MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
Recently, an Ontario MP brought to light a memo that was sent to CAF chaplains across Canada on Oct. 11.
According to MP Blake Richards and other media sources, Chaplain General, Brigadier General Guy Bélisle sent out a memo outlining changes to Remembrance Day ceremonies in regards to to public prayer and ceremony aspects that pertain to faith.
General Bélisle states in the memo that, "While the dimension of prayer may occupy a significant place for some of our members, we do not all pray in the same way; for some, prayer does not play a role in their lives...Therefore, it is essential for chaplains to adopt a sensitive and inclusive approach when publicly addressing military members.”
He then instructs that spiritual reflections at Remembrance Day ceremonies must be “inclusive in nature and respectful of the religious and spiritual diversity of Canada.”
While these words give the impression of mutual respect and inclusion for one another's faith or belief system, they are anything but. What they really are is another way that the strong values, morals, and personal convictions that built Canada to be the beacon of love, kindness, and freedom that it WAS, are being attacked and vilified.
This attempt to discriminate against Abrahamic faith is appalling and dishonours the sacrifice of all the Canadian men and women who have fought and/or died in past conflicts to protect our freedom and the freedoms of cultures around the world.
It was their faith in the Abrahamic God that was their source of courage that caused them to fight so vehemently for freedom against an evil and oppressive regime. It was the faith of the fallen that secured that freedom, and now these freedoms are being used as weapons against the same faith that enabled such diverse communities in the first place.
I pray that we, Canadians and Orillians begin to see what is really happening in our country and city, and do not once again, fall into the hands of tyrannical oppressors under the guise of the greater good. Let us stand by our God-given conviction and keep this land glorious and free by keeping God and prayer in Canadian Remembrance Day ceremonies.
I would like to end this letter with a quote from a veteran who stood against prayer being removed from a Remembrance Day ceremony in a public school in 2019,
'You take our men and women that served, no matter where they served, it was prayer that brought them home'.
Erin Crawford
Orillia
