You cannot be a person of faith without being political, says Paul Dewar, the New Democratic Party MP for Ottawa Centre. In early 2009, Dewar spoke to my Faith and Public Life class at the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality. “Faith and politics are congruent and we have no option but to be political if we are going to live the gospel,” Dewar said. “We have to constantly question what the Christian message is, and we can never stop trying to change the way things are in society.”
Not an endorsement on my part, obviously. Although I also have nothing against such sentiments. I'm a damned empiric, so religious inclinations all strike me as a bit silly. But if your irrational beliefs inspire you to attempt to do good in the world, rather than, say, bash immigrants, than I will support you accordingly.
