Recently, I received an interesting email from a thoughtful reader of “To Shift a Nation” that I thought was worth sharing. They wrote the following:

I purchased [your] book recently, and am reading. Thank you for keeping it under 200 pages for those whose time is precious.

I find on page xii of the Introduction that I must take issue with the statement “The truth is, we never were a Christian nation….”

This is a lie from the devil. Our Foundational Documents clearly point this out. Magna Carta. Coronation Oath. Bill of Rights.

According to the last living signer of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Brian Peckford, the FACT that we were established as a Christian Nation was clear to all the signers of that document.

Because we are, like the United States, founded and established as Christian Nations, does not equivocate that every person living or bearing citizenship MUST be Christian, but only that our fundamental rights, freedoms and responsibility are Biblically-based. God’s laws are just and right, and to take away this heritage from our children has ever been the desire of godless and self-worshiping heathen and communists.

We must stop believing the lies sold us by Fabian Socialism in our Public Indoctrination Centres (ie public schools) and correct this false information if ever we are to live again in a just and reasonable society.

– A reader (left unnamed to protect their identity)

The understanding and perspective of this reader is understandable and not uncommon. I have heard this and similar arguments many times and there is some truth to it. However, it also embodies a significant error because it fails to distinguish between history and legality. Historically, it is true that Canada was a “Christian” nation. An 1861 census showed that 97 percent of Canadians considered themselves Christian. Furthermore, it is also true that this widespread Christian faith was reflected in some of our founding documents.

But here’s the problem: Too many Christians believe that this fact somehow gives us the “right” to claim that there is some kind of legal or constitutional obligation on the country to return to those roots. This is simply wrong and fosters a militant approach to “taking back” what Christians mistakenly feel has been taken from them.

So what is the correct answer to the question: Is Canada a Christian nation? Here’s how I responded to the reader who emailed me:

Thank you for purchasing the book and taking the time to send me your feedback. I understand the point you are making and completely agree with you that Canada was founded on Christian principles and that many of our founding documents reflect this reality. Many of the Fathers of Confederation were Christian, and the vast majority of Canadians identified as Christians. This is a significant part of our heritage which must be acknowledged and preserved.

However, the distinction I am making in the book is that despite the fact that Christian influences were undeniably strong in Canada’s founding and early history, and some of our national documents do reference the supremacy of God, this doesn’t equate to Canada being founded as an officially Christian nation in the sense of having Christianity as a state religion.

This may seem like a nuanced distinction, but it is important. The influence that Christianity had on Canada at its founding was not due to the imposition of Christianity on Canadian citizens, but rather it was the result of the broad-based acceptance of Christianity and recognition of the supremacy of God by the vast majority of Canada’s citizenry and leaders. In other words, because the majority of people believed in God and identified as Christians, the constitution, laws, judicial system and societal norms reflected this fact. It was not the other way around.

This is the very heart of the message of my book, “To Shift a Nation”. Canada did not demonstrate Christian values because the laws and the leaders imposed these values, but rather the laws reflected these values because the values were already held by society. Today, those values are no longer held by the majority of Canadians and as a result our laws and societal norms are shifting to align with peoples’ beliefs.

It is a mistake on the part of Christians to believe that because Christian values were reflected in the founding documents and words of the early leaders of our nation that this poses some kind of legal or constitutional obligation on the nation today. It does not. It was a reflection of the beliefs of the day and our task is to once again turn the nation back to those beliefs. Only by doing so will we see our laws and societal norms begin to reflect Christian values once again.

In fact, even if there was some kind of legal or constitutional obligation on the part of Canadian society to maintain laws which reflect Christian values, this would not be sufficient to save our nation. Even under this scenario, those laws would simply be changed and the constitution amended. There is no “lever” or “hammer” that Christians hold in order to force the nation to return to its Christian heritage. This will only happen when the people themselves first return to God willingly and individually. It is organic and incremental change which will shift our nation, not radical and directed change which comes from the top down.

I believe that the need for bottom-up change is not only the reality for Canada, but that it is also the Biblical model for societal shifts. This is unpacked in some detail in my book, and I would be more than happy to dialogue further if you have additional questions or concerns after finishing reading it.

Kudos to the reader for reaching out and expressing their concerns. This is the kind of open and honest dialogue that Christians need to have about the state of the nation and the role that Christians play in shifting it.

If you have comments or questions about the book, don’t hesitate to email them to me at contact@toshiftanation.ca or use the contact form on the website www.toshiftanation.ca. I’d be happy to respond.

If you have not purchased a copy of my book, “To Shift a Nation: How the Body of Christ can effectively promote change in Canada”, I encourage you to do so. If can be ordered off of my website at www.toshiftanation.ca or directly from Amazon at https://www.amazon.ca/Shift-Nation-Christ-Effectively-Promote/dp/1486624901/.

If you know someone who might benefit from a copy, consider sending them to the website to check it out, or gifting them one off of Amazon.

If you have read the book and have not yet left a review, they are very valuable and can be left here (even if you didn’t buy your copy off of Amazon): https://www.amazon.ca/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=1486624901