Right-wing Christian conspiracy alert!

My press gallery colleague Brian Lilley wrote the following review of Marci McDonald's breathy Armageddon Factor. Here's an excerpt. My bolds:

I was sitting at a table in the Westin's restaurant having coffee with a few people when every couple of minutes someone would stop by to say hello and ask, "Is that the book?"

The Westin Hotel was host to the 45th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa on May 11th and not coincidentally that is the day that The Armageddon Factor was released. The book, by veteran journalist Marci McDonald is part research project, part paranoid screed.

In a follow-up to a 2006 Walrus Magazine article, McDonald attempts to build the case that there is an attempt to take over government by a small band of Christians driven by a desire to usher in the end times and second coming of Jesus Christ. At this point some of you are rolling your eyes while others are pointing to the fact that there is a prayer breakfast in Ottawa, that I and others (such as Jack Layton and Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin) were at it and that hundreds of Christians had gathered in one place. McDonald might see the gathering as further proof of her paranoid conspiracy but she fails to mention the decades old event in her book.

Instead she spends an inordinate amount of time detailing the lives and work of two people in particular, Charles McVety of Canada Christian College and Faytene Kryskow of 4MyCanada, an evangelical youth group aimed at getting young Christians active in public life. To McDonald, these two are the face and muscle behind a growing and scary network in Ottawa aimed at turning Canada into a Christian country governed by theocracy. Whatever influence these Christian Crusaders have, if any, is vastly overstated throughout the book.

Well, cue the Twilight Zone music! I sat next to the scary Faytene Kryskow of 4MyCanada at last week's Rose Dinner in Ottawa. She was incognito, wearing a cap that was destined to ensure she stood out. And, I snapped a picture of her with .....the Archbishop of Ottawa Terrence Prendergast!!!!!

BTW, did you know that in Catholic Churches in Canada they sing during the mass:

Christ has died! Christ is risen ! Christ will come again!

Oh those Catholic end timers. Terrifying. I wonder if Marci included THAT in her book.

On a serious note, I don't know Faytene all that well. We are probably on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of worship styles---she's a contemporary, prophetic charismatic youth evangelist and I'm a Traditional Anglican, who kneels a lot, loves the King James Version, recites canticles from the Book of Common Prayer and I am an aspiring Catholic, hoping to be part of an Anglican Ordinariate within the Catholic Church soon.

I know Faytene loves Jesus and she loves Israel--for whatever reason, I don't know, maybe because the Bible says something about blessing those who bless Israel---and I admire her courage and her energy.

I'm disappointed, frankly, that some evangelicals seem to be throwing Faytene under the bus and distancing themselves from her to make sure that they are not perceived as scary because Faytene is. I can't find the link right now, but if I do I'll put it in.

And mea culpa. I have distanced myself from Charles McVety in the past because his style has made me uncomfortable and wished he wasn't always first to get into the mainstream media on this or that topic.

Sorry about that. Right here and now I want to give both Charles and Faytene credit for stepping in and stepping up when sometimes many others have just not anticipated where the media puck was going next. Yeah, some of us might wish Charles wasn't always in the spotlight, but really, was anyone else ready to get out in front on that horrible sex education program Dalton McGuinty was going to foist on Ontario? Charles was on the ball and brought it to our attention. Had he not, perhaps sixth graders would have been learning about vaginal lubrication and "safe" anal "sex" next year.

I agree with Brian that McDonald vastly overrates their influence, though.

In fact, I disagree that we social conservatives of any stripe have much influence at all. Increasingly we are being consigned to the back of the bus and we Christian conservatives are fair game to stereotype, deride, malign and defame in ways no other ethnic group of religious group has to tolerate. We are becoming an embattled minority in our own country. Thankfully some non-religious types like Jonathan Kay are waking up to how unfair that is.

It wasn't that long ago that our own government---under the Liberals---demonized anyone who supported traditional marriage as anti-Charter and anti-Canadian. How's that for divisiveness and promoting a Culture War?

Funny though, the Liberals lost their majority because they lost the Catholic and the ethnic vote.

While we Christian social conservatives cannot grant any party a majority, we can certainly ensure that any party won't get one if we are not part of their coalition.

Harper understands that but he sure take us for granted. Michael Ignatieff seems to think he can replay Jean Chretien's victory of 2000 that used a hideous attack on Stockwell Day's Christian beliefs and scare-mongering to deliver his third majority government.

The Catholics who left the Liberals for the Tories will not be coming back if this continues.

But we are definitely not a cohesive group. We have many doctrinal differences among us and a tendency to engage in friendly fire without much provocation. So let's swear off the friendly fire.