FACE TO FACE: Should the feds only employ prison chaplains who are Christian?
"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. And I know I gotta fry for it," says the stoic con from his death row cot. A white-collared priest comforts the shackled prisoner, his wayward childhood friend who chose the wrong path and now faces the chair
It makes a good movie scene but, in real life, Canadian taxpayers have been paying for such chaplain services in our prisons.
But now, according to Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews, only Christian chaplains can counsel the caged.
Minister Toews recently cancelled the contracts of 49 prison chaplains, including all non-Christian ones, leaving only Christian chaplains to hereafter minister to the spiritual needs of Canadian prisoners: from non-believers to Hindus, Muslim to Wiccans.
The firings were Toews' exasperated response to a recent request from a witchy B.C. prisoner for a Wiccan chaplain to be appointed for her spiritual support. Apparently, Toews was confident that this pagan request would be enough to convince Canadians that firing all but Christian prison chaplains is a reasonable response.
It isn't.
Keep chaplains of all faiths or fire them all but firing all but the Christians is downright scary. It is neither fair nor appropriate to ask Christian chaplains to dispense religious counsel to Christian prisoners while just sprinkling a little secular advice on the heathen now and then.
While being Christian doesn't disqualify a chaplain from empathizing with non-believing cons or prisoners of other faiths, taxpayers shouldn't pay for it.
Of many good American ideas, arguably their best was separating church from state so that neither body could unduly influence the other.
And "other" has been Canada's fastest growing faith group in the last 10 years (up 72.5%) and "no affiliation" the next fastest growing group (up 44%); Christianity in that time has grown 1.5%.
But regardless of how many adherents a faith or no-faith group has, it is inappropriate to sanction one to the exclusion of others.
Those most Christian among us know that religious freedom demands defending minority faiths from majority faiths. Christianity can flourish without allowing it anywhere near government.
If we actually need a one-size-fits-all prisoner support structure, the one size should be non-denominational, not born of a government minister's favoured religion.
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
