A Childlike Remembrance Day Faith

November 11, 2023

HERE'S MY TAKE

“The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month…. We will remember them.”

These words are usually delivered with a solemn cadence at Remembrance Day ceremonies. War involves issues of life and death; it’s not a time to be frivolous. That doesn’t mean the words are religious. In fact, at face value, they aren’t. The first phrase describes the historic moment in time when the armistice ending the First World War was signed—the agreement to put down arms and the commitment to see peace negotiations through to a formal settlement and the end of war. The second phrase indicates a present commitment, that this event isn’t just another in a series of events for the history books. It’s one that contains lessons that even today, we realise we need to remember.

Something seems a bit different on Remembrance Day 2023. I’m not referring to the kerfuffle a few weeks back about whether prayers should be part of civic Remembrance Day ceremonies. (For the record, I strongly believe the answer is “yes” as my colleague Michael Van Pelt and I outlined in our Ottawa Citizen article.) However, in the face of the present conflicts in Israel-Palestine and Ukraine-Russia–and especially the domestic debates that these overseas conflicts have sparked–there are much more foundational questions to consider. These issues are public and political but they also have a faith dimension.

Wars involve ultimate causes–things worth fighting and even dying for. On November 11^th, Canadians remember with appreciation the contributions of soldiers who fought in wars from from the First World War to Afghanistan. Throughout, they fought on the side of the Western democratic understandings of rights and freedoms that form the basis for our society. Of course, we recognise that different countries have the right to different sets of values. However, when those countries have crossed internationally recognized borders to impose contrary (and usually totalitarian) values on citizens of another country, Canadians instinctively have joined in the fight for freedom. Order and the rule of law domestically can only be sustained when they are also respected globally.

Don’t misunderstand. I am not one who equates Western democratic traditions with my Christian faith. At best, Western democracy is a mixed marriage of Judeo-Christian understandings of the human person and Enlightenment ideals regarding social arrangements. Christianity has no capital city and there are those living in non-democratic political arrangements that serve God as faithfully as those in Western countries. Last week, the pro side in the Munk Debate argued that “liberalism gets the big questions right.” I would quibble with both sides of the proposition. I’m pro-liberal democracy but liberalism doesn’t produce flourishing by itself. At best, it produces conditions under which individuals, faith communities, and societies can flourish. That caveat doesn’t negate my conviction that it is the best available system in our present context and is worth fighting for.

Which brings us to Remembrance Day 2023 and the wars raging today. There’s much to critique about both Israel and Ukraine. Even so, compared to their opponents in the war, it isn’t difficult to determine which side most promotes Western democratic values. At the core of those values is the Christian belief in the dignity and worth of each human person, not because of their group identity or the faith they confess, but because of who they are as created image-bearers of God. The worth of the individual, including the individual I most disagree with and whose country I am even at war with, is foundational to just social arrangements. Rights are not an abstract concept that belong to a group. They only have meaning when applied to the individual.

We see this perhaps most graphically in how wars are fought. The Israel-Hamas conflict began not with soldiers fighting soldiers, but with terrorists targeting civilians. Russia-Ukraine began with Russia’s crossing of internationally recognized borders. Hamas’ tactics continue to include barbaric and grotesque methods of terror. While the military attacks by Israel on Hamas are producing extensive damage, there is no equivalence between the two sides. On the one hand, we see a defensive response following several weeks of warnings to civilians to vacate the war zone. On the other hand, we see hostage-taking, barbaric beheadings, and use of civilians as human shields. The way each side conducts the war demonstrates distinct and different understandings of the human person and human dignity.

Religion, academics tell us, has four essential components:

• It identifies with a set of rituals
• It cultivates a sense of belonging
• It provides its adherents with a framework for meaning
• It answers ultimate questions of purpose.

Our present wars intersect with religious frameworks (and certainly, the significance of Jerusalem to both Muslims and Jews is not an insignificant factor.) As a Christian, I can only lament the politicisation of religion that has come with these conflicts.

But my answer is not a touchy-feely, secular dream of neutrality, simply wishing it would all go away. To my secular friends, including those who thought it wise and sensitive to suggest that the way to inclusivity is to exclude all religious expression, my argument is direct. Ignore religion and core beliefs if you want, but they show up anyway and are part of this conflict regardless. (And in case you’re inclined to argue this makes the case that religion provokes war, modern, closed secularism is every bit as much a religion in this regard as the historically recognized faiths. There is also good evidence it is every bit as much proselytizing and not that inclined to tolerance.) And when it comes to political arrangements, religious convictions that respect the dignity of the person produce a safer, more just, and more flourishing society than any alternative.

The challenge we face is not just in our response to conflicts abroad but also in how we deal domestically with each other. The culturally dominant ideology, which prioritises group identity over individual identity (with the requisite labels of “oppressor” or “oppressed” to distinguish them) divides the world into tribes. Tribal warfare doesn’t have justice and dignity as its purpose, only winning and power. In the name of countering historic injustice, it destroys the foundation of justice.

I’m not naïve. Identities matter. Society is not simply an aggregation of free individuals. There are groups that will form and the litany of injustice, also in Western democratic societies, is long. A broken world has injustice that we need to address in various ways, hopefully peacefully most of the time but occasionally through war. But in all of this, the proper ordering of our rights, just as Augustine reminded us about the proper ordering of our loves, matters. Our tribe, even our oppressed tribe, should not top the list. We are human before anything else.

This framework came to me as a gift from my Opa when I was just six or seven years old. He was answering my questions about a dented copper teapot on my grandparents' mantle. I was curious about the 1871 sketched into the handle and he proceeded to tell me that this kettle was a gift from a Jewish family in the Second World War. I was too young to understand the particulars of my family’s involvement in the underground resistance movement during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, providing safety for Jews whose lives were at risk. (My grandparents, along with several of my great-uncles and aunts, are included on the Jerusalem wall recognizing “righteous Gentiles.”) But my memory of what Opa told me in answer to that question has stuck with me since. “The most important thing in life is that we learn to love Jesus and sadly these Jews did not,” he said. “However, all people are created by God and if we love Jesus, we need to help everyone who needs our help. God made them and we need to love them.”

Opa died when I was eight and this is one of two conversations that I recall having with him. The details may well be skewed by the almost 50 years that have passed since that childhood memory but that core lesson has stuck with me since. It shapes my understanding of what it is to love God and neighbour. And while the complications of political and rights theory, international law and just war, social justice and reparations for historic wrongs are all part of the story, none of them should undermine this foundational truth.

Faith matters and shapes not only how we live in good times but also difficult times. It shapes how we fight wars and why we seek peace. It also shapes how we remember. My 2023 Remembrance Day prayer is that in the midst of confusion in which group identities are blinding so many to the basic dignity of their neighbour, that all of the world–but especially those of us living in democratic countries with a legacy of freedom previous generations defended–may rediscover these foundational truths. If the history of Remembrance Day and our own heritage are is to be honoured, I should be able to make that prayer out loud, respectful of my neighbour who disagrees but willing and able to enter into respectful conversations even about such fundamental issues. And in the midst of all of the complexity, that is a basic truth that even a six-year-old child should be able to understand.

WHAT I’M READING

Throwing Out the “Tough on Crime” Keys

Tougher sentencing laws have been a staple of conservative justice policy for some time. However, Benjamin Perrin, formerly an adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on justice issues, has changed his mind. In his new book, he argues for a “transformative justice” approach. Perrin told the National Post that there is widespread agreement that prison isn’t the appropriate punishment for most crimes and that the $116,000 per year spent on each incarcerated person would better be spent on a system based around seven articulated principles, including more victim participation.

The Civility of Hard Truths

Alexandra Hudson argues in the Globe and Mail that the fact that civility and politeness are not synonyms is an important lesson for Canadians to learn–and that we’d do well to prioritise the former. “Telling hard truths to others is one example of conduct that seems impolite and is difficult for Canadians to do, because we risk offending others–but it flows from the disposition of civility, of recognizing and affirming their basic human dignity.”

The End of the Social Justice Agenda

Ian Brodie, currently a University of Calgary political science professor but also the first chief of staff to Prime Minister Harper, published a recent speech in which he predicted the derailing of the “social justice agenda” in Canada and the Western world. Brodie points to the fact that leaders are moderating climate policy to deal with affordability concerns. He notes that Canada in particular is out of step with most other countries by “penalising” bad behaviour with a carbon tax rather than “incentivising” good behaviour with subsidies. Secondly, interest rates are hurting government budgets enough to force a rethink of priorities. Finally, geopolitics and global conflict are forcing a reset on a host of issues. The upshot? Canada will be forced to respond to these issues and, in Brodie’s view, the sooner we do so, the better off we’ll be.

Staying Sane

David Brooks called for “skepticism of the head and audacity of the heart” in his recent New York Times column. That’s his prescription for trying to stay mentally healthy and spiritually whole when the daily news is as raw as it has been of late. By the way, his new book, How to Know a Person, was my airplane read this week and I highly recommend it.

MEANINGFUL METRICS

Measuring Class

The Angus Reid Institute did an in-depth survey of over 8,000 Canadians exploring issues relating to social class and equality. Only 7% of Canadians put class on top of the list of factors that are likely to lead to accomplishment. Fully 42% identify as the same class as they’d apply to their parents, while 35% believe they have attained a higher class than their parents. Another 23% feel they’ve fallen to a lower class than their parents. While those who are upwardly mobile are most likely to see hard work, education, ambition, and social connections as key, those who are downwardly mobile attribute who you know and your social class as more determinative of success. To put the numbers into context, it would appear that the wealthiest 20% of Canadian households control 44% of the total income and 67% of total net worth, while the poorest 20% of Canadian households control less than 5% of income and have a very negligible net financial worth (from a statistical perspective at least).

TAKE IT TO-GO

An Obvious Crime

The stories about U.S. Senator Bob Menendez facing corruption charges after being found with gold, cash, and other valuables allegedly provided by the Egyptian government is the sort of story I usually skip. Sorting through crime stories is messy at the best of times. Complicate it with two different countries’ laws, neither of which I am familiar with, makes it complete hieroglyphics that take too much time to decode. However, this one seemed a bit more straightforward. Or was I the only one to jump to the conclusion that this must have been a pyramid scheme?