The BC Humanists don’t like the idea that candidates for political office should be praying, especially in public.
And CTV News appears to have taken up their cause – or at least treated their views seriously.
An October 5 report by Isabella Zavarise began:
It reads as more of a sermon than a political post.
ABC candidate Lorraine Lowe took to social media, saying, “Father God, here we are. Advance polling. Your Word says, ‘we wrestle not against flesh and blood.”
She then asked God to protect her team; a polarizing prayer.
Next, she turned to BC Humanist Association executive director Ian Bushfield.
In her written article, Zavarise said:
The messaging has not landed well with groups like the BC Humanist Association, who called the use of explicitly religious language surprising.
“I think that kind of stuff doesn’t resonate with people,” said executive director Ian Bushfield.
“That’s not to say you can’t be a religious politician, but just that you need to be a politician for everyone, and we hope that all our elected officials understand that.”
Bushfield later referred to the fact that the City of Vancouver had been forced to drop prayers before City Council meetings in 2024, following a legal challenge by the BC Humanists. He said: “For ABC, as the party that brought that in, I think they need to tread a lot more carefully when it comes to religion and politics.”
(I wrote about that situation here.)
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim quickly spoke up in defence of his fellow ABC candidate, saying her post was “absolutely incredible”:
“We are a diverse city,” he said.
“I have spent the last more than eight years visiting gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues, churches, and we celebrate that. We celebrate culture and different faiths. That’s what Vancouver is, and so I 100 percent support it. I think it’s great and I’m really proud of Lorraine.”
In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson [for] ABC said Lowe’s post was, “a personal prayer at the end of a long campaign.”
Lowe’s October 3 tweet read:
This is a portion of her campaign statement on the ABC site:
Lorraine has served in numerous executive leadership roles over the course of her career.
While running for Council, Lorraine is taking a leave of absence from her roles as Executive Director of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Vice Chair of the Vancouver Police Board.
Previously, as Executive Director of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, she became a trusted community voice and bridge builder. With the support of community partners and sponsors, she helped establish a grocery and outreach program for Chinatown seniors and opened the garden’s doors to the DTES Artist Collective.
Stepping away from a senior role with an organization she cares deeply about is not a decision Lorraine takes lightly; however, with so much at stake for Vancouver’s future, she believes this is the time to put her experience to work in public service and help build a safer, more affordable city for the next generation.
Lorraine is a third-generation Vancouverite whose family has spent many years serving the city. Her great-grandfather helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway, persevered through the Exclusion era, and believed deeply in giving back to the country his family chose. Lorraine carries that same commitment to service into her work today.
Go here for a more detailed account on the ABC site.
Secular state?
Zavarise said Lowe’s prayer was surprising, “especially in Canada, which is a secular country – and even more so in BC, where the largest proportion of agnostic and atheist residents live.”
The latter point is well documented, but the first part is open to question. Several books have explained why BC is less religious than the rest of North America. For example:
- Paul Bramadat, Patricia O’Connell Killen, Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, editors: Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest (UBC Press, 2022)
- Lynne Marks: Infidels and the Damn Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia (UBC Press, 2017)
- Tina Block: The Secular Northwest: Religion and Irreligion in Everyday Postwar Life (UBC Press, 2016)
Two key books describe some of the ways in which Christians and churches have adapted to, but often also resisted, the secular environment:
- Ross Lockhart: West Coast Mission: The Changing Nature of Christianity in Vancouver (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024)
- Robert K. Burkinshaw: Pilgrims in Lotus Land: Conservative Protestantism in British Columbia, 1917 – 1981 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995)
I have posted articles about these issues many times over the years. For example:
In the early 2000s, [Mark Silk] and his academic centre carried out studies which found that the Pacific Northwest [including BC] was the most distinctive of the eight regions into which they divided the U.S. because of “the region’s low degree of religious identification.”
They described it as the ‘None Zone.’ That designation caught on – and is still eminently applicable.
The majority of people in British Columbia have no religious affiliation. Along with Ontario, BC is the province with the highest percentage of people with a religious affiliation other than Christian – and that percentage is much higher in large urban centres such as Metro Vancouver than in rural areas.
Christians are challenged to know how to effectively engage others with the gospel in a place where widespread celebration of the natural environment is combined with some of the lowest church attendance in the country.
But as to Zavarise’s comment that Canada is a secular state (or BC, or Vancouver) – that seems debatable. We are secular in the sense that we have no established church or religion. But our culture and our laws are heavily influenced by our Christian heritage.
And the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:”
Even if Canada is considered a secular nation, the Guide to the Charter, on the Government of Canada site, points out:
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
-
- a) freedom of conscience and religion;
- b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
- c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
- d) freedom of association.
Under section 2 of the Charter, Canadians are free to follow the religion of their choice. In addition, they are guaranteed freedom of thought, belief and expression.
An expert near the end of the CTV News piece (Carmen Celestini) said a public prayer such as that made by Lowe could lose her votes – but also gain her votes in some quarters.
Polls have shown that Canadians are tolerant of religion expression in public, but are mixed, at best, on the value of religious contributions to society.
Coverage such as the recent CTV News story – which, while not contravening the Charter, arguably does not respect its spirit – will probably make some Christians even more hesitant to express their faith in public. Possibly it will embolden others. As to its effect politically, time will tell.
You go girl.