Westminster Chapel Pastor, Ian Crooks, works at his desk in preparation for his next sermon.
The Canadian federal government is feeling the heat over a change made to a grant application for summer camps.
Bible camps in Alberta like Southern Alberta Bible Camp (SABC) will now need to check an extra box in order to receive the grant.
That box says that they will have to affirm respect for reproductive rights, which includes a woman’s right for access to birth control and associated health services.
By checking this box, these camps would be saying that they believe abortion is OK, which Jon Gartly, Executive Director of SABC, says they just aren’t able to do.
“It puts us in a bad position that I don’t agree with personally and our organization doesn’t agree with either. We’re not going to compromise our beliefs for $40,000,” said Gartly.
By making this change, these camps may not be able to hire as many summer workers as they normally would if they were to be rejected for this grant.
Gartly says that they feel they are being discriminated against by not aligning with what the liberal government believes.
“We’re just disappointed in our government,” said Gartly.
This change has heard many people raise their voices in concern including some local pastors.
Ian Crooks, Pastor of Westminster Chapel, a Presbyterian church in Lethbridge, says he understands the difficulty that these organizations face with this change.
“Obviously for churches and other faith-based groups this would be a very difficult box to check given the commitment to pro-life and the understanding that all human life begins at conception. Really for summer camps, faith based camps, it will make it really difficult and probably impossible for most groups to check that box,” said Crooks.
This decision has also garnered attention across the world.
Crooks says that he found articles posted in The New York Times and on BBC titled “Linking youth funding to abortion rights spawns backlash in Canada and beyond” and “Trudeau bans anti-abortion groups from summer jobs funding.”
Crooks also said that this isn’t something that is confined to one religion.
“I think this is something that hits not just Christians. I think it affects Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh organizations as well so it goes right across the board,” said Crooks.
As far as Gartly and SABC are concerned, they still plan on applying for the grant.
“We’re still going to apply for this grant but we’re not signing it the way it’s presented. We will submit it with a letter stating our point of view.”
Despite the backlash from various faith organizations on this decision, the Liberal government does not show any sign of eliminating this change.
