Public Prayer Ban in Quebec?

 

 On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed[c] there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.  A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

                             Acts 16: 13-15 NRSVue

Disturbing. Absurd. The government of the province of Quebec has served notice that it will table legislation to ban prayer in public places, arguing that if people want to pray they can go to places of worship. According to a CBC report: 

Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said in a statement Thursday that the "proliferation of street prayer is a serious and sensitive issue." "The premier of Quebec has given me the mandate to strengthen secularism, and I am determined to fulfil this mandate diligently," he said."This fall, we will therefore introduce a bill to strengthen secularism in Quebec, in particular by banning street prayers."

His statement follows months of efforts by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government to reinforce secularism in the province, which includes adopting a law that requires immigrants to embrace the common culture of the province and tabling a bill to expand the province's religious symbols law to include school support staff.

We were in Quebec earlier this summer and we enjoy being in the province for lots of reasons but the mindless commitment to secularism is deeply disturbing, largely because it is a bureaucratic form of Islamophobia that has no place in a democratic society and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To their credit the Quebec's Catholic bishops have come out against Premier François Legault's desire to end prayer in public places, saying it would violate people's constitutional rights and suggesting, rightly, thata ban on public prayer would affect a wide range of activities practised by people of many faiths.

The absurdity is that prayer takes many forms, so would there be thought police to monitor the interior prayers of those thanking the Creator outdoors or those expressing a spontaneous verbal exclamation of gratitude to a Deity? Many congregations have annual outdoor services, including the one we attend. Will these be banned in Quebec? It's obvious that Premier Legault and his earnest sidekicks have no real understanding of the depth and breadth of prayer, nor of the biblical witness to worshipping en plein air. (see above)

The feds have also condemned this bizarre initiative so we'll see where it goes. 

Would the Secularism Ministry have come for the Jewish Christian apostle Paul as he prayed by the river? Proabably -- praying and prosyletizing!