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Never thought I'd have to weigh in on religion on this forum, but here it goes:

Originally Posted by vid

Re-introducing aboriginal offenders to their traditional beliefs does help a lot of them rebuild their lives and get out of the system, but I am guessing that since he is Christian and building club membership numbers is their main goal, he isn't referring to that kind of thing...

While it's true that many Christians are focused on converting others (Jehovah's witnesses, etc), you shouldn't paint them all with the same brush. Many Christians are unconcerned with the beliefs of others.

Originally Posted by chrisallard5454

I go to Devon's Church, and that is not at all our "Goal". That is extremely rude and very stereotypical. Christians are people as well. Your views on us Believers are, as H0twired said extremely skewed, ignorant and borderline discriminating.

I would like to clear something up about discrimination here. You are equating religeous discrimination with things like racism and sexism, things that someone is born with and can have no negative effect on them. However religeous discrimination is more like discriminating against the racists or the flat world believers. It's discriminating against beliefs that someone adopts later in life and can (although certainly not always) have a negative effect on one's character (example: fundamentalism).

Originally Posted by chrisallard5454

I would expect more from you Vid, and the rest of you poking fun at an extremely intelligent, and down to earth man, especially based on his beliefs.

Being as intelligent people don't have self-contradictory beliefs, I highly doubt that he is intelligent. And being as the psychology of religion has shown that your relationship with God is actually a relationship with your own ego (thus God's opinions are always your own), I also highly doubt he is down to earth. I've never met the man, so I'll withhold such a judgement until I have, although I do have expectations. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised.

Originally Posted by chrisallard5454

Have you ever been to Kilcona Park Alliance Church? Have you talked to the members of our Congregation? Have you read our Statement of Faith? And most importantly, have you ever talked to Devon? I am guessing no. And until you do, every negative statement you make can be taken as nothing but utter rubbish.

It's not practical to be intimately familiar with every church in every religeous denomination, so we're going to have to go by the general teachings of Christianity.

Originally Posted by chrisallard5454

Remember -even though I hate to call it Religion- we live in a Country with human rights, and one of those rights is Freedom of Religion.

And could you please remember that Freedom of Religion does not mean Protection from Criticism.

Originally Posted by esquire

I don't see where Clunis ever said that he was going to incorporate Christianity into public policy. It sounds like his private life involves a significant degree of dedication to Christianity, and I do not see how it could be construed as inappropriate conduct if he decides to pray by himself or with like-minded people during his off hours.

All of that is fine, however, when he is being interviewed as the chief of police, he is representing the City of Winnipeg and should conduct himself as such. I for one am concerned about how the rest of the country will see us. If city officials are allowed to spout religeous ideas when they represent the city, then Winnipeg will be increasingly associated with the social conservatives of Alberta/Saskatchewan.

Winnipeg has a negative stigma across the country, this stigma is wrong (Winnipeg is awesome), but we still need to advertise ourselves well. This man is doing irreparable damage to our reputation and I won't stand for it. Winnipeg must stand on the right side of history as socially progressive.