Much has been made of Pat Martin's twitter rant and his choice of language, so after a day of much discussion over his choice of words I decided out of curiosity to go take a look at Youths for Christ the group whose funding ultimately led to Martin's rant. What I found deeply troubles me given that they are recipients of public funding through our federal government. It seems their sole raison d'être is the conversion of Indigenous youth to Christianity
Youth for Christ is made up of tens of thousands of primarily volunteer
indigenous* people in over 100 nations working together in giving every
young person an opportunity to be a follower of Jesus Christ. (* emphasis added)
Now I have no issue with religions attempting to grow their base it is what all businesses and movements seek to do, however it most certainly beyond inappropriate for our government to be funding this activity particularly given this groups focus on Indigenous youth. There is more than a small taint of colonialism in all this.
I was pretty pissed off when the NDP made Pat Martin shut up about his opposition to this Vic Toews directed project. Other than aboriginal leaders and North End residents, the only meek opposition heard on the municipal level were from councilors who thought that the proposed mega-project amounted to diverting funds from existing, long-term and proven programs. Martin was the only federal politician to support the opposition on the grounds of it being a colonial throwback and against the principle of secular governance.
ReplyDeleteSome good critique of this fiasco can be found here:
http://winnipegskeptics.com/2011/12/13/humanists-skeptics-attack-youth-for-christ/
Thanks for pointing me to that article Beijing here it is in link form Humanists, Skeptics “Attack” Youth for Christ
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