this bill is to LEGISLATE men's rights against the rights of women and protection of children. The next step will have to do with an unborn fetus, where the man will have the final say over whether or not a woman decides to have an abortion.

Supposedly Vellacott is a preacher, but he obviously has never read the Bible, or he would know that the 'good book' makes it very clear, that only a woman can decide whether or not to have a child.

And of course keeping promises to the Promise Keepers, by removing a judge's discretion when it comes to the best interest of the mother and children, is also a bonus.

So we have an alleged crook and a confirmed liar writing up a piece of anti-feminist legislation. Rich. And of course we have all the Religious Right groups pouncing on it like Stephen Harper on a photo-op. This can't be good.

Maurice Vellacott's Private Bill C-422 is bad news for mothers and children

People concerned with women's and children's rights would do well to warn their MP of a private Bill designed by advocates of what they call a « presumptive equal parenting » upon divorce.
Bill C-422, fashioned by Conservative MPs Maurice Vellacott and Steven Blaney - with the support of Liberal MP Raymonde Folco, is a new version of Motion M-483, which died on the agenda during a previous session.

It is aimed at what the proponents are calling an "overall bias" favouring women in divorce and child custody law. (No mention is made of the available statistics as to whom actually does the parenting before separation and whom commits to doing it after it.) This private bill is really about enthroning male entitlement, ending child support and imposing paternal authority.

Ignoring the reality of domestic violence - the main reason for divorce today - and criteria such as parental skills and demonstrated commitment, features NOT equally shared in most divorcing couples*, this law "would make it mandatory for two parents who are divorcing to discuss with either a mediator or a judge how they would divide the time with the children," said Folco to a Laval newspaper, adding that "equal parenting means that 50 per cent of the time a child would be with one parent and 50 per cent with the other."

The lobby behind this one-size-fits-all fathers' rights bill is the "Canadian Equal Parenting Council," and includes the obnoxious Fathers for Justice organization of Batmen and Spidermen-garbed media darlings.

"Men in Canada need to quite literally start protecting themselves from the flawed family law system," an anonymous spokesman from Fathers for Justice said in a statement supportive of Bill C-422.

The Canadian Equal Parenting Council claims support from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, quoting a 2002 book where he called unspecified shared parenting legislative changes sensible and overdue (they always misrepresent Mr. Ignatieff's views by not giving both sides of his argument, which he always provides. An asset when teaching at schools like Harvard and Oxford, but not good for attack ad fodder) .

As for the Bloc Québécois, F4J accuses it of favouring women. It rants, on its website: It's time for Mr. Duceppe to step away from the dark side and stand behind equal parenting.

*In The Canadian Family in Crisis (2003), John Frederick Conway wrote : « ...the anti-feminist men's movement has won some victories but they have not been total... it failed to win the imposition of compulsory joint custody... joint custody must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and situations of marriage breakdown that include domestic violence, addictions to drugs and/or alcohol, and psychological abuse ought not to involve joint custody, co-parenting provisions. » This caveat gets short shrift in C-422.


Bill C-422 "Equal Shared Parenting" - controversy
Friday, July 24, 2009

Maurice Vellacott's Private Members' Bill C-422 is stirring up a storm of controversy. Although a private members' bill it is apparently related to Conservative party campaign pledges to social conservative groups. Other groups question the meaning of "equal" in the bill.

David Sweet's Promise Keepers are Part of a Larger Political Movement

The man in the video above (love the Young Turks) is discussing the founder and leader of a religious organization called Focus on the Family, James Dobson. Many of Harper's Reformers belong to this organization, including Maurice Vellacott, Rob Anders and David Sweet.

Sweet is also the Canadian founder of the Promise Keepers, an offshoot of Focus on the Family.

Dobson is a prominent member of the American Religious Right and the Council for National Policy, with ties to both Stephen Harper and George Bush.

In 2005, Dobson spent thousands of dollars promoting Stephen Harper's run for the prime minister's job, by helping him make same-sex marriage a hot button issue, to lure in the Canadian Religious Right.

My point is that this is a very powerful political movement, that gets a free ride because they cry religious prosecution as soon as you criticize their actions.

I am no longer giving them a free ride.

In fact, since they have become so political, they should lose all tax breaks, since they are clearly raking in a lot of profits, and using those profits to get their candidates elected.

More on the Promise Keepers:

Since it began seven years ago as the brainchild of a college football coach named Bill McCartney, Promise Keepers has become the largest and most controversial men’s movement in the United States. Its leaders say its phenomenal growth - from a handful of men in 1990 to 2.6 million by early this year, with a separate branch in Canada - demonstrates a yearning among men for spiritual values. Its critics reply that Promise Keepers is something more sinister: a nostalgic throwback to the days of unchallenged male supremacy, or even another bid by the religious right to impose a fundamentalist agenda on American life.

" ... It is a message that inspires hundreds of thousands of men at the same time that it unsettles some mainstream clergy and drives feminist groups to distraction. The U.S. National Organization of Women says that Promise Keepers’ real message is "women taking a backseat."

A coalition of liberal clergy called Equal Partners in Faith condemns it as "divisive and potentially dangerous." And a New York City-based group called the Center for Democracy Studies warns that Promise Keepers is nothing less than the "third wave" of the religious right - after Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. Alfred Ross, the centre’s executive director, points to close ties between Promise Keepers and such luminaries of the American religious right as Robertson and James Dobson of Focus on the Family as proof that McCartney’s movement is no spontaneous eruption.

DeMoss, its main spokesman, was an adviser to Pat Buchanan’s right-wing presidential campaign. "Promise Keepers is steeped in political ideology," argues Ross.

There is no question that McCartney’s fundamentalist message reinforces the conservative, so-called family values that are so dear to the religious right. In 1992, he campaigned in favor of an anti-gay-rights law in Colorado, at one point describing homosexuality as "an abomination against Almighty God."

But the main reason for the men-only rule goes to the heart of Promise Keepers’ most controversial belief: that men must reclaim leadership of their families, and wives should submit to their husbands.

McCartney says that is not debatable - the Bible says the man is head of the family, and that is that. Some of his associates have interpreted this in ways that ring alarm bells among many women. Tony Evans, a frequent Promise Keeper speaker, wrote in the movement’s book Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper that men should sit down with their wives, "and say something like this: 'Honey, I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’ve given you my role. I gave up leading this family. Now I must reclaim that role.' "

David Sweet Should Not be Allowed to Vote on Women's Issues

David Sweet is the Reform-Conservative MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, and a card carrying member of the Religious Right.

As the founder of the Canadian branch of the male-dominated Promise Keepers, his views are anti-feminist, anti-abortion and anti-gay.

Now, I have no problem with his being a born again Christian (a former convicted car thief), because his religious beliefs should not affect how he does his job.

But I do have a big problem with his Promise Keepers affiliation.

The National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization has suggested that the Promise Keepers are a threat to women's rights, and I agree.

The group encourages inequality within marriages and teaches a doctrine of male superiority. According to Amy Schindler, "the discourse of masculinity found within conservative religious movements, such as the Promise Keepers and the Victorian era movement 'muscular Christianity,' is inherently political. Any masculinity project aimed at restoring or reclaiming a 'traditional' male role for privileged white, heterosexual males has a political impact within the tapestry of class, race, and gender power."

During the 2004 election campaign he was quite open about his PK past.

Religious activist turns to partisan politics
CTV.ca News Staff
June 27, 2004

Until Jan. 31, Sweet was president of the Canadian arm of the Promise Keepers, a U.S.-based evangelical Christian organization, a job he had held since 1998. The Promise Keepers is a men's group devoted to helping its members lead better lives guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ. It requires members to follow seven basic promises.

In an interview with Christian Week, Sweet said, "Men are natural influencers, whether we like it or not. There's a particular reason why Jesus called men only. It's not that women aren't co-participators. It's because Jesus knew women would naturally follow."

A leader of the Promise Keepers organization went further, "I believe that feminists of the more aggressive persuasion are frustrated women unable to find the proper male leadership. If a woman were receiving the right kind of love and attention and leadership, she would not want to be liberated from that."

And from the 'Chosen Women' rally: "[A woman's] job is to submit to our teachers and our Professors...even if we know they are wrong. It is then in God's hands."

David Sweet is also on record as saying of homosexuality, "It's pretty clear in Genesis, in Leviticus and in the book of Romans that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle, and that's the truth we decided to live by."

We could argue that he may have been elected either because of these views, or in spite of them;

but that's not true. He lost the 2004 election, so in 2006, completely dropped any mention of the Promise Keepers. Why was that? Did he realize that Canadians did not share his views?

David Sweet hides his Promise Keeper past
January 16, 2006

This election, Mr. Sweet has erased all evidence of his past affiliation with Promise Keepers. There is no mention of them on his campaign website. The Promise Keepers Canada website has also been scrubbed clean of Mr. Sweet. Even the Christian Week website has been scrubbed.

“It seems that Mr. Sweet has gone to great trouble to hide his past,” said Laurie Arron, Egale’s Director of Advocacy. “For example, he’s said that women are natural followers. It wasn’t easy to track this down. An article in Christian Week in which he said this was removed from that website. Luckily, Google has cached a copy of it.”

Promise Keepers do not encourage a relationship of equals in a marriage. Rather, they call for men to “take” their role as the leader in the family. Promise Keeper Tony Evans stated “I am not suggesting that you ask for your role back, I am urging you to take it back. There can be no compromise here.” .

Is this someone we want voting on issues pertaining to women?

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS DAVID SWEET REALLY THE BEST CHOICE FOR ANCASTER-DUNDAS-FLAMBOROUGH-WESTDALE?