Political Evangelical Canada

The year 1968 was an exciting one for Canada—politically, ecclesiastically, and socially. We had a general election that, for the first time in a long period of political malaise, gave us a majority government. With this gift we also received a new Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He swept to power on a wave of Trudeaumania that for a people so generally phlegmatic as Canadians seemed somewhat frightening.

Peter Newman, political correspondent for the Toronto Star, has an unusual facility in writing “instant history,” and he has done so again in his book The Distemper of Our Times. Here is a chronicle of five years in Canada’s history by a journalist who was close to the political scene all the time. It is an angry journal, a distillation of behind-the-scenes actions in one of the most frantic periods in this nation’s history. Here for the first time we are given the basic material from which to draw accurate judgments and assess the trends, the people, and the events that shaped the nation’s course. There are few heroes here, unfortunately. And worse, there is very little evidence of dependence on God or on the conviction that righteousness exalts a nation.

Newman’s summary may be overly simple, but it is nonetheless disturbing:

The Diefenbaker years resembled nothing so much as the voyage of the Titanic—an inevitable rush to disaster, with the ship of state sinking at the end in a galaxy of fireworks, brass bands playing and the captain shouting hysterical orders to crewmen who had long since jumped overboard. The Pearson period, in contrast, was more like the voyage of some peeling, once proud, now leaky excursion steamer, lurching from port to port, with the captain making up the schedule as he went along, too busy keeping the ship afloat to spend much time on the bridge.

The great question remains. Is the ship of state today in safer and wiser hands? There is great room for doubt. The phenomenon of Trudeaumania is still with us. But there are better ways than popular acclaim to judge this man whose meteoric rise to power has so astonished the chancelleries of the world. It is not without interest that both the Toronto Telegram and Life magazine reported that our Prime Minister, on a recent visit to United Nations Secretary U Thant in New York, found time also to take in the Broadway rock musical Hair and pop artist Andy Warhol’s film Flesh. Without presuming to judge, one can only say that the cause of righteousness may face challenges in Canada that this nation has not yet known. Trudeau’s great presentation is “the just society”—yet when some months ago he was asked what Canada intended to do about the agony of Biafra, he asked: “Where is Biafra?”

In the ecclesiastical realm, one can report a positive and exciting development in 1968. The movement toward integration of evangelicals has gained in cohesion and velocity, and the development of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the past twelve months has been quite dramatic. It may yet appear that along with the other events that have shaken Canada in the past year, the rise of the Evangelical Fellowship was of major significance.

Admittedly, it did not seem like this at the convention in Winnipeg. Indeed, some rather unworthy reporting gave the impression that the last convention amounted to little less than a total disaster. But God has planned otherwise. In his sovereignty, the council has been welded together into a striking team of great force, and a new magazine, Thrust, has appeared. For now this is to be a quarterly journal. Several issues have already come from the press, and reviews have been heartening. The magazine is being sent to the study of every evangelical minister in Canada.

In a country as large as Canada, emphasis on news is very desirable, and Thrust is giving considerable space to this. Every effort is being made to provide accurate assessment of ecclesiastical and social movements in all the provinces. With this in view, the lead article in the first issue was on “Poverty and Mr. Trudeau’s Just Society.” The lead article in the second issue tells of a very interesting new development in Christian scholarship, the opening of Regent College in Vancouver in the summer of 1969. These issues are of prime importance to evangelicals in our land, and the leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship intend to provide adequate coverage of such matters. The magazine is of Reader’s Digest size, carries advertising, and sells for twenty-five cents per copy. It has already been called “a magazine worthy of the space age”—the format is quite unusual. Interested readers may obtain copies by writing to Box 878, Terminal A, Toronto 1, Ontario, Canada.

This is only part of the program being developed. The 1969 convention will be held March 5 and 6 in Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto, and will deal with “Reality and Relevancy.” The intention is to have ministers and laymen from all across Canada face the tremendous question of the relevance of the evangelical message to the crises of our times. The social order of our land, the communications media, the role of evangelism and the evangelist in the ongoing work of the Church, the revolt of youth, the social conscience of the Christian—all these will come before major seminars.

One of the questions often asked about the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is: What are its goals? The answer is very simple. The goal is nothing less than the quickening of the people of God to an awareness of their high privileges and responsibilities through God’s grace.

The need for revival is beyond question. We may have the best of programs, but what are they if the breath of the Holy Spirit is not upon them? The plain fact is that we evangelicals of Canada have not loved the Lord with all our heart and mind and strength, and we have certainly not loved our neighbors as we love ourselves. We have refused to pray and as a result have fallen into temptation. There is little evidence of an abundant, joyous life in Christ. And joylessness is sin.

Under God the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada can play a great role in recalling the land to God and in reminding its political leaders that only with the help of God can they succeed. There is undoubtedly a special duty for Canadian evangelicals in this critical hour, and we intend to carry it out. We seek only the glory of God and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We believe that his is a solitary throne and that he is the only answer to the problems of our day. If ever God grants great revival to Canada, its effects will be known in every corner of the globe. We have no lesser aim than this. And we are confident that, as we follow the pattern outlined in the Holy Scriptures, God will indeed break in upon us and allow us to see his power and glory manifested to all flesh.

WILLIAM FITCH

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