Tommy's Gay Day

Mr Mulcair shores up his base:

“It goes against Canadian values. It goes against Canadian law,” Mr. Mulcair continued. He accused the Conservatives of undermining their opposition to Uganda’s persecution of homosexuals by “subsidiz[ing] a group … whose views are identical to those of the Ugandan government” — an extraordinary smear that Crossroads quickly and credibly denied.

Ahem. What happened? There is an international aid organization that drills wells in Uganda, which are useful things in a backward country. Generally speaking these are laudable activities that should be encouraged by humane people. Whether it is the role of the state to do the encouraging is a separate matter. The NDP is generally pro-well. That is unless the wells are being drilled by actual living breathing Christians. Crossroads, the drillers, are a Christian outfit. As with many Christian organizations they take a dim view of the morality of homosexual behaviour.

In the theology of the modern Left good works are not good works unless they are done by good people. The definition of good being those who have fully signed up for the progressive agenda. 

There is no indication that Crossroads has spent any noticeable effort warning the villagers against buggering each other. They seem instead to have been focused on the whole water extraction thing. Those who benefit from this charity's efforts are unlikely to care all that much about fashionable Left-wing opinion in downtown Toronto. The Annex is a long way from the backwoods of Uganda. A rich and untroubled people can spend their days worrying about the finer points of sexual tolerance. To the wretched of the earth what matters is food, water and a peaceful life.

The leader of the Official Opposition has climbed onto his taxpayer subsidized soap box to engage in some old fashioned Christian bashing. He knows that Stephen Harper is too canny a politician to reveal his so-con instincts. So instead the NDP leader must conjure up so-con demons on the thinnest of pretexts. This is positioning. In order to win power the NDP must lean toward the centre on economic issues in hopes of appealing to what's left of the Liberal Party. At the same time they must also reinforce their base by beating the progressive drum on social issues. This has the added benefit of casting the Tories as bigots.

Thomas Mulcair is playing politics with the well being of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa. Even by the very low standards of modern Canadian politics that's disgusting. Sadly this is likely to work with low attention span voters. All they will take away from this controversy is that the Harper Tories are funding gay bashers in Uganda, a country with appalling anti-gay laws. The Left prides itself on subtle thinking yet very little is in evidence here. That Crossroads activities were purely humanitarian will be missed. That other Christian organizations with similar views also perform sterling work in Africa will be missed. That Christ taught that we should hate the sin and love the sinner will also be missed. 

Junk it all. The NDP is scoring cheap political points while potentially jeopardizing the well being of poor people in Africa. There are days when writing about politics requires a shower afterwards. 

It should not have to be added that I'm an atheist in good standing. But I'm certainly not a militant atheist who sees an emerging theocracy at every church bake sale. Nor do I blind myself to actual facts. When good things are being done I have to acknowledge that. The trite militant secularism of the Left does not. Modern Christian bashing has none of the heroism it did in Voltaire's day. This is about a certain kind of smug elitist making himself feel superior to the stupid old Bible thumps, all while holding views on economics and the environment that are more logically absurd than anything in Scriptures.

If the choice is between well meaning people doing good things, albeit for absurd reasons, and ill meaning people doing bad things for absurd reasons, I'll choose the former.

Thomas Mulcair should be ashamed of himself. Unfortunately like most politicians he is incapable of shame.

Comments

[nomdeblog]

All of which demonstrates that Mulcair is the High Priest of the secular extremist religion of progressivism.

[Mikeg81]

I have an even better question: why are my tax dollars going to drill wells in Uganda while our infrastructure crumbles here at home?

[John Chittick]

Perhaps the United Church of Canada and what's left of the Anglicans could fund Crossroads rather than cheer-leading for Mulcair. Oh, I almost forgot..... the UCC IS the NDP at prayer.

Has anyone asked Mulcair about the NDP support for various groups of Islamists (Palestinians, Hamas, the brotherhood etc) and their "enlightened tolerance" of feminism and homosexuality.