Canada oblivious to religion

Article in thestar.com (toronto edition) by a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Canada’s mainstream seems almost oblivious to the role of religion in contemporary life. Although Christmas and Easter are widely celebrated, Canadians seem shocked anew each year when told their holidays mark religious events. “These are secular holidays,” many claim; “surely no one actually believes they are celebrating Jesus’s birth and death, do they?”

This head-in-the-sand approach is ubiquitous.

In the superb graduate program where I now teach, Canada’s finest global affairs students seem virtually illiterate when it comes to their own religion, or to the religions of others. Although they eagerly achieve competence in secular politics, they express little interest in learning the basics of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Judaism.

This is true even when students express keen interest in promoting development and conflict-resolution in places such as Morocco, India, Sri Lanka or Israel. In these (and most other) countries, faith plays a crucial role, and only the most naive secularist would claim otherwise.

see the rest of this 'awareness' producing article here...

[thanks to Connie for referring me to this article, she says: 'a lot of the people I meet with don't know enough about any faith to reject it']

Comments

[Alan Adams]

All the more reason for us to tell 'em 'bout JESUS! "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"