Missed the point

Dear sir:
In response to J.J. Witherspoon’s letter calling me some rather nasty names, I would like to say she missed the point. It was a request for people to speak up politically for the things we hold so dear, yet take for granted.
I’m sickened by the possibility of the Bible being labelled as hate literature. This should not even be considered in Canada. The Bible is our moral standard.
Our name, The Dominion of Canada, is part of Psalm 72:8, and came about when Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, suggested giving God “dominion” from sea to sea.
This verse is chiseled into the arches of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Sir John A. Macdonald explained to Queen Victoria that the name was a “tribute to the principles they earnestly desired to uphold.”
This desire is carried forward in the preamble of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which reads, “Where Canada is founded upon the principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:”
Egerton Ryerson, the founder of the public school system in Canada, established an educational system based upon Christian principles.
Interestingly, Lief Ericsson was the first known evangelist in North America, in 1004. An Inuit carving found on Baffin Island depicting a Norseman wearing a Christian cross gives mute testimony to this.
I was not intending to throw stones, however, what I or my children may or may not do is not a reasonable way for a nation to determine what its moral standard will be. Speaking for myself, I have been ashamed of many things I’ve done or said, but I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is about love and forgiveness, change and restoration. It says whomsoever will, may come. It is a beautiful thing.
Insisting that no one can change is cruel. It’s like saying you were born into a certain caste, or situation, and there you must stay.
Where there is no vision, the people perish, says Proverbs 29:18. The Gospel is Canada’s spiritual vision. We need to pick up this vision again and enact it. The Bible is a letter of love, not—as Bill C-250 claims—hate literature.
Bill C-250 has been put over until the fall session. As for same-sex marriage, unless the federal government appeals the B.C. and Ontario Court’s of Appeal cases by June 30 and obtains a stay, the lower court rulings become law for all Canadians.
It is difficult to understand how, in 1999, Parliament ruled that marriage was for one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others that these court rulings can exist today.
Sincerely,
Ruth Teeple
R.R. 2, Emo, Ont.