At our house we receive the Winnipeg Free Press and the Globe and Mail daily. I usually read the national section of the Globe and the local and comics sections of the Free Press over breakfast.

Today in the Globe I came across a great article all about the incredibly strange relationship between church and state. I really enjoyed the perspective it took on the issue so I figured I would share it with everyone. Feel free to discuss if the urge strikes you.

Evangelicals Need To Ask Themselves Some Hard Questions

John Ibbitson

Yesterday's vote to reopen the same sex-marriage debate wasn't even close. Now thoughtful evangelical Christians must ask themselves some hard questions.

Such as: Isn't about time we admit we've failed? That, both here and in the United States, our efforts to influence the political agenda have achieved virtually nothing? That we've wasted enormous amounts of money and time electing politicians who have betrayed us, when we could have and should have been bringing the Good News to the world and offering succor to those in distress?

For faith-based politics is not growing in influence. By its own definition of success, it has not succeeded and is on the wane.

Last year's battle to pass legislation authorizing same-sex marriage was close fought; its supporters often feared defeat. But Wednesday's desultory one-day debate on the motion to reopen the issue collapsed with half an hour still on the clock.

The Bloc Quebecois, NDP, and most Liberals opposed the motion and the Conservative cabinet was split down the middle. In a final insult for social conservatives, the government has abandoned legislation to protect public and religious officials from having to preform same-sex marriages. The Conservatives realized that, in every way that matters, those protections are already in place.

The issue is dead.

Were this a first battle that rallied support and momentum, while falling short in the end, the religious right could argue it was worth the effort. But not only has nothing been achieved, the movement has generated no popular support. A fringe it was born, a fringe it remains. Every dollar raised to fight same-sex marriage was a dollar wasted; every breath spent opposing it was a wasted breath.

Disillusion has gripped conservative religious activists in the United States. They worked hard to get George W. Bush elected and re-elected. And what was their reward?

Did they get their constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage or permitting school prayer? No. Did they make progress banning abortion? Nothing substantive. Did they put an end to stem-cell research? They archived a funding moratorium, but Congress is determined to reverse that decision, and may now have enough votes to override a presidential veto.

The midterm elections that delivered Congress and a plethora of statehouses to the Democrats suggest that the high tide of religious conservatism in the United States has also passed. In terms of actual legislative accomplishment, it was a weak tide at best. There were some victories at the state level, but Mr. Bush gave them little, apart from a raft of conservative judicial appointments - and judges have an alarming tendency to think for themselves. And there is no president-in-waiting who would give them more.

In Canada, Stephen Harper considers himself a social conservative but has done little to promote its agenda. He promised no action on abortion and expended not a penny of personal political capital on yesterday's vote. He did appoint one devoutly Christian judge, but David M Brown's legal credentials are impeccable and he is widely respected within the profession.

Final score: Christian activists lost the fight against same-sex marriage. They lost the fight on a motion to reopen the debate. When it was clear they would lose the vote, they fought to get it delayed and lost. Complete failure, three times running.

"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," Christ told his disciples. The Great Commission it is called. But the evangelical church has lost its way. Too many of its leaders have surrendered to the false allure of political influence. They have struggled, and failed, to impose a Bible-based agenda on Congress and Parliament. Billions of souls, meanwhile, are at risk; millions are at risk from violence and hunger.

Christ would have not been on Parliament Hill yesterday. He would have been with the lost and poor. The evangelical church should remember his charge, and leave Rome to Caesar.

The Globe and Mail, December 8, 2006