CRC Canadian Ministries Offer Election Resources

Several ministries of the Christian Reformed Church in Canada have compiled a range of resources helping to explain some of the important issues facing voters in the Canadian federal election coming up on Oct. 19.

The Vote 2015 page "provides food for thought around five key issues,  each presented using shareable panels of infographics that give basic background to an issue … and talking points for when people speak with their MP candidates," says Danielle Rowaan, Justice Communications and Education Coordinator with the CRC's Centre for Public Dialogue.

Issues addressed in the resources include ones that CRC members in Canada have identified as important such as refugees, physician-assisted death, Indigenous education reform, aid for family farmers, and commercial sexual exploitation, said Rowaan.

Rev. Darren Roorda, director of Canadian Ministries, said the material is thoroughly non-partisan.

"We understand that the CRCNA constituency does not want us to do their political thinking for them and it is precisely why the material is structured in such a way that it encourages dialogue from the believer to the local member of Parliament," he said.

"It does not say what a person should think, but what good questions they can ask. In that sense, it is a very biblical approach. Jesus and first century teachers taught and learned by way of asking questions."

These resources, he said, arise from the Reformed perspective in which "people are working out unique ways and means of making a difference. Not just trying to help people understand the love of Christ to forgive sins, but the desire of Christ that we would make a difference in all things.

"And as it relates to the local church, it seems to me the healthiest churches are the ones who carry this view into the context of neighborhoods and communities by trying to make a difference on a variety of fronts within the context of a distinctive place."

In addition to the other material, the voter resources provide "human-face stories that keep the emphasis on those most affected by the issue and remind Canadians that they vote for the common good," says Rowaan.

For instance, there is the story of Mercy Edson who has voters and Canadian policymakers to thank, in part, for helping her to start a small business in her village. Her story is tied in with the Good Soil Campaign, an initiative that includes World Renew, which encourages voters to ask lawmakers to increase aid to fighting global hunger.

As a rural woman in Mozambique with a small plot of land, Edson’s opportunities to boost her profits and save money were limited, but then she met Sofia, a field officer from a World Renew partner, supported in part by Canadian government programs.

Sofia helped women in Edson's village start a small savings group which gave each woman the chance to borrow from the group savings on a rotating basis.

When Edson's turn came, she purchased improved seed and fertilizers that unlocked the potential of her small plot of land and gave her better yields, providing more food for her and her family and to sell at a profit.

Another issue facing voters is supporting strong preventative measures to stop commercial sexual exploitation by addressing the demand which drives the sex trade, says Rowaan. The Centre for Public Dialogue worked with Jennifer Lucking, the  Reformed Church in America’s Coordinator for Human Trafficking Outreach, on this portion of the resources.

Now that Canadians have passed a law criminalizing the purchase of sex, there remains a great deal of education that needs to be done to prevent the exploitation of women in the sex trade.

Highlighting this issue is a video in which one woman recounts what happened to someone she knew who was involved in prostitution and another of a woman who talks about being forced to live a life in the sex trade.

There is also a video of Summer Mudd, a First Nations student  who is speaking up for quality education in her community and for First Nations students across the country, following in the footsteps of her inspirational friend Shannen Koostachin. 

Taken together, all of these resources are geared to helping Canadians better understand the issues so they can vote in ways that enhance the quality of life in their communities, said Rowaan.

"Pursuing passionate citizenship, as the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue understands it, means seeking to vote as a way to love our neighbours, and therefore, as part of discipleship,' she said.

"The temptation to cynicism and apathy is real, but what if we considered democracy as a gift, though an often broken one, which is ours to steward for the common good?"