Very good site. We spritual Left Wingers find this site refreshing. Jesus was a Socialist. We must take this narrative to the people in the next federal election and show the fault premise of the RIGHT-WING(CONSERVATIVE - Liberal party they use Jesus to hide behide. Their real agenda is oppression. They use Jesus has a cover. That is repugnant and regrettable.

As a life time believer in the social gospel and a socialist and activist for social justice I am so pleased to see this group within the party...

Bravo for the site! I am an unrepentant atheist who believes that God should be removed from the preamble of the Constitution, yet i have come to many of the same conclusions regarding faith and politics and how the NDP should approach this important theme. Yes, i'm serious. Lâchez pas!

I am so happy to see this development! While politics has to do with this material world, I feel in my heart that God and Christ want us to make the best of what we have here, to improve peoples' lives on Earth. Lets take care of the material so that we can then better concentrate on the spiritual and reach knowledge in God!

Thanks for comments, but a word of caution. This caucus is not limited to the Christian faith. Nor do we have a strict definition of what a "faith" is.

"BRAVO"
IT IS ABOUT TIME!
I am not sure what role God should play or not play in politics?
But It is time to take on these people on the right that use religion to oppress people!
Democratic socialism is about freedom and not oppression and it is about that that we speak out loud and clear! Let us take them on... ONCE AGAIN BRAVO!

I'm sorry to see this development within the NDP.

In your email you say "Many progressive and social democratic principles can be founded upon, and guided by, religious values. Love, forgiveness, generosity, dignity, liberation, equality, respect, as well as the support and acceptance of the poor and marginalized are but a few of these values."

These aren't religious values, they are HUMAN values that are, I think, shared by all of us in the NDP.

Just as an interest in Social Justice is not an exclusive interest of those with faith, neither are these other values.

I object to calling it the Faith and Social Justice Caucus, although I'd have no objection whatever to having a faith caucus - although I'd never join it.

It's the linking of the two issues I object to, as if you must be a person of faith before you can believe in social justice.

I'm very disappointed you are involved in this retrograde step.

Thanks for your comments. For too long, in my estimation, as a person of faith, I’ve had to bracket my faith perspective when involved in ‘social justice.’ For me, a faith and social justice caucus gives me the space to be a person of faith involved in social justice. Linking ‘faith’ and ‘social justice’ is not intended to exclude. It is not meant to mean you ‘must’ be a person of faith to be concerned for social justice. On the contrary, in my estimation, what it means is that if you are a person of faith, then you must be concerned for social justice. I don’t see this as being ‘retrograde’ step, but as a forward step to living out the inclusion that our party professes.

I’m so glad to see the social gospel alive and well within our party. Tommy Douglas would be proud. I’m a 19 year old university student but am very involved with my local Roman Catholic parish and have always had a strong belief in the social gospel. I firmly believe that the social gospel must not be considered a theory but instead a base for action! I hope to attend the National NDP conference and hopefully attend your meeting. I’m very excited.

Does this caucus intend, at all, to affect political matter purely on faith-based or religious values? If so, you must see this opens the door to sectarian political divide. Spiritual or religious matter must be purely private, outside the public political sphere. If not, I’m afraid, immense political divide will occur.

Dylon,
On your website http://secularndp.blogspot.com/ , you say that "I am not saying all religious values should be left out of politics. I am merely suggesting that religious values, such as charity, must also have a secular justification". I think everyone involved in this initiative beleive that. So, basically, there is no problem. We simply want to offer a space in which people who DO come from a faith perspective can discuss, network and reflect.

Citizens for Public Justice, a national organization promoting justice out of what it describes as God's call for love, justice and stewardship, currently has an interesting review on James Skillen's book, With or Against the World? Skillen writes on the "deep-seated" religious character of U.S. foreign policy, a character he concludes is inappropriate to a modern state. Skillen does a historical review back to the Bible to make the argument that loading a state with a civil religious mission in the world inevitably makes that state overreach its legitimate responsibility and exaggerate its place in the world, i.e. America anointed to destroy evil. Skillen, according to reviewer Harry Kits, argues that the U.S. needs to take a more cooperative, pluralistic, multi-lateral approach to the world - to be with, rather than against, the world. The U.S. needs to participate fully in stronger, more trustworthy and sustainable international organizations that order international relations. Wise words, I say, and a good example of where progressive voices within the faith sphere play a crucial role in tempering one-sided religious character.

I'm very interested in this group. Secularism of course needs to be respected as a paramount concern; I got that message from the "who are we" section. As a Quaker, I'm interested in how other people's faith has affected their work in social justice and politics. I will be at the convention and I will attempt to attend this meeting!

I heard that there was a conference on Religion and Peace held this past weekend (Oct. 21/22) in Edmonton. Can anyone give me any details about it?
Fiona McMurran

I think bringing faith, religion, and/or God into the NDP will divide it. People of different religions may feel differently on issues. Gay and abortion rights may be compromised because some people are socially conservative (as a result of their religion). Also, agnostics and atheists will no longer feel welcome in this party. The NDP should focus on the important issues such as social justice through child care, education, health care, etc. It should also focus on global warming, environmental protection, and human rights. Please leave faith, religion, and/or God out of the NDP!

This give me hope that the NDP can still be rescued from becoming the Toronto New Urban Trendy Lifestyle Party! I am glad to see that faith is defined broadly, though I personally share the evangelical protestant social gospel beliefs of many of the CCF/NDP founders. I hope that progressive Catholic voices like Loney's will also remember the Catholic roots of Canadian co-operative business and credit unions - an ideal that the CCF once upheld but which has faded - even in the debate over he Grain Marketing Board which was the ultimate guarantee of farmers having control over their own lives through co-operation. In a day when bilion dollar bank profits and transnational takeovers of succesful Canadian enterpries are accepted as "normal" , the message of Fathers Desjardins, Coady and Tompkins is more relevant than ever, and needs to be rediscovered as a vision for Canada by the NDP. Maybe the NDP could then remind Harper that the prairie populism that he claims to represent was based on co-operative economics against the control of eastern and american capital - so is a true canadian conservative value!

Please follow the link below and read the article about the negative affects of the NDP Faith and Social Justice Caucus.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-07-20/news_story4.php

Thank you.

Great committee. One of the reasons I have decided to join the party. Tommy Douglas was moved by his faith to support a party that supports and helps everyday Canadians no matter what their economic or social background. Bravo to the New Democratic Party’s Faith and Social Justice Caucus

In your Mission statement you claim:

"In no way does our group wish to impose a view on others or on our party, nor do we wish to have any official representation within the bodies and structures of the NDP"

Yet here we are, with an officially recognized commission within the bodies and structure of the NDP.

What I don't understand is what concrete examples are there of any real use this commission will be to the NDP and the democratic process?

Those people of faith that have no conflict with NDP policy and their faith tenants would be just as well served by communicating with NDP members that can address their "non faith related" concerns with the NDP.

Those people of faith that have conflicts between their religious tenants and the NDP policy are not likely to ignore their strongly held faith tenants (such as abortion, equal marriage, gender roles, clash of "civilizations", etc.) to join up with party that directly violates those very same strongly held tenants.

Even if there is such a possibility, there is just as likely a possibility that the opposite could happen, and these "faith recruits" could be convinced that if they join up with the NDP, their anti-NDP faith tenants would be respected and they would be able to pursue an agenda of change from within to move the NDP to the right.

I am not questioning your good intentions (or at least I wasn't considering so until I saw that you've already ignored your own mission statement,) but I do question the amount of consideration that has been given to the chances this could help the NDP and the left vs the potential harm that could be done by opening up NDP politics to organized "faith" and the agenda of the right.

I also have a concern with what kind of answer the NDP could now give to a Conservative government who might take their cue from the NDP and start an officially recognized "right leaning people of faith" commission within the government.

What could the NDP then say? "Don't do as we do, do as we say."?

Hi,
To begin, the commission structure which was voted on and accepted by the plenary of at the QC Convention is different from a Caucus. A commission does not automatically have representation on any of the governing bodies of the Federal NDP. The purpose of the Faith and Social Justice Commission is not to recruit people of faith to join the party, but, first and foremost, to provide a place within the party where dippers of faith can gather and not feel the need to banish, hide or conceal their faith convictions. An important insight I have gained from my conversations over the past 3 or 4 years with people interested in faith and politics is the realization that for those of us coming from a place of faith, it is our faith that compels us to be active participants in the political process. For those of us in the progressive left of the religious spectrum, we find in the NDP a political expression of our faith. Our faith sustains our politics, not the other way around. Faith is a motivator, and having a place where we can openly and without prejudice explore the links between our faith and our politics is the most important role of the Faith and Social Justice Commission. What distinguishes this commission from efforts by the religious right (esp. in the US, but increasingly in Canada), is our conscious focus on faith and social justice and not religion and power. We are the Faith and Social Justice Commission because we seek to live our faith through social justice. We do not seek to impose a religious left agenda on the NDP, because we see the NDP as a political expression of our commitment to faith and social justice. Disagreements we might have with particular party policy's can be and are dealt with through other mechanisms in the Party. But the fundamental core values of the party resonate with many of our deeply held spiritual and faith commitments.
Chris Duncanson-Hales