Non-Christian prison chaplains chopped by Ottawa

Non-Christian prison chaplains chopped by Ottawa - British Columbia - CBC News

They almost got it right, but fell one short. I'm actually not horribly opposed to chaplains (of whatever religion), I just think they're superfluous. But I understand the reasoning behind having them.

The kicker, though, and the thing that qualifies as one of the stupidest things I have ever read, is as follows:

"In an email to CBC News, Toews' office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time Christian chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates.

"The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … [Christian] chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths."


So, the government is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status, so it is choosing to pick which religion will be given preferential status? Preposterous!


Like I said, I would prefer that there were no "chaplains" of any religion being paid for by tax dollars. But if there's going to be, I would rather pay more to make sure all religions are covered than pay less to have it be exclusively Christian.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

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"Skaloopdidit" - Keeping Skaloop as the first cause until science can rule him out.

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Originally Posted by Skaloop

the remaining full-time Christian chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates.

This is discriminatory against Christians as NO Christian chaplain would in good conscience perform "interfaith" services. So the only ones who really get the special treatment are the universalists, Unitarians, and that sort. Some of them will take on the title of Christian if it suits their purposes, so that will work fine for them. What an absurd thing for the govt. to do. But then with our government, not really a surprise these days.

Anyway, I don't have a problem with the government cutting funding to all of them, so long as they are still permitted to minister to inmates on their own time. Same goes for hospitals. Government involvement in such things tends to muck things up anyway.

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