A Tale of Two Churches: Part Three by Dave Jaffe.

   A Tale of Two Churches: Part Three.




      If you're like me you may attend the Canadian Memorial United Church or the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. Then you might tell yourself, "Canadian churches are very liberal." Many of the people who go to the churches I've just mentioned usually support a women's right to abortion. They worship a compassionate caring God - that is if they believe in the divine. They have no problems now with same sex marriage. Many of the people in these churches believe in helping the poor and welcoming refugees to Canada.
      Yet not all Canadian or North American churches cling to this type of religion. Nor did all ever do so. Lucien Pope, an American sociologist found out over 80 years ago that many groups favour a much harsher religion. The U.S. sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset came to the same conclusion  a few years later. "The poorer working classes," Lipset wrote in the 1950's, "want ministers who preach hellfire and damnation."
     This is still true today. In her recent book, 'Strangers In Their Own Land' Arlie Russell Hoschchild found the same thing. In Louisiana, Hoschchild studied, mingled with and befriended supporters of U.S president Donald Trump. She found that these mostly white working class Americans believe in 'the rapture' or time when the Book of Revelations says, "The earth will burn with fervent heat." Until that time though, the devil is on the rampage.
     Along with this harsh theology, these white citizens had no time or sympathy for black Americans, feminists, gays or environmentalists. God, says Derwin Arenos, a young white worker, will fix the polluted bayous of Louisiana. "And that will happen shortly," he says. "So it doesn't matter how much man destroys now."
     A woman I'll call Clara may share the same viewpoint. She lives in Vancouver in a one bedroom basement  suite, alongside three other neighbours who also live in one bedroom places. Clara is bipolar and survives on a small handicapped allowance. She doesn't have much money and sometimes asks people to buy her a cup of coffee. When Donald Trump was elected U>S. president Clara was overjoyed. "He''ll fix the elites," she said. "They're too powerful."
    Clara goes to an east end church that preaches that the world may be doomed and damnation awaits all sinners. In Metro Vancouver there are quite a few churches preaching this sort of message. One many I met was a strong supporter of the Anglican Church he went to. "We don't believe in abortion here," he says. "And we have no time for same sex marriage." Another man I know is a churchgoer who totally is against any new social programs.
     One Sunday morning I slipped into the pews of a Baptist church and heard a strong  message. A big powerfully built preacher  took an American senator to task for saying that he enjoyed going to church on Sunday. "You don't go to church to enjoy it," he thundered. "You go to church to feel God's presence. Your enjoyment is not important."
     At the service's end, one church usher asked me if I'd come back. "not me," I replied. "the sermon was powerful but it's not my trip. I'm a bleeding heart liberal." Even so I put a few dollars in the dish that was passed around. For I don't go to churches without leaving some money behind.