ECA Review 2020-01-02

2 January 2'20 Hanna/CORONATION/STETTLER, AB. ECA REVIEW
OPINION
The opinions expressed are not necessarily
the opinions of this newspaper.
EDITORIAL
Misplaced faith
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Published by
Coronation
Review
Limited
B. Schimke
ECA Review
The common themes of all the great
religions, Christianity, Judaism,
Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, is to
believe and honour God or Gods, love
your neighbour as yourself and don’t
do evil and selfish things. Yet we end
2019 with high levels of religious abuse
and persecution worldwide.
Prime Minister Modi of India has
taken a successful secular democracy
and has turned the majority Hindu
population into a political weapon.
Modi unilaterally took away the
Muslim dominated state of Kashmir’s
autonomy and then passed a new
Citizenship Act targeting the Muslim
minority. Because Hinduism worships
multiple Gods, India historically was a
republic of religious tolerance.
“
His campaign of
terror, in fact, has little to
do with drugs or family
values but everything to
do with taking out rivals
and consolidating
dictatorial control.
President Erdogan of Turkey, a
largely Muslim country, has blamed
all his country’s economic woes on
minority religious groups.
Since his election, he has killed or
jailed thousands of political enemies,
journalists, Kurds and Christians to
solidify power and end democracy.
Every Iman, Emir or Prince in the
Middle East, except Jordan, uses the
teachings of the Prophet Mohammad
to stir up hatred between Shia and
Sunni sects and against Christians.
This division has, and continues to be
the perfect tool to justify untold terror
to civilians throughout the region and
to keep hatred high and control
secure.
Radical Muslims have taken over
many portions of countries in
northern Africa using extreme violence.
Today there are horrid acts of
persecution against Christians in the
Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan
and in at least five African countries.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church
“
had to break its century old ties with
the Russian Orthodox Church after
Vladimir Putin’s invasion and seizure
of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. The
Russian church actively supports
Putin as he operates a reign of terror
against homosexuals, journalists,
Ukraine and all political opposition.
The massacre of Rohingya Muslims
in Myanmar was provoked and supported
by the rise of radical
Buddhism. Rather than stopping the
carnage, the country’s leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi, cemented her power by
siding with the powerful Buddhist
monks.
In the Philippines, President
Rodrigo Duterte has been on a reign of
terror since his election. Under the
guise of a war on drugs and saving
family values, he has brutally killed
millions of citizens.
His campaign of terror, in fact, has
little to do with drugs or family
values but everything to do with
taking out rivals and consolidating
dictatorial control. Both the wealthy
Christian cult, Iglesia ni Kristo, and
Muslims have justified and supported
Duterte’s acts of evil.
The FBI reported that Jews were
the most persecuted group in the USA
since 2011. The latest attack on
American soil was five Jews stabbed
in a Rabbi’s home while celebrating
Hanukkah. Anti-Semitism is growing
in Europe at a frightening speed.
It’s remarkable that Donald Trump,
whose actions before and since
becoming President, are completely
devoid of any Christian values of
charity, contrition or mercy has maintained
his hold over American
evangelicals even as he embraces
white supremacists who hate Jews and
he enacts legislation to harm other
religious groups.
There is a good reason why strong
men in power, with evil intentions,
want the majority religious group on
their side.
Church communities have a strong
sense of solidarity and brotherhood
based on faith of the unknown and
unseen. Because of the complexity and
mystery of all religious texts, they can
easily be misinterpreted to justify or
rationalize any behaviour.
Throughout history, religious hate
and sinister religious affiliations with
strong men never ends well.
When religions tie themselves to
man rather than God, as the Roman
Catholic Church did with Adolf Hitler
and as fundamentalist Iman did with
ISIS, it always ends up with some of
our greatest world tragedies.
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Found editorial
interesting
Dear Editor,
I found the editorial titled, Stoking
the anger, pg. 6, Dec. 26, 2019 issue of
the ECA Review interesting.
It was a classic example of “pot
calling the kettle black”.
The editorial accuses Jason Kenney
of deliberately stoking the anger of
everyday Albertan’s to achieve his
objectives. when in fact, it was Rachel
Notley who incited the anger of
Albertans with the radical socialist
agenda that she implemented when she
became the premier of Alberta.
What really upset Albertans was
that she did not campaign on the basis
of these radical policies. They came out
of the woodwork after she was elected.
Talk about a hidden agenda!
Had she governed on the basis of the
policies that she campaigned on,
Alberta would not be in the financial
mess that it is in now.
Examples of policies that angered
Albertans were Bill 6, the carbon tax
and the reckless deficit spending that
was primarily of benefit to government
unions.
Bill 6 imposed costs and regulations
on the farm and ranch industry that
just was not practical for the industry
and it was not done with consultation
before the legislation was passed.
The anger that this caused motivated
the largest protests in the history
of Alberta.
The UPC government has repealed
and revised this legislation so it makes
sense to the industry now without any
protests.
BRENDA SCHIMKE
Editorial Writer
TERRI HUXLEY
Reporter 587-321-0030
news1@ECAreview.com
The carbon tax is another example
of imposing additional costs on energy
consumption for purely ideological
reasons.
It does not cause people to use less
energy and if they would study real
science they would learn that C02
emissions are not the cause of climate
change anyway.
Turn to Not, Pg 3
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We have not had your paper in
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Sure miss it. We get one Rosedale
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Can’t even do that with the last four
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Suzanne Sands
Rosedale, Alta.
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