A diversity flag for faith could address supremacists

A social-conservative activist whose accomplishments include having her characterization as a “bigot” by CKWN Radio host Raif Mair  upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada and having a subsequent application for judicial review characterized by the British Columbia Supreme Court as “an abuse of power“, is having difficulties telling the difference between diversity and supremacy – as do her pet hate club Culture Guard.

Screen Shot 2018-08-29 at 10.27.55 PM
supremacist as ‘an advocate of the supremacy of a particular group, especially one determined by race or sex. “a white supremacist”.  It appears Google overlooked “a Judeo-Christian supremacist”.

Looking to our omniscient Google for the truth, we find a definition of supremacist to be ‘an advocate of the supremacy of a particular group, especially one determined by race or sex. “a white supremacist”.  It appears Google overlooked “a Judeo-Christian supremacist”.

The term is growing in usage over the last 3/4 century.

A 2009 Georgia Straight article on Simpson reports that:

[W]hen Simpson started publicly criticizing homosexuality — saying it was not “normal” and it was “not acceptable” in her household — Mair went on the attack. The trigger was her comments at a public meeting in 1999.

In an editorial on CKNW, Mair compared Simpson to Adolf Hitler, the Ku Klux Klan, and former Alabama governor George Wallace, among others.

“Now I’m not suggesting that Kari was proposing or supporting any kind of holocaust or violence but neither really – in the speeches, when you think about it and look back – neither did Hitler or Governor Wallace or [Orval Faubus] or Ross Barnett,” Mair said, according to the decision.   “They were simply declaring their hostility to a minority. Let the mob do as they wished.”

– Georgia Straight

 

13342545_web1_180829-LAT-christian-flag
Supremacist blind spot: Culture Guard Executive Director Kari Simpson seems to think this is the flag that best represents Canada’s religious diversity.

The Langley Times recently reported  that Kari Simpson’s request to have a flag she calls the “Canada Judeo-Christian flag” raised at city hall and flown from 1 October until Thanksgiving because the Pride flag is raised annually was denied despite her claims that:

because city has accommodated ‘one identifiable group (it) now must accommodate all others

– Kari Simpson, Court-confirmed Bigot

Poor Kari Simpson struggles with the difference between including people of all sexual orientations and gender identities as represented by the pride flag and including only Canadian Judeo-Christians. These two ideas are not equivalent, and her enormous supremacist blind spot is doing her a great disservice.

This might seem to be innocuous supremacist blather, but Simpson has been harassing BC’s LGBTQ2+ communities for 2 decades since her involvement in an attempt to ban three books in Surrey ended up in failed in 1997 but affected an election.

 

1516248200
The flag of Islam

If there is a diversity flag that represents the variety and breadth of beliefs and lifted up for all to see their equal value and inclusion in all our eyes – from Judaism to Wicca to Hinduism to Islam to Jainism to Zoroastrianism to  Christianity to Satanism – I will stand proudly at Kari Simpson’s side  asking with her that this inclusive flag of love and equality be flown the same way other flags. After all, love is love and we are all free to be valued as our true selves – whoever we are.

Just an idea, but a rainbow flag would be perfect for this, thanks to the way it already symbolizes diversity…

r-AARON-WILLIAM-PASTAFARIAN-large570
The Pastafarians – Man and the Great Noodly One

The problem appears when the symbols of any one faith or identity are prioritized over any other faith or identity’s as if there was any validity to supremacy. This is where the blind spot of religion lies, after all. Whereas the vast majority of Canadians are content following the beliefs they were taught to, there is a small minority who insist on dictating to other Canadians that their beliefs are supreme and reign over us all. When people truly believe that only they are worthy and living their lives rightfully, the rest of Canadians find ourselves dealing with dangerous supremacist tendencies. Such mindsets are the opposite of inclusion or diversity that our laws protect so carefully and if turned to discriminatory action can endanger or oppress others.

download
The Sikh flag

Simpson and her group Culture Guard have been obsessing over LGBT issues for some time but recently have escalated their harassment of people who do not follow their conservative dogma. What has changed, however, is that they are now doing this in an environment where they are joined by other groups giving them license to be bolder.

In April 2018 a meeting featuring Simpson was accused of false advertising for misappropriating logos owned by the ARC Foundation, the creators of the SOGI-123 toolkit to for educators.

11591824_web1_180423-BPD-M-sogi-0116
Anti SOGI activists in Vancouver at an April 2018 rally in Vancouver Photo: The Free Press

That same month, Simpson, TV Evangelist Laura-Lynn Thompson, and Culture Guard joined forces with Soldiers of Odin and the Hells Angels to organize rallies against SOGI education in two locations in BC.

In June 2018 her plan to host a Let God Be True event was scuttled by the city of New Westminister. In July 2018 Culture Guard was fined by the city of Port Moody for holding an anti-SOGI rally without a permit.

It is worrisome that Simpson’s At a time where intolerance is being reflected in an alarming growth in violent hate crimes reported by Canadian police.

There were 1,409 police-reported hate crimes in Canada last year, the data agency said. That is up from 1,362 in 2015, 1,295 in 2014 and 1,167 in 2013, a year which saw a drop from 2012. Last year’s number of hate crimes also registered well above the average number of incidents (1,360) since data became available in 2009.

– National Observer

Societies must not allow extremists from any one belief, community, identity, or other group to dictate how the others can live by imposing themselves in a way that negatively affects others.

Inclusion is for everyone – except those who oppress others. If faith needs an inclusion flag, let’s ask them all for design ideas and ensure oppressive groups stay in check.

.

Comments

3 responses to “A diversity flag for faith could address supremacists”

  1. There’s always a second chance for reformed anti-trans activists – Morgane Oger Avatar

    […] Dirks, Laura-Lynn Thompson, Barbara Kay, Meghan Murphy, Kari Simpson, Jordan Peterson, Barry Neufeld, Parents United Canada, Culture Guard, Real Women Canada, 3 […]

    Like

  2. Cecilia A Von Dehn Avatar
    Cecilia A Von Dehn

    This man ‘s take on “diversity” and “inclusion” shows his lack of both .More an extreme sample of an excuse for a personal attack .

    Like

    1. Morgane Oger Avatar

      I’m confused if you are speaking about.

      Like

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: