We’ve had the stick, now it’s time for the carrot

by | April 19, 2015

After the recent Supreme court decision on Saguenay, many cities are removing prayer from council meetings. Unless you are Oshawa. Oshawa Mayor John Henry says “I’m proud to be a Canadian”, as though being religious was a necessary part of being Canadian. Marianne Wilkinson a councillor in Ottawa says “changing our entire history in many respects.” and “Canada was founded as a democratic country but it was a Christian country at the time”. I am not sure if she is lamenting the loss of Christianity or accepting that maybe atheists might actually exist. I suspect the former since she was one of the ones opposing the atheistbus campaign.

Yes, it is nice to see the law on our side for once but surely we should also be doing a better job of talking to our municipal leaders. Perhaps if we could show our politicians that we only eat baby spinach not babies it would be easier to for them to relate to us as fellow human beings and a growing voter base. Perhaps invites to Sunday Assembly where they can meet happy atheists or invites to public events involving humanists and atheists? I don’t know, but even if we are still ignored at least we can make the attempt.

4 thoughts on “We’ve had the stick, now it’s time for the carrot

  1. billybob

    Its not about history, it is about their privileged status
    as a group. We are the enemy, it is us vs them and whether we eat babies or spinach is irrelevant to them.

    Talk to the gays. The carrot does not work you need a stick to change any society. Societies are like a ball at rest you need force applied to get it moving.

    You are talking about a decision about took a 8 year battle and trying to use it to say “can’t we all just all get along.” No, we can’t.

    Reply
    1. bruce van dieten

      I have to agree with Billybob. Social change on the level of suffrage or civil rights, only happens with either violent or non-violent rebellion. The elite, especially the liberal academic elite, from whom I would expect better, tell us we can work within the system. At best this gets you small incremental changes over long periods of time. True change requires rebellion, in whatever form that takes.

      Reply
  2. Tim Underwood

    Canadian people who are both Religious and Political have tasted power and they will never be satisfied without it.

    Having lost on a Charter issue will only motivate them to attack the Charter.

    The only hope of clearing religion out of politics is to deconvert more of them. You could try to out breed them or to out immigrate them, but this will only add to more overpopulation stress and higher gasoline prices.

    Reply
  3. Veronica Abbass

    “I don’t know, but even if we are still ignored at least we can make the attempt.”

    My response is the same as my response to Anthony Furey on the CA post “Anthony Furey Says ‘Time to Grow Up’” at http://bit.ly/1b9un0w

    “talk to one or two grownups who tried, then tried again and then tried harder to convince their municipal councils to stop the illegal practice of saying the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of council meetings.”

    Carrots don’t work when it comes to prayers in municipal council meetings.

    Reply

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