Into the 1960s, Canada was a markedly more religious country than the United States, with a higher percentage of church attendance and a stronger place for Christianity in public life. In that decade, however, things began to change, and in a hurry.
For Canada's Sake: |
Gary Miedema's carefully researched book explores and explains those rapid changes. By studying the place of religion in celebrations of Canada's 100th birthday (July 1, 1967) and at the World Exposition in Montreal that same year, Miedema shows how elite and many ordinary Canadians had come to look differently at their nation.
No longer did particular identities such as Catholic and Protestant, or French and English, matter most. Rather, the new unifying ideal was a hope that by embracing pluralism and diversity, national unity would flourish.
This effort both reflected and stimulated a large-scale reordering of public life, including the recent legislation that has legalized gay marriage throughout the nation.
Miedema's tone is low-key, but he nonetheless offers much to ponderespecially on how the national effort to combat religious discrimination led to extensive discrimination against sharply focused religious groups (often evangelicals) and on how an ideology of pluralism has succeeded only partially in creating a strong sense of Canadian identity.
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
For Canada's Sake is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.
More information is available from McGill-Queen's University Press.
Christianity Today covered recent church growth in Canada.
News and information about evangelicals in Canada is available from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Our full coverage page has past CT articles about Canada.
Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.
Our digital archives are a work in progress. Let us know if corrections need to be made.
Annual & Monthly subscriptions available.
- Print & Digital Issues of CT magazine
- Complete access to every article on ChristianityToday.com
- Unlimited access to 65+ years of CT’s online archives
- Member-only special issues
- Learn more
More from this Issue
Read These Next
- TrendingAmerican Christians Should Stand with Israel under AttackWhile we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
- From the MagazineThe Evil Ideas Behind October 7The Hamas attacks in Israel have a grotesque ideological history and deserve unflinching moral judgment.Português
- Editor's PickA Theologian’s Vision of ‘Peasant’ Politics Is Surprisingly Lordly in ScopeEphraim Radner’s “narrow” concern for protecting the mundane goods of earthly life isn’t so narrow after all.