Organizers aim to equip believers to address religious freedom in the public square

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Is the Gospel still welcome in Canada and how can the Church keep promoting the message of Jesus in the marketplace? Those are the questions being explored February 4, at a religious freedom summit hosted by the MET and available both in person and online.

“The Summit is an amazing opportunity to welcome Christians from all across Canada, English and French (there will be French interpretation) to become aware of the current realities in Canada,” explains Darlene McLean. McLean is the executive director of the Christian embassy of Canada and the emcee for the summit. She adds that the summit will motivate believers “to hold on to the freedom to share the good news with others in the marketplace.”

The summit begins at 1 p.m. It features a dozen speakers, ranging from the director of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to a street preacher who spent two years fighting a “mischief” charge for sharing the Gospel in Vancouver and a young adult who was repeatedly suspended from his Nova Scotia high school for wearing a t-shirt that says, “Life is wasted without Jesus.”

“The driving concern behind the Summit is to protect and promote freedom for the proclamation of the Gospel in Canada,” explains a statement from the MET’s organizing committee. “The aim is positive. It is to maximize opportunities to share the good news with those around us and to inform Christians for action and for prayer, to speak into these issues in the public square.”

“Today, with the challenges being faced by many, the Good News resonates more than ever.”

“As our culture becomes more and more secular, religious freedom is taken less seriously by many,” adds Jojo Ruba, the summit’s organizer. “Increasingly, religious identity is viewed as subjective and not reasonable enough to protect.”

Yet the summit will not be a place of commiserating. Rather, they aim to empower Christians to understand the Gospel’s call in a broken world.

“Today, with the challenges being faced by many, the Good News resonates more than ever. Renewed teachings on the hope of the Gospel, the call to take up our cross and follow Jesus, and the value of human life, will strengthen Christians to stand for truth.”

McLean says they chose speakers who are largely ordinary Canadians, but whose stories can help people understand how Canadian believers are treated in different parts of the country. The speakers come from many different settings, but McLean says they especially chose people who have been discriminated against in the workforce and education.

“In choosing a variety of speakers, we wanted to help the church in Canada know that the attitude against Christians in this country is hostile and we need to take the protection of religious freedom seriously,” she says. “Unlike other groups, we don’t fight for our religious liberty, but the liberty for others to hear good news in the marketplace.”