Minority of Canadians believe religion has positive influence on societal values

A poll conducted in time for the Thanksgiving weekend showed that only about one-third (34 percent) of Canadians believe that “religion has a positive influence on societal values.”

And that percentage is even lower in British Columbia, where 28 percent agreed with the statement; Quebec shows the lowest level of support at 20 percent. Ontario (44 percent) and the Atlantic provinces (38 percent) are more receptive.

The poll was conducted for the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) by Leger.

Canada / U.S. gap

One key finding is that Americans are much more positive about the role of religion on societal values than are Canadian – 53 percent vs 34 percent.

Writing on the ACS site, Jack Jedwab stated:

When it comes to issues of identity one of the profound differences between Canada and the United States is the respective extent to which they value religion and see it as having a positive or negative impact on society.

The difference is not without significance for politics, social policy and relations between groups in countries that traditionally like to describe themselves as separating Church from state. . . .

America’s broad commemoration to the memory of Charlie Kirk in the aftermath of his assassination was in part an indication of the importance of religion in the United States.

Americans living in western (35 percent) and northeastern (26 percent) states are more in line with Canadian results.

Secular intolerance

The October 13 ACS report does not explain the findings. Several factors, no doubt, are involved. 

Many will blame that poor showing on the church itself. Stanley Hauerwas is widely quoted on this point: “Bad Christianity is very bad, and we need to be more upfront about that.”

We do need to be honest about our failings – and they are many. It seems to me that we are doing better. I have, for example, seen and posted many mea culpas by church leaders related to residential schools and complicity with colonial enterprises.

The media are better still at reporting negative incidents, allegations and opinions related to the church. What they seldom do is report positively on the good work done by Christians on many fronts.

One obvious example is the Halo Project, which has not received much public attention. Cardus (a non-partisan Christian think tank) has championed the concept for several years, noting:

The ‘halo effect’ is a measure of the socio-economic benefit that a religious congregation contributes to its local community.

Our most recent research suggests that for every dollar that a congregation spends, the local community receives an average of $3.39 in economic benefit. The halo effect for Canada as a whole is currently estimated to be $18.2 billion.

On the other hand, examples abound of various critiques or undermining of churches and Christian ministries. Some recent cases:

• The Standing Committee on Finance for the House of Commons released a report last December which included a recommendation to “Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.” Groups such as the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada have been alerting the church about the threat to religious bodies.
• The BC Humanist Association asks supporters to take action on four issues on its main page:
  • ‘End the Privileged Status of Religion in Charity Law’
  • ‘End Religious Institutional Objections to MAiD.’
  • End Public Funding of Private Schools’
  • ‘Humanist Marriage’ (“a meaningful non-religious ceremony”)
• NDP MP Rohini Arora introduced a motion censuring ARPA Canada, a “grassroots Christian political advocacy organization,” on the day MLAs returned to the BC Legislature (October 6).
• CBC News recently reported, “An independent committee is recommending extending Quebec’s religious symbols ban to educators and administrators in subsidized daycares. Quebec’s anti-religion law is Bill 21, already prohibits public sector employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols while at work.
• An April 24 report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute “reveals a grim pattern of arson against churches, and a deafening silence in response. . . Arson against places of worship cannot be treated as a background issue. Canadians deserve better and so do their institutions of faith.”

It would not be surprising if the over-reporting of wrong-doing by Christians (in particular), combined with an under-reporting of their good works, along with a steady stream of anti-religious initiatives, would influence many who have little contact with religious people or institutions.

Keeping perspective

Gary Stagg, Executive Director of Open Doors Canada, was at Central Presbyterian Church in Vancouver last Friday, urging those who attended to support persecuted Christians around the world.

During a 2020 Faith Today interview Stagg addressed those who feel that Canadian Christians are being persecuted:

FT: When you hear North American Christians use the word persecution for themselves, how do you respond?

GS: I try to be very diplomatic and say that there’s a difference between secular intolerance and persecution. I guess it could be what we would consider a mild form of persecution, but it’s nothing compared to what these brothers and sisters have to go through on a daily basis.

The Bible does say that all those who live godly lives will suffer persecution. There’s going to be pushback. But it’s hard to compare the pushback we get in a free society to the pushback our brothers and sisters get in a country where they’re persecuted.

They’re not free to practise Christianity. They’re not free to change their religion. We can still do all of that. I can walk across the street and speak to my Muslim neighbour, and have a great conversation with that person and not have to worry about being reported to the authorities.

But I do understand also that we are seeing more and more secular intolerance, and I’m not sure where that will lead to. As an organization, we are trying to monitor that as well.

Not a ‘universal ethic’

Stanley Hauerwas critiqued ‘bad religion,’ but he also made it clear that we cannot expect our views to be popular. He might even acknowledge, were he asked, that the more ‘positive’ American results reflect an unduly comfortable embrace of American culture by the church.

During a 2021 interview with Plough, he said:

It is the Jesus of the Gospels that makes Christian ethics Christian. Of course, part of the difficulty of contemporary Christian ethics is that it tries to be an ethic for anyone, everyone. That’s not only a mistake but tragic.

Jesus didn’t espouse some ‘universal ethic’; if he had, he wouldn’t have been crucified. No, what determines our way of negotiating with the world is not some rational ethic but a life based on Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

That makes Christian ethics somewhat embarrassing. Didn’t Paul say, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”? (1 Corinthians 1:18). Anyone baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has the possibility of living the way God would want anyone to live.

In other words (well, my words), the church is susceptible to critique when it acts badly (residential schools, hypocritical evangelists, predatory priests, hawkish Christian Nationalists), but also when it is clearly trying to follow Jesus (offering hospice care in place of assisted suicide, opposing abortion, welcoming refugees, peacemaking).

From the Hauerwas interview again:

But many Christians are wringing their hands over the loss of God in society and of our Christian heritage.

Well, I actually think that one of the good things that is happening today is precisely the loss as Christians of our status and power in the wider society. That loss makes us free. We as Christ’s disciples ain’t got nothing to lose anymore. That’s a great advantage because as a people with nothing to lose, we might as well go ahead and live the way Jesus wants us to.

The ACS ‘Thanksgiving Poll’ might be taken as yet another sign of decline of the church’s influence in Canada, or of secular antipathy – and those are well worth taking seriously. But on the other hand, we need not be unduly concerned with polls as long as we remember who is our guide.