Guelph-Wellington Federal Riding Association Newsletter

Page 1.......... Executive Ventures
Page 1-2........Elections Ontario
Page 3.......... Letter to an Editor
Page 4 ..........Theological Reflections
Page 5 on ......Selected Communiqués from Ron Gray

Our executive members have been busy recently. Some of these activities have included involvement in the Ontario elections. John Gots, Barra Gots and Gord Truscott ran as Family Coalition Party candidates. Our most recent member, Karl Biel, helped put up dozens of signs. Frank Ellis was baptized at a church service along with eight other adults.

There will always be some correlation between Christian voting provincially and federally. Features of this 1999 Ontario election inform us about the vitality of Christian politics in our land. Studying the Family Coalition Party preparedness, platform, presentation and results reveals our need of concentration. God alone should be our guide and inspiration in all areas of life. The inspiration for Christians voting has become indefinite.

The Family Coalition Party has been meeting regularly to prepare for the 1999 Ontario election. Although participation has declined, the essentials for running a campaign were in place. Lessons from past years were incorporated. John Gots prepared a superb candidate manual covering a broad base of pertinent issues.

Page 2......

The platform was solidly pro-life, seeking to revitalize Ontario through emphasis on family values, balancing the provincial budget, establishing a program to repay the provincial debt, advancing parental rights in education, defunding abortion, expanding health care, promoting justice and a cleaner environment and participatory housing. Numerous plans encouraged the cooperation of all members of society in developing a people-oriented provincial government, rather than favouring one group or another.

Securing candidates for the election proved to be a daunting task. In one election, there were 68 candidates. This time 37 people ran for the Family Coalition Party. Going into the election, the FCP was the 4th largest party. Now they are 5th, behind the Green Party which ran 50 candidates. The FCP received about one quarter of the votes of two elections ago, with 23,881 votes. [Genesis 18:20-33]

The freedom of Christians surprises me. We are free to follow Jesus. We are not called to implement our own plan for salvation. Those confronted with martyrdom did not say: "well, I'll deny Jesus just this once". We can't choose to be against abortion when in church and for abortion in our voting. We can't claim support for Christ's teachings and then vote for those who cater to one segment of society at the expense of all others. It is no wonder that it is hard to find converts to Christianity. We devalue our heritage faith by diminishing it through our inability to follow Jesus when voting.

Dear Editor:
For the life of me, I can't understand what could have gone wrong in Littleton, Colorado. If only the parents had kept their children away from the guns, we wouldn't have had such a tragedy. Yeah, it must have been the guns.

It couldn't have been because of half of our children being raised in broken homes. It couldn't have been because our children get to spend an average of 30 seconds in meaningful conversation with their parents each day. After all, we give our children quality time.

It couldn't have been because we treat our children as pets and our pets as children.

It couldn't have been because we place our children in day care centers where they learn their socialization skills among their peers under the law of the jungle while employees who have no vested interest in the children look on and make sure that no blood is spilled.

It couldn't have been because we allow our children to watch, on average, seven hours of television a day filled with the glorification of sex and violence that isn't fit for adult consumption. It couldn't have been because we allow our children to enter into virtual worlds in which, to win the game, one must kill as many opponents as possible in the most sadistic way possible.

It couldn't have been because We have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things that they have come to equate the receiving of the material, with love.

It couldn't have been because our nation is the world leader in developing a culture of death in which 20 million to 30 million babies have been killed by abortion.

It couldn't have been because we give two-year prison sentences to teen-agers who kill their newborns. It couldn't have been because our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud by teaching evolution as fact and by handing out condoms as if they were candy.

It couldn't have been because we teach our children that there are no laws of morality that transcend us, that everything is relative and that actions don't have consequences. What the heck, the president gets away with it.

Nah, it must have been the guns.

Addison L. Dawson San Angelo

Mark 3:24-25 indicates that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand and that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The Church today is divided between denominations, within denominations and by the practices of individual Christians. The example we set as a body does not encourage new converts.

Jesus is the head of the Christian church. We are the body of Christ. The head directs the body. We are supposed to be followers. Increasingly, however, Christians choose their own course of action.

Does Jesus the head tell some of the body to vote for A, some to vote for B and some to vote for C? Certainly not. Jesus only gives one direction to the body. Jesus is dishonoured when the 'Christian' Church publicly acts in ways contrary to Biblical teaching. Those who observe the church must be skeptical over whether there will ever be any genuine unity of action.

Canada is increasingly a country separated from God. The Christian church is a house divided against itself. Only by listening to Jesus can we honour and serve Jesus and our country.

Dear C.H.P Friends,

Our Leader speaks his mind in the following communiqués. I do not have to elaborate, only this: We need your money and vice versa. Of course, the 1999 provincial election was not federal, but just the same the FCP stands for the same moral principles as the CHP (see Communiqué 23 below).

Our quota is gradually being filled ($1850 - one-third of what we owe). There are 19 new members so far this year. We are still a little short, but that is because we had a hesitant start. Moreover, my holidays are over and so I can start "bugging you again" (after I settle with the weeds in my garden!)

Thank you for the cheques that came in while I was away.

Sincerely yours,
H. Metzlar, Treasurer