I Know They're Not Trying to be Funny, But…

Emily was listening to the CBC on Thursday morning and they were doing a story on a new book: The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald.

McDonald is one of Canada’s most respected journalists, the winner of several awards & having held numerous influencial positions in her field. I think it’s fair to say that she’s kind of a big deal.

So when Emily told me about this book, we immediately looked it up on Amazon because it sounded so interesting.

Here’s what the publisher says:

An urgent wake-up call for all Canadians who think that this country is immune from the righteous brand of Christian nationalism that has bitterly divided and weakened the United States.

In her new book, Marci McDonald documents the startling extent of the influence that the religious right already wields in Canada and shows how, quietly, often stealthily, it has provoked far-reaching changes in Canadian policies and institutions, including our public service, our schools and our courts.

In four short years, galvanized by their failure to stop same-sex marriage, not only have conservative Christians developed a permanent infrastructure in Ottawa, designed to outlast whatever party is in power, but they have done so by borrowing the rowdy style of the American religious right to which most of their leaders boast close ties. Their rise has been tied to the election of Stephen Harper and it is no secret that evangelicals have already re-shaped Harper’s foreign policy in the Middle East, guided by what McDonald terms the Armageddon Factor. But few Canadians are aware that a militant band of conservative Christians with a direct pipeline to Harper’s cabinet is also attempting to reshape the country’s social, cultural and even scientific policies, driven by a belief that Canada has a biblically ordained role to play in the final days before Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.

Okay so let me get this straight:

Conservative Christians wielding stealthy influence— in Canada.

A militant band of conservative Christians with a secret direct pipeline into Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet reshaping the nation to bring about the second coming of Christ.

Militant conservative Christians— in Canada.

This is too funny to make up.

What makes a conservative Christian in Canada militant, anyway? Do we menacingly wield bottles of maple syrup?

I know they’re not trying to be funny, but come on—militant conservative Christians in Canada with secret plots to bring about the second coming?

Did Dan Brown write this cover copy?

I totally want to read this book.

And my birthday’s coming up in a couple months.

Any takers?