Notes for an Address

by Preston Manning
to Trinity Western Universitys Christmas in the City Banquet

Vancouver
November 30, 2003

The Scout

One Saturday, coming back from Ottawa to Calgary, I sat beside a man on the plane who introduced himself as Jerry Potts, Jr. He proved to be a direct descendant of the famous Metis scout, Jerry Potts, who guided the first contingent of the NWMP sent to bring law and order to the early West.

The scout was the fellow who rode out ahead of the main party. His job was to study the weather and the signs of the trail, and to look for signs of danger and opportunity.

He would then report back to the main company and try to persuade the rest who had not seen or heard what he had seen and heard that if they went this way they would get into trouble but if they went that way they might find safety and good grass.

Since I left Parliament in 2002, I have been doing a little scouting of my own. Tonight Id like to report to you on some of the dangers and opportunities I see for Canadians of the spiritual/political frontier the place where the spiritual and political interact. Its a frontier where institutions like Trinity Western are playing an increasingly important role.

The Opportunities

There is a growing interest in many quarters for exploring the intersection between faith and politics. This creates an opportunity for ministry:

Business: Experiencing a revived interest in ethics since Enron and WorldCom.
Parliament: Being forced to deal with the moral and ethical questions raised by the genetic revolution (Bill C-13) and court action to redefine marriage.
Internationally: The impact of September 11 is forcing world leaders to deal with the clash between religious extremism and western secularism, and which has pulled foreign policy onto moral ground.

All of these developments force us (secular and faith communities alike) to re-examine the relationships between the spiritual and the political, and they provide an opportunity for believers to relate their faith to contemporary issues in new and more relevant ways.

I recently visited St. Francis Xavier University to give a lecture in honour of Allan MacEachen, the former minister in Mr. Trudeaus cabinet, on Judicial Activism and the Role of Parliament. I mentioned that politicians dont know how to handle moral/ethical issues thus leave matters to the courts. This prompted Mr. MacEachen, who was present, to comment on Mr. Trudeaus spiritual roots and ask me directly how my faith influenced my public policy positions.

There is an awakened interest in the spiritual dimension of public policy issues which represents a great opportunity.

The Dangers

1. There are great dangers for politicians and secular decision makers when dealing with issues that mix ethics, faith, and public policy, because it is becoming obvious that the old tools dont work any more.

Canada has tried to extend the U.S. doctrine of separation of church and state to mean keeping the entire subject matter of religion and spirituality out of political discourse.

Unrealistic and impractical.
By all means, keep the institutions separate.
But cant keep the subjects or the spirit of faith and politics separate, because human beings and communities dont (e.g., religion polls demonstrate this).

Moral relativism the pervading ethic in Ottawa for the last thirty years is proving less and less adequate to handle contemporary moral issues.

Moral relativists (in the political world) say: You believe what you believe, and Ill believe what I believe, and as long as we respect each other everything will work out.
But this approach breaks down in real life situations involving moral crises (e.g., Sept. 11: any world leader who had said, Let the terrorists believe what they believe, and let the Americans believe what they believe, and somehow it will all work out, would have been laughed off the world stage).

Conclusion: The old approaches, like trying to keep faith and politics/public policy in separate compartments or relying on moral relativism to resolve ethical differences, are inadequate to handle the challenges we face.

There is therefore a need to provide secular decision makers, especially in government, with the knowledge and skills required to operate at the faith/politics interface. Requires giving them a better understanding of faith perspectives, spiritual values and the longings they represent, and how to take these into account in public policy and public decision making.

Question Arises: Where are these people going to get such knowledge and skills?

2. There are dangers for people of faith and faith communities operating at the faith/political interface dangers of behaving unwisely, foolishly on that frontier so as to discredit rather than advance faith based positions.

Some of these dangers arise from unfamiliarity with the terrain. People of faith lack this familiarity because of tendency in the past toward isolation and the privatization of faith.
Dangers also arise from the tendency of some faith communities, once they do become involved in the public square, to start acting like any other interest group (i.e., simply putting their interests ahead of everybody elses).

Believers, faith communities, need training and guidance

To think through the application of our faith to particular issues.
To learn how to communicate persuasively, not threateningly.
To learn how to distinguish ourselves from just another interest group.
To learn to practise the great guideline that Jesus gave his first disciples when he sent them out to do public work about being as wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Question Again Arises: Where are people of faith going to get this knowledge and these skills?

A Recommended Source of Help Trinity Western University

Trinity Western is a full-fledged university with a variety of liberal arts and professional programs, but infused with a Christian perspective. A good place, not just for people with a faith commitment, but also for people with a secular perspective to acquire the knowledge and skills required to advance their careers and at the same time gain an understanding of the spiritual dimension of life.

And of course because of its Christian worldview, and its efforts to relate that worldview to a variety of disciplines and professions, Trinity Western is an excellent place for equipping people with a faith commitment to operate in the political and economic marketplace, and to do so with the wisdom and innocence that Jesus commended.

When I was in Ottawa, I had two special reminders of Trinity Westerns contributions in this regard, one at the beginning of my political sojourn there and one toward the end.

Deb Grey, our first MP, was a student at Trinity Western. Has excellent balance, testimony.
Recent experience with TWUs Laurentian Leadership Institute. Located in Ottawa; excellent program.

For these reasons, and the fact that we have great confidence in Dr. Neil Snyder, President of Trinity, whom we have know for many years Sandra and I are strong supporters of Trinity Western and see it as a great contributor to the equipping of both secular and faith committed people to operate at the spiritual/political frontier.

Following Jesus

Of course, no matter who we are or what perspective we come from, there is no greater source of guidance and leadership for believers operating on the spiritual and political frontier than Jesus himself. The Gospels are full of stories of his interactions with the political and religious leadership of his day.

More specifically, He prepared his followers to operate in the public square. Be wise, be harmless was the great guideline He gave them in sending them out for the first time to do public ministry.

Be wise, be harmless! He didnt just advocate this guideline, He demonstrated it in practice.

Being Harmless

There is the story (Luke 9:52) of when Jesus and his disciples came to a Samaritan village on their way to Jerusalem just days before his crucifixion.

The village refused to receive Him, so two of the most spiritual of his disciples asked him a really spiritual question: Lord, should we command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them? They sought permission to do violence in the name of God religious extremism of the worst kind, among his own followers. They wanted to burn the place down. They would have held a prayer meeting first, but the intention was to call down fire from heaven.

And do you remember what Jesus said to them? He said, You know not what manner of spirit you are of. And He rebuked them in no uncertain terms.

His followers ourselves if we call ourselves Christians are to be like Him in our dealings with the common people: harmless and not threatening. We are not to conduct ourselves in such a way as to scare the hell out of the very people we are trying to help or influence.

What is the most common fear of ordinary non-religious people about religious believers? It is the fear that we would ram our convictions and positions down their throats if we thought we could get away with it.

We need to follow Jesus in communicating faith. He invited people to follow. He didnt compel them to follow. He respected their freedom to accept or reject Him, even their freedom to crucify Him. And He said He operated that way because thats the way God the Father operates.

He even told his disciples that if they couldnt be harmless non-threatening in sharing their faith with particular people, then they should stay away from those particular people until something changed.

Thus when He sent them out the first time, He told them not to go into any village of the Samaritans. Why? Because they were prejudiced against the Samaritans for cultural, political, and religious reasons. If you cant share your faith with some group without threatening them, then stay away until God changes not their heart but yours.

Be Harmless, Be Wise!

We need wisdom special wisdom, spiritual wisdom, deep wisdom to operate effectively at the faithpolitical interface. Again, Jesus himself provides us with examples of what it means to speak and act shrewdly, and not foolishly or dangerously, in the public square.

There was the day the scribes and Pharisees tried to get Jesus into political trouble over the issue of taxes. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? They think they have him. If he says Yes, he will lose the support of the ordinary people who despised Roman taxes. But if he says No, he will be guilty of treason. What does he do? First, he takes his time. He asks for a coin. Whose inscription is this? Caesars. Then render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars but unto God the things that are Gods. Not just a great sound bite, but a shrewd answer both spiritually and politically.
There was another time when Jesus was confronted by the religious moralists of his day with a woman taken in adultery. The law of Moses says that such should be stoned, but what do you say? They think they have him. If he says throw stones, he will be contradicting his own message of love and forgiveness. But if he says dont throw stones, he will be contradicting the Law of Moses and be in trouble with the authorities. Again he takes his time he scribbles something in the dirt. Then he looks up and says a dozen well-chosen words: He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.
What if that had been us confronted with what the Law of Moses defined as sexual immorality? And what if the conduct over which they were going to stone one of the participants had been a homosexual act which is mentioned in the same chapter of the Mosaic law with the same penalty, about two sentences further on from the section the Pharisees were quoting? Would we have had the wisdom to say what Jesus said and act as Jesus acted, or would we have been less wise and more foolish?

Contrast if you will the wisdom with which TWU handled its court case on teaching a Christian position on homosexuality, with the recent attempt by a Christian MP to communicate on that subject. Which communication exhibited wisdom and which exhibited foolishness?

Oh the need for wisdom spiritual wisdom wisdom in the use of words at the spiritual/political interface.

The Child in the Midst: Wisdom and Innocence Combined

Let me close with one last instructive example from the life of Jesus that combines this wisdom and innocence which He calls upon his followers to demonstrate, and which is particularly appropriate at Christmas time.

The occasion was Jesus last journey to Jerusalem in the company of his closest followers. For three years, He had sought to teach them trust, humility, and self-sacrifice. But as they trudged along the road to Jerusalem, an argument developed. Over what? Over which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

As the quarrel grew louder, a small crowd gathered, including several women with young children. Suddenly, Jesus spoke to one of the mothers and beckoned the child at her side to come to him. He lifted the child gently in his arms and then stepped directly into the middle of the quarrel.

His feuding followers could not disguise their annoyance. Here they were, debating their views of the kingdom of God and giving voice to their burning ambitions for prominent positions in that kingdom (kingdom of heaven and political ambition its the spiritual/political frontier again). What was Jesus doing, bringing a child into such a situation?

But Jesus soon made his purpose plain. This child is trusting, He says, you should learn to trust like her.

This child is young and in no position to promote herself or make claims on anyone. You should learn her humility.

You think this little one has no place here, and it annoys you that I have made her a place. But I tell you that unless you put the interests of this little one and others as vulnerable as she ahead of your own, you have no place in the work I am preparing for you.

To Jesus followers, it was the presence of the child that seemed inappropriate, misdirected, and incongruous. But Jesus in his wisdom used that innocent child to demonstrate that it was his followers quarrel that was inappropriate, their ambitions that were misdirected, and their conduct that was incongruous with his intentions for them.

Wisdom using innocence to teach a lesson to believers operating at the spiritual/political frontier the story of the Child in the Midst.

Years later, Matthew the tax collector wrote the story down; Peter told it to Mark and perhaps to Luke who also wrote it down to teach a lesson that is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago if we apply it.

How to apply it? How to apply it to the interface of faith and politics today? Let us use our imagination. Imagine the House of Commons during the daily Question Period a cauldron of mistrust, ambition, and self-aggrandizement if ever there was one. The MPs, egged on by the media, are hurling loaded questions, clever retorts, and assorted insults across the floor as usual.

But what if the space between the government and opposition benches were occupied, not by the Mace and the tables of the House officers, but by dozens of young children representing more truly than any Member of Parliament the future hopes of our country?

Would we politicians be able to act as we so often do, in the face of the child in the midst? Would it be the presence and actions of the children that would appear incongruous and out of place in the Commons, or would it be the words and actions of the Members that would now appear inappropriate and misguided?

Or on a larger and more deadly stage, imagine the road from Ramallah to Jerusalem a road well traveled by Islamic terrorists, Israeli soldiers, and thousands of ordinary people whose lives are being torn asunder by the turmoil and violence of Middle East politics.

What if for one day that road were to be occupied exclusively, from one end to the other, by thousands of children Palestinian children, Israeli children, children from every nation with a stake in the Arab-Israeli conflict?

The suicide bomber who attacked that road would bring down universal censure on his head and his cause. The soldier who fired even one shot in the direction of that road would do the same. For at least a day, that road would know the peace for which most Palestinians and Israelis desperately long.

Conclusion

The same men who recorded the original story of the Child in the Midst recorded another story about angels appearing to shepherds and saying, There is born to you this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.

The political and religious establishment of that day reacted to the presence of that Child by hardening their hearts and turning away from everything He represented. But the shepherds, the wise men, and many of the common people responded by receiving Him into their lives.

It is the challenge of the Child in the Midst. It is a story from the spiritual frontier. It combines the wisdom of God and the innocence of a child in a concrete historical-political context to communicate a timeless lesson to mankind.

The learning and application of that story and the wisdom and innocence of its central character is what Trinity Western is all about.

The learning and application of that story particularly in its wisdom and harmlessness is what every professing Christian ought to be about in our contemporary world.

My prayer is that we would all be inspired anew especially at Christmas time to give ourselves and our country a spiritual fresh start, to support Trinity Western University and other institutions engaged in that mission, to provide an alternative to the privatization of faith and the relativizing of morals, and to do so with the wisdom and harmlessness so perfectly demonstrated by the Christ Child in our midst at Christmas time.

May God give each and every one of you and your families wisdom and freedom from harm at this special time of year.