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It’s obviously something of a politico-religious week, as the federal government is hosting two summits, on two consecutive days this week, on combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

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Needless to say, the prime minister will be present at both. I don’t suppose anyone will draw objections to such meetings, or their intention of removing, or at least reducing, discrimination against either of these two religions.

What I find rather inexplicable is that while our federal government is rightly attending to acts of discrimination targeting Jewish and Muslim worshippers, there is, as far as can be determined, no scheduled summit dealing with the current wave of destructive hostility directed at Christian worshippers.

This is something rather more than puzzling given that in a very concentrated period of about two weeks, Canada has seen a total of 48 incidents perpetrated against Christian churches, ranging from vandalism (paint on church doors, ugly graffiti) to their total destruction by fire. The website True North has put up a map showing the details of each incident. The map is useful, in my judgment, as it offers a concise summary of each incident.

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Both the burnings and acts of vandalism have come on the heels of disturbing revelations about residential school grave sites, but it is important to stress that no swift judgments or automatic conclusions as to who is responsible should be made.

Many of the churches that have been targeted are situated on Native reserves, though it must be highlighted that Indigenous leaders have expressed both anger and dismay over these attacks. Some of the destroyed churches had served their First Nations communities for very long periods.

On the other hand, at least two, a Polish Roman Catholic church in Saskatoon, and the St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Surrey, B.C., had no Aboriginal associations whatsoever.

The total destruction of the Coptic church calls for closer scrutiny. It was built by refugees who fled religious persecution in their home countries, principally Egypt. To flee from persecution only to have your place of worship destroyed in your country of refuge must be very hard to bear.

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A statement issued by the church after the fire more than suggests how deeply this congregation registered the event: “Our church was more than a building. It brought together a diverse congregation of Coptic, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Iraqi and Lebanese Orthodox believers. The church was a haven where we practised our ancient holy rites that have been preserved over centuries from our forefathers who keep the faith defying great odds. It was a place we built community, where we shared meals, where we married our youth, christened our babies and welcomed newcomers to the faith.”

One parishioner commented: “The loss is heartbreaking, disappointing and devastating for the congregation and the community.”

After hearing such testimony, how can anyone continue to argue that “they’re just buildings,” or maintain the vile rallying cry of “burn it all down”?

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When there are nearly 50 Christian churches from coast to coast suffering everything from vandalism to full destruction, it is a huge national event that calls for extraordinary responses from both government and police forces. This is nothing less than a sustained, violent and hateful rampage targeting a particular faith. It is a bigotry of fire, not words.

Yet, on the political front, considering the scale of these events, the reaction has been utterly underwhelming.

I will make the explicit point, which may not be welcome to some ears but is the truth, that a comparable sequence of attacks on faiths other than Christianity would call for immensely more coverage than these have received; that politicians from all levels of government would be storming the TV studios and microphones to express their sympathy and anger; and that the police forces would be issuing daily updates on their efforts to find the perpetrators and put an end to the horror.

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However, so far, no sense of such urgency can be detected.

We may not be, as they say, in an age of faith and religion. But there are still so very many of our fellow Canadians who hold their faith as important as their families, whose deepest emotions and governing principles derive from their belief in God and their reverence for His laws. Church worship is the venue and practice of their communion with their Creator. This is not an incidental pastime. It is core to their being.

When something so central, so elemental to the meaning of people’s lives is attacked and destroyed, there must be something more from the state than the bland, formulaic, unenergetic response we have seen. The news media, for the most part, have been drastically inadequate on this front, as well.

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One meaning of our celebrated diversity should be to value what others value. Religious people are not secondary citizens; their values are not secondary values.

With no aspersions whatsoever on the two faith summits dealing with prejudice against the Jewish and Muslim faiths, I suggest there is justification for a third one on the current wave of attacks against Christian churches, and how to deal with the affronts to their parishioners.

National Post

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