Hello fellow educators, welcome to podcast #57. Today I want to keep my promise and speak about the upcoming Provincial Election in British Columbia. Before we jump into the details of our four main parties and their platforms here in BC I want to speak about the Christian’s role in politics and how we should view our political systems. If you are listening from somewhere outside of our beautiful Province I think you will find the first half of this podcast relevant. If you have the patience to follow my ramblings till the end I will be giving the information about how you can get a free copy of my book, Discipling this Generation for a Digital World.

If you have been listening to the Christian Educator Podcast for the last fifteen months you might recall podcast number 3 where I spoke about the idea of dual citizenship which has a direct affect upon how we need to view and participate in the political systems of this world.

Christians are dual citizens. First we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. I love Philippians 3:20 as it uses this very terminology to describe who we are. Here is the Amplified Bible: “But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Saviour,…” We have become citizens of the Kingdom of God because something very real has taken place on the inside of everyone us who has embraced Christ as their Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:17 calls us a new creation or as some translations put it, we are new race of people who are in Christ. When we embrace the Lordship of Christ we become part of this new humanity. This is not just theoretical; this is something that happens to every person that embraces the gospel and the Lordship of Christ. Our spirit, on the inside, is transformed. We literally become the sons and daughters of God. In John 3:1-8 Jesus called this being born again. So we are not just immigrants; we are the natural citizens of heaven. It is our race, it is where we are from.

As Christian educators we must develop a keen sense of this citizenship in our children. Our children need to know who they really are in Christ as citizens of heaven first and then citizens of countries they live in. Their allegiance must be first and foremost to the Kingdom of God. We often sing and say in our Churches that Jesus is Lord of all. This means that His Lordship comes before any patriotic allegiance we may have to our natural countries. In our hearts we are not Canadian or American. We are Christians who give their complete and total allegiance to the Kingdom of God as it is administrated under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If the countries we live in will allow us to be dual citizens then we will gladly accept their inclusion. Let’s not forget that this a privilege, to be joint citizens, and it was won with the blood of the martyrs. Their willingness to hold to their true citizenship at the peril of their own lives so influenced the cultures they lived in that many followed them into the Kingdom of God. And in the case of western culture our ancestors ultimately chose Christianity as it’s predominate religion and worldview.

It is no secret that we are seeing a wholesale departure from the historical moorings of the Judeao-Christian ethic and worldview in our culture which was bought with the blood of these precious martyrs. This is having a dramatic effect upon how Christians see themselves within the cultures they reside. All of my adult life I have listened to preachers who would rant about how our culture is losing its foundations. For Centuries in North America we have enjoyed a culture that saw itself as Christian and based many of its decisions, laws and governance on how it perceived scripture. Yet today our Canadian culture would not define itself as Christian. We have sought a strong multicultural view and have pushed for more and more pluralistic interpretations of our laws. This reality has given the Christian Church two things. Less influence in the system and in most cases a stronger sense of identity and mission. The Christian in our culture is now a minority. Yet there is a cooperate memory of  Christian ideals and values still imbedded in our culture, such values as tolerance, mercy, love, duty and a great esteem for the individual. The great English author and columnist G.K. Chesterton wrote about this a 100 years ago. “The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.” We don’t see this any more prevalent than in our postmodern culture’s love affair with tolerance. The Christian can be tolerant of his neighbour who might be a Muslim or an atheist because she is motivated by a higher love for that person. We can agree to disagree on very important worldview issues of truth because we have a higher esteem for the person, thus we can love. The world doesn’t have this kind of love so tolerance has turned into a mushy attempt at synthesizing truth or just setting it aside so that we can all get along. Thus a “what’s true for you is ok and true for me is ok” mentality of relativism prevails. Which ultimately will drive us apart not together, language breaks down, communication breaks down and relationships become paler and superficial.

Ok, ok ‘what does this have to do with upcoming election?’ you ask. It illustrates how distinctly different we are from the rest of our culture. We are as the Apostle Peter states in 1 Peter 2:11 “strangers and aliens…” Yet we are in a culture that still panders to Christian thought and worldview yet without the moorings and foundations of scripture. We have to learn to think outside of our culture and participate as truly dual citizens with the right, at least for now, to participate in the electoral process. As long as the citizens of this world will allow the citizens of another kingdom participate, then so be it. We will vote with our values and principles at the forefront. As long as we are allowed to run for office and bring our Christian worldview to bare on this system, lend our values and advise, help establish the laws and governance, then we should be the first to step up and serve. But we can’t for a moment allow ourselves to be anything but servants of the Kingdom of God. Compromising this with any decision, law or policy will change us at our very core. One of the most important films to be made recently is “Amazing Grace,” the story of William Wilberforce and his decades of service in the British Parliament that eventually resulted in the abolition of slavery in Britain. What the film carefully shows is that any real change had to be culturally wide and it took a lifetime to facilitate and an overthrow of the prevailing worldviews. If we are going to facilitate real change in our Province and Countries we have to impact more than the political system. We have change the cultural worldview and when we try to do this when the prevailing winds of worldview are blowing in other directions we tend to isolate our Christian perspective. I believe this is happening more and more today with issues like the Right to Life movement and our opposition to same sex marriage. I think this is unavoidable and we will become more and more distinct from our culture if we will hold to our Christian worldview. But as long as we can participate I am happy to vote and influence the elections of this world from my otherly world and Kingdom mindset and perspective.

Let me suggest some principles that should guide your voting as Christians:

1. Choose your candidates based upon their specific platform. This may not always be the platform of the party, though in Canadian politics it is unusual to find politicians that disagree with key points of their party’s platform at election time. The best way to do this is to contact them and ask them directly about their position on the issues that are at the top of your list. The Right to Life is always at the top of any list I put together. The wholesale destruction of innocent lives cannot be ignored by anyone with a conscious. My next priority is their position on the Family. Then education issues because I am an educator.
2. Choose your candidate based upon personal integrity. Remember you do not vote for the leader, unless of course you are in their riding. If you have a man or a women of integrity when the winds of party policy change or corruption is found then you have someone you can trust to represent you and your riding.
3. Do not get sucked into the media’s presentation of your candidate. This may be good or bad press but it is a partial and often bias perspective. This last US election is a good example of how the media influenced Obama’s image far more than McCain. In the television world image becomes far more important than substance.
4. Do not react to personality. This can go both ways. Again in the US we see the incredible charisma and personality of Barak Obama. He is articulate, handsome, energetic and innovative. He has also created the most liberal approach to abortion of any leader in the free world in his first month in office.
5. Pay attention to the political party’s philosophy, platform and history. The platform is what they intend to do over the next couple of years but the party’s philosophy and history will determine their ultimate goals.
6. Will they have a chance to govern? Often parties can emerge that share most of my personal views and I would love to see these views prevail such as the Christian Heritage Party. Unfortunately they have so few candidates and such little influence that they will never be able to win a seat, much less govern. I will lend my support and point to their policies but I generally won’t give them my vote until I am convinced that they can govern or at least win seats in parlament. If there isn’t any other candidate that shares most of my views on issues then I will look to these parties in a protest vote that will help get the main streams attention. I also want to be careful that I am not weaken my vote by dividing over smaller issues. If a party can govern with integrity and holds my values on most issues then I don’t want to defect for a party that holds all of my values but won’t be able to govern.

We will be holding a Provincial Election here in British Columbia on May 12^th. There are four significant parties that will be vying for power, The BC Liberals, who are the small “c” conservatives in BC. The New Democratic Party who are the small “l” liberals in BC. I know this ought not to be but there are historical reasons why the Liberals are really conservative in nature and the NDP are the true liberals. The final two groups are the Green Party and the BC Conservative Party. I think either party may win a seat or two in this election. There are several other parties who are putting forth candidates but it is very unlikely that they will win any seats in the upcoming election. History tells us we can never count them out. The success of the BC Liberals owes its influence to Gordon Wilson who fought to have them recognized, won a place in the debate and put his party on the map. In the next election the Liberals formed the government and have been there for the last eight years.

As you heard my list of priorities always starts with a candidate that supports Abortion legislation and other pro-Family Issues. This is obviously not determined by the Provincial Legislature but many decisions are often affected by their perspective on such issues. My good friend and pro-life activist Ted Gerk puts it this way: “We want to elect men and women that will work towards building a culture of life.”  Therefore, even politicians at the municipal level should be vetted by their opinions about the rights of the unborn. This is not the only issue I am concerned with. I resist the title of a one issue voter, nevertheless, this issue is a disqualifier. I have come to appreciate many of the open and articulate ways the new US President has begun his first months in office. I agree with many of his socially minded proposals and plans for our neighbours to the south. But I would never vote for a man that doesn’t respect the right to life of his  most vulnerable constituents in the wombs of their mothers.

Obviously, after this issue, it is important to understand what your candidates intend to do in other areas. Education is our field and thus becomes the next set of issues I am concerned with, especially how the candidates view Independent Schools and Home Education. Most of our candidates will not have a strong opinion about home schooling, although they all should be asked directly what their position is regarding home school rights and freedoms in our Province. Carefully listen to any buzzwords like “accountability” or “assessment”. It is often difficult to get a new politician to commit to a position because they often don’t know what their party thinks about the issue behind closed doors. Don’t let that stop you from getting the answers you need. Here are questions that you can ask your perspective politicians regarding education:

What is your position on maintaining the freedom of Home School Education?

What is your position on maintaining or increasing Independent School Funding?

What do you believe the role of parent’s have in shaping our educational system?

Are you in favour of more or less regulation for Independent Schools and Home Educators?

What is view regarding the Corren Agreement and how this affects curriculum? (This is the agreement that mandated Same Sex curriculum.)

It may be necessary to spend some time educating the candidates regarding the various rights and freedoms we now possess. I suggest that you prepare a short brief about the type of education you are concerned about. Most candidates will share the public’s uneducated bias regarding home schooling and home education options such as DL. Make sure your “brief” is brief.

I suggest you visit each of the party platforms before you vote. They can be found by a simple Google search of bc liberals, bc ndp, etc. Don’t pay attention to the anti other guy rhetoric. Go right to their platform on education. Look for the obvious support for our form of education also look for key words that indicate a bias in a particular direction. Remember that these sites are designed by experts that try to say things in such a way that not offend someone that doesn’t hold their view on the issue but informs those that do.

My quick review of the four parties’ platforms found these clues:

Nothing was said about Independent Schools in the Liberals, NDP or Green platforms. The upcoming Conservative party wants to match private school funding with public schools.

It should be noted that the Liberal platform on education mentions the word “parents” 7 times and places them it first when mentioning educational stakeholders. The NDP platform mentions “parents” 2 times after the other stake holders. The Green party doesn’t use the word parents at all in their platform and the Conservatives only use it once but have a very strong parent position in educational choice.

It is important to consider the history of the parties when they are quite about specifics. It is under the government of the BC Liberals that we have the present system. They have opened the door to DL education for Independent Schools, Given equal funding on Special Needs students and have given Independent schools a place at the table. It should be noted that the NDP struggled with allowing Independent school funding when they governed through the nineties. Their party platform was against funding but it wasn’t politically viable for them to remove it. Their party has been silent on the issue throughout the last nine years. The Green have no history on developing policy on this issue and the Conservatives have just begun to speak to this issue.

This podcast isn’t intended to tell you who to vote for, but rather to encourage you to become an informed voter and to educate your particular candidates regarding the important issues of Life, Family and Education. Contacting and speaking to your candidates before the election will have a big effect on how they view their constituency after one of them wins the election. Exert your influence when they want you the most. Influence other voters and don’t be afraid to educate them about the candidates and party’s policies. Above all else prayerfully participate as Christians first then BC residents second. As long as they will let us influence this world’s political system then we should be in there front and center. The day may come when they won’t want Christians in the system because we didn’t participate in a meaningful way in the past.

Please email us your comments and thoughts on today’s podcast. Also, if you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book, Discipling This Generation for a Digital World, simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.