Many Americans are familiar with the term Jesusland, and it’s connotation that (the Democratic-voting) half of America is so ideologically different than the (Republican-voting) other half, that it should secede and join with the more liberal Canada. There would than be two redrawn nations in North America – the United States of Canada and Jesusland.
However, most of the Jesusland maps arrogantly assume all of Canada is a bastion of social democracy and progressive liberal policies. I’m here to make the case that Alberta deserves a place with the big boys of evangelism and right-wing politics.
For those who don’t know, Alberta is a province (it’s like really big state, like Texas) in Western Canada, which has about 3.5 million people (about 10% of Canada’s population), two major cities (Calgary and Edmonton – both roughly a million people) and the second busiest highway in Canada (ref) connecting the two cities. There are several universities (U of Calgary, Lethbridge, Alberta, and Athabasca U), and a bunch of tech schools and colleges. Being still in Canada, we have public healthcare and gun laws. Also, Alberta (surprisingly) reported the second highest non-religious rate (after very liberal British Columbia) in the last census (ref).
Southern and rural Alberta however, features some of the largest Mormon concentrations in Canada, as well as large Baptist and Evangelical seminaries. Many of the conservative religions are growing fast in Alberta, while the traditionally liberal churches are dropping steadily. Those who reported “Apostolic”, “Born-again Christian” and “Evangelical” as their brand of Christian increased in number by 1.5 times since the past census.
In Cochrane, a small town outside of Calgary, there are 19 (active) churches for just over 14,000 residents. Cochrane also features one of Canada’s largest Baptist Seminaries. And to top it off at least one public school science teacher in Cochrane hangs posters in his class with slogans like “Be a somebody, God doesn’t make nobodies”, and answers questions on the creation of the asteroid belt with “some people believe God did it.”
This is a good point to let you know in grade six in this province, you learn “Sky Science” instead of astronomy. Reading this outline you think it may as well be astrology:
In science, our grade six class will be studying Sky Science. In the grade six curriculum for Sky Science students are expected to observe, describe, and interpret the movement of objects in the sky; and identify pattern and order in these movements. Students will explore a web page with previewed sites listed. It is with these sites students will create a database for each of The Planets. Students will also complete research on The Explorers – Space Travel and Celestial Bodies.
I realize that this isn’t enough to warrant Jesusland inclusion, so let me tell you more.
Our province didn’t vote for our current (super-)majority conservative government. 40% of people voted, and of them 53% actually voted conservative (note that’s about 21% of the population who voted for the government), yet the Conservatives now have 72 of 83 seats here. See George W. Bush and his Republican team are amateurs at stealing an election compared to our “Progressive” Conservatives. Oh, and in the last federal election we voted 60% Conservative, yet they swept every riding in the province. Now the media doesn’t even think a seat change is possible here.
But wait, there’s more. This is a government with the power to pass anything without worrying about debate, yet they still go behind closed doors and pass things like a raise in private school funding from 60% to 70%. I should also note, that many of our private charter schools funded by this are religious schools that discriminate against students and staff who won’t sign statements of faith. Further, we also retain a (publicly-funded) Catholic school board.
And if you’re worried about prayer in school, we’ve actually legislated that it’s allowed! Our provincial laws allow for “religious and patriotic instruction” and if you don’t want to participate you have to bring in a note (from your parents, because young’uns in this province can’t think for themselves) and then sit in the hall. And this isn’t just a wacky law that no one follows, it’s used to allow for the Lord’s Prayer to be said in a public school in Stettler (Eastern rural Alberta).
But even better, is if you take a short drive from Stettler you can find Canada’s first permanent creation museum. Quite the affront to one of the greatest excavations of dinosaur bones and most impressive museums in the world.
Luckily, a new Centre for Inquiry community (yes, we do spell Centre with an RE in Canada) in Calgary and is part of a larger movement to help combat this lunacy, but it’s only a start. So until the rationalists win, or I get run out of this province.
Comments
RSS
Digg!
Stumble
Tweet
More by Ian Bushfield
- What’s happening in Canada?
- More reassuring news on Obama
- A skeptical White House?
- Talk of change or more of the same?
- Apply science to colloquialisms
- Secular convocation vs fundie radio
- Preaching to the choir
- UAAA keeps fighting for secular convocation
- I ought not to say such things
- Christian sex secrets revealed
Author Tweets
tweets loading 
I think you’re onto something here – we could move all the fundamentalists to one state (lets say, Alabama) and have more electoral votes for the rest of us; genius!
Alberta’s combination of fundie religion and oil wealth remind me of Texas and Saudi Arabia, though the UK and Norway have had oil wealth without being very fundie. So we could come up with a scale:
Saudi Arabia – Texas – Alberta – UK and Norway
In fact, I sometimes wonder if our President feels a spiritual kinship with Saudi Arabia’s leaders because of that. There’s even a book, “House of Bush, House of Saud”, though I haven’t gotten a hold of it.
I think it is less of a spiritual kinship and more of a class kinship: they both are wealthy oil-lords or are parts of such families.
I find this article hard to understand.
- Popular belief is that Alberta and US republican states share similar ideology both religiously and politically. As depicted by Jesusland map.
- In actuality Alberta is very non religious compared to other Canadian provinces (second to BC), and although conservative still are “Canadian” (they have free health care, and gun laws). (Ok so popular belief is wrong)
- There is a large theist population in Southern Alberta, and they are growing by 1.5 times since the last census (which happens every 4 years). (OK so what, influence do they have Provincially/Nationally? Aren’t they a small minority [See statement #2])
- These few religious communities have public schools which include religion. (OK so what? Religious people teaching religion to other religious people, how does this influence the rest of the Province/Canada if they are minority? [Refer to Statement #2])
- The province advocates the teaching of Sky Science. (Took a look at your link, I don’t understand the difference between sky science and astronomy….except for the name [Further explanation needed])
- The 40% of able voting Albertans voted, 53% of them voted Conservative. Yet they won 86% of the seats in the house. Conservatives are professionals at stealing an election. ( Is this not an issue with the electoral system, and not simply the Conservatives? Ontario 2007 Elections: 53% voter turn out, 42% voted Liberal, 67% of house seats are Liberal [How does this relate to previous statements?])
- Evidence that Alberta should be part of the religious US. 1) They have increased funding to private schools by 10%, some are religious. [Issues both with funding private institutions and with funding religious institutions] 2) Province allow schools to practice religious and patriotic instruction, but student have option of opting out [If you're allowed to opt out is there a problem? If yes, what is it?]. 3) Publicly funded Catholic School Boards [Just like in the rest of Canada, how does this exclude the rest of Canada as holding criteria for Jesusland membership?]
- There is a small creationism museum in a small Northern Alberta town. [How much influence could this museum have over The Royal Tyrrell Museum touted as a very important collection of Dinosaur fossils in the world]
- Finally, CFI opened in Calgary (YAY!)
You article is fragmented and filled with extrapolations which are not unique to Alberta. You first state some kind of ill-informed public opinion about Alberta, you dismiss it with statistics and then support it with weak evidence that is not singular to the Province of Alberta. This was such a displeasure to read I had to write back.
You have definitely disturbed my idea of Canadia is a frozen utopia for secular intellectual types. Damn it!
Pt. #2 – bascially, despite the census, Alberta has a strong evangelical voice.
A recent Angus Reid poll (follow link and go to PDF for complete breakdown) shows that belief in Young-Earth Creationism is highest in Alberta, with 40% of Alberta’s thinking the Earth is < 10,000 years old and made by God. Conversely only 37% of Albertans believe evolution occurred.
These aren't public schools with religious education, these are private schools with 70% of their funding coming from public coffers. These are schools like the Airdrie Koinonia Christian School which requires students, staff and parents to sign a statement of faith or else they are not allowed to attend. There are many of these schools siphoning public funds.
Also, you didn’t seem to care that public schools are legally allowed to say the Lord’s Prayer every morning, and many do.
My point was that Canada is not all a bastion of secular liberalism, but Alberta (in particular) fits more with the bible-thumping Republican states of America, then with the rest of Canada (not that I’m advocating Alberta separation).
I should also add another second hand stories (which I admit aren’t representative of the entire province, but do highlight some scary localities):
- After being sworn in, one of the new city councillors for Cochrane was approached by other councillors who asked to which church she belonged, replying “none of your business” (meaning none), she was told, “well you better choose the right one”.
I’m with Blue. I like the idea of this site, but find many of the articles poorly written. Public schools are “allowed” to recite the LP, “many” do? How many do? I went to public school in Alberta and never heard the LP there. I work in the professional sector in Alberta and know a few mildly religious people but I’ve never experienced the sort of environment you’re portraying for Alberta. People like money. In Alberta, the conservative government has been successful in increasing the wealth of the average Albertan. I’m not following your assertion that Albertans are conservative because they’re religious. Also, at least where I live, we are allowed to choose whether our taxes go toward public or private/religious schools. So, my portion of the public coffers does not pay for religious eduction. I’ve also never met anyone who believed the earth was less than 10,000 years old. Nice try, though.
You get to choose to support Catholic or Public school (except in St. Alberta where there’s only Protestant and Catholic boards still), but everyone funds the private schools from a separate pot. Don’t believe me? Try asking your councillors and MLAs which school’s your tax dollars are going to. Chances are they can’t even guarantee you’re funding your preferred board. A big aim of CFI-Calgary is to discover where the school funding is going, and how to slow or stop the religious school funding. Do some homework.
Now I agree, there are many purely fiscal conservatives in this province, however there are also a significant number of religious conservatives, especially in the rural areas (remember, Austin, Texas is home to one of the largest atheist communities despite the surrounding climate of extremism).
You also likely have met people who believe the Earth is < 10,000 years, it just didn’t come up.
Well, I have to agree. There be no Dawkins, Sam Harris, EO Wilsons…etc. here. What do you expect from a bunch of teenagers (and recent teenagers)? My hope is we will all grow and improve in our writing as Edger progresses.
The only way to become a good writer… is to write… and write and write.
Editing is also a tough job and takes experience to become good at it.
Keep it up, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I totally agree!
I had no illusions that Edger would be an epic beacon of awesomeness at once…even though it is pretty damn awesome it exists.
Slow and steady wins the race, no?
I can concede your point that some of the people I know may indeed believe in a young earth; but my point, really, is that you haven’t offered any evidence that they believe this because they’re creationists. Some people are just uneducated (and Alberta certainly has its fair share of these).
Further, with respect to private vs public schools, certainly religious schools fall into the “private” category, but so too do the charter schools that simply have emphasis on performing arts, sports and higher educational standards, etc. So, even if religious schools do benefit from public taxes, the charter schools do as well, and your assertion in that respect that Alberta has a bible-thumping majority is still skewed.
Also, I should clarify my remark about the quality of articles on this site. I didn’t mean to imply that the contributors on this site are bad writers, but I would like to see more articles based on facts and hard data, rather than editorials presented with little backing evidence (i.e. above you referenced a poll and an anecdote which you admitted was not representative of the entire province, so I ask why bother posting it?).
I didn’t realize the contributors here were so young, and as I stated previously, I do like the idea of this site, and I will continue to check in and look forward to the epic beacon of awesomeness that this site has the potential to become.
OP wrote:
Which is what I was going to write … so I endorse his opinion 100%.
I’d say providing solid references was part of good writing, and that personal opinion is always part of anyones writing. The trick is finding a convincing and compelling balance. So its all part of the same process.
One of the big problems with the world today is that ’sciency’ types spend all their time learning to communicate to other sciency types. And not the public at large. The wonderful part of the internet is that you don’t need to spend years and years honing your craft, just to get published.
If this site is successful, IMO, it will be because it allows people to experiment and find their voice, as well as inform others in the process. Something that takes quite a lot of effort when it comes to the written word.
I live in Calgary. Only the occasional freak goes to church. Or the Phillipinos. I’m alarmed by the numbers, but they don’t seem to have anything to do with our reality.
When a kid at school asked my daughter and her friends what church they go to, they all said NONE. And that lone kid was the freak.
Swift Current, Saskatchewan (Alberta’s rectangular neighbour) has at least 30 churches for less than 17,000 people. I don’t know if that’s a record, but it’s a lot. I doubt their pews are filled every service, though.
There are many Hutterite and Mennonite villages here, and they’re all heavily religious, coming from hearty German Protestant stock, both Anabaptists. A few towns had their starts from the French Roman Catholics, Ponteix being one of them. Saskatoon, where I am, was originally designed to be a temperance colony (back in 1881) where Methodists from Toronto hoped to avoid all the evils of liquor. I wonder how many bars this city has now…
I don’t think there’s a town anywhere in this country that doesn’t have roots in a faith of one flavour or another. I don’t know how this province would rank in a religious poll though but here’s some census info for the whole country, as of 2001 if anyone’s interested:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel0.htm
Actually I don’t doubt that Sask. has pretty strong religiosity too, the only difference is the amount of political/economic influence you’ve gained relative to Alberta.
Ian,I think that your involvment in the group has given you a screed perspective on this. .AB is pretty secular.
[...] Why would anyone want more than two choices for government, one might ask? Doesn’t having two parties make it as simple as a governing party and an opposition, and when one doesn’t work, you can vote for the other? (I have actually heard these questions from Conservative Albertans). [...]