Why Does the Culture not Understand Christian Communities?

Over the past decade, traditional Christian communities, institutions, and individuals have faced an increasingly hostile political and legal environment in Canada.

In a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, Trinity Western University was denied accreditation for a Christian law school in a 7-2 ruling widely recognized as pitting “religious freedom against LGBTQ+ rights.” More recently in British Columbia, former public school trustee Barry Neufeld was fined $750,000 by the BC Human Rights Tribunal for his defense of the Christian view of biological sex. Another trustee promptly resigned for fear that speaking about his convictions could cost him his home. Dozens of other cases and controversies could be cited.

In retrospect, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to close the federal government’s Office of Religious Freedom in 2016 seems an ominous indication of Canada’s direction. Scarcely a month goes by without some clash featuring censorship or restriction for the right of Christians to speak in the public square, from city billboards to public office. Christian institutions rightly wonder how long it could be before their convictions might run afoul of Canadian law, especially with the recent passage of Bill C-9 and the previous passage of Bill C-4.

In this context, Christian churches and institutions would be well-advised to plan for the future. To that end, The Acacia Group offers a wide range of legal services oriented specifically to that purpose.

But there is another aspect of this environment to consider: The vast majority of Canadians do not understand what might be colloquially referred to as “Christianese.” In short: they are unfamiliar with Christian institutions, they do not understand the very basics of Christian belief and theology and are thus susceptible to the growing mainstream narrative that religious liberty is, itself, merely an excuse for bigotry.

Indeed, most Canadians are unaware that the Christian standard for how we must treat our fellow citizens is far higher than mere “tolerance.” Christians are not called to “tolerate” our neighbors, but to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:39). Christians are not called to “tolerate” those who hate them; they are commanded to love their enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:44). But in Canada, religious literacy has collapsed, and most Canadians understand the beliefs of Christians through the lens of negative press coverage.

In 2020, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada released a poll highlighting the scale of secularization in Canada. Their research found that a mere 11% of Canadians attend any kind of religious service on a weekly basis—which means a staggering 89% of Canadians do not. That 11% includes synagogues, temples, mosques, gurdwaras and other places of worship. Thus, the percentage of Canadians who regularly attend any form of Christian worship is vanishingly small. A super-majority of Canadians are simply not exposed to what Christianity teaches.

For example, EFC’s poll found that those affiliating with evangelical churches has dropped from 12% of the population in 1996, to 9% of the population in 2015, to a mere 6% in 2019. According to Cardus, the religiously unaffiliated have grown from 12.5% in 1991 to 23.9% in 2011. Their 2022 study found that only 16% of Canadians describe themselves as “religiously committed,” and 19% describe themselves as “privately faithful.” Ignorance about the beliefs, traditions, and practices of the religion that shaped Canada is thus extremely high.

This reality has practical implications for Canadian churches and Christian institutions. There are two primary external challenges facing Christian communities in Canada:

Legal: Many Christian institutions, individuals, and churches are facing challenges from individuals and organizations that view their beliefs and practices as fundamentally bigoted.

Communications: Most Canadians are simply unaware of the beliefs, traditions, and practices of Christian communities. This means their views of these communities and Christian individuals comes from Canada’s largely unsympathetic press and from leaders and activists seeking to characterize fundamental Christian doctrines as bigotry. Many Canadians are not hostile to Christian communities; they are merely ignorant because they are unfamiliar with them.

One case study that highlights the general ignorance of Christian beliefs and practices is the state response to churches during the Covid pandemic. Many Christians felt, when governments shuttered churches alongside other institutions or businesses (and often seem disinclined to prioritize the opening of houses of worship), that this constituted overt hostility to Christian communities. In some instances, perhaps private hostility did fuel public policy. But that was by no means the primary motivation.

As I noted at the time, attempts by religious leaders to explain the essential nature of worship and the sacraments resembled the communication breakdown at Babel. In a post-Christian culture, we are speaking different languages. Those of us who have grown up in religious communities tend to forget that over the past two or three generations, our lived experiences have become increasingly unique. A minority of Westerners attend church services; most have not read the Bible; nearly all are totally unfamiliar with the terminology that comes as a natural second language to the religious.

Most Canadian leaders—and Canadians—simply did not understand why corporate worship is essential for Christians and viewed the insistence of the religious on gathering during a pandemic as stupid, irresponsible, and even threatening. Religious leaders had a tremendously difficult time conveying to governing authorities why worship services are essential. To most Westerners, religious gatherings are merely an activity that some choose to engage in on the weekend. Most other preferred activities had ceased, so why should churches or synagogues stay open?

For example, when Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia, was asked at a Covid press conference why restaurants were being treated differently than worship services, she responded by stating that “restaurants feed people” and that “they are an important part of making sure people can get a meal.” Henry may not hold any special animus towards religious people. She simply did not understand the role that faith plays in people’s lives, and how worship services feed people spiritually.

Into that void and ignorance, the Canadian press has frequently chosen to inject suspicion. When churches are covered by the media, it is almost always a story about a conflict between Christianity and the LGBT movement. It should not be news that Christian institutions generally adhere to a Biblical view of sexuality, for example, but Canada’s state broadcaster and major newspapers treat us to an endless stream of breathless coverage reminding us of the fact.

One CBC headline, for example, read: “Private Christian university says no sex outside heterosexual marriage.” Just decades ago, this statement would have been considered too obvious to make it into print. Not anymore. Now, a more than 2,000-year-old belief is “news.” The journalist clearly believed that this would be “news” to CBC’s readers, and that many would be shocked or offended by it.

This highlights a key practical need for effective communication in a post-Christian culture. Time and again, we have seen many Christians facing attacks struggle to defend their beliefs and to articulate the doctrinal basis for their actions in a culture that simply does not understand what they are saying. The average Canadian no longer speaks “Christianese,” and in order to mount both an effective defense and a powerful witness, we must be able to communicate through the language barrier that has arisen in the past decades between the religious and the non-religious.

Christians must realize that in Canada, we are an increasingly small religious minority despite our Christian heritage and the enduring prevalence of some Christian symbolism. Our freedom of religion, association, and expression are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ensuring that we are communicating our beliefs in a way that helps our fellow Canadians understand our communities better is an important factor in holistically defending those rights. For Christian communities and institutions that find themselves being targeted for their beliefs, The Acacia Group offers comprehensive communications services to assist in navigating this post-Christian culture.

Jonathon Van Maren is a strategic communications consultant with The Acacia Group, where he supports churches, charities, and faith-based organizations in navigating complex cultural and public issues with clarity and conviction. He is an experienced writer, speaker, and author with more than a decade of leadership in national advocacy, and his work has been widely published across leading North American and European outlets. Drawing on deep expertise in media engagement and crisis communications, he helps clients protect their mission, strengthen their public voice, and advance their work with integrity.