Radio interview with Frank Pastore
On Friday February 22, 2008 Richard and I were interviewed on Frank Pastore’s radio in Los Angeles, California show regarding the way that Canada is forcing Christian ministries to either go against their Christian faith or have their charity status revoked. You can hear the interview here in mp3 format. It is 9 minutes long.
There were some details that were left out of the interview such as the Canadian government attaches a 100% tax on a Charity that is closed down whether the people voluntarily revoke the charity or whether the government comes after you and closes you down involuntarily. This means that we were required to purchase our own editing and office equipment at fair market value and the proceeds from this “sale” as well as the money in our Charity bank account that had been set aside to build a state-of-the-art video studio will be confiscated by the government or we will be allowed to give it all away to a Government approved charity.
What is happening in Canada is outrageous in what used to be a “Christian” country. The cults may flourish and write their literature attacking Christianity but a long-term ministry dedicated to bringing people to faith in Christ in a loving and thoughtful way is not “charitable”!
For more information on our ministry to the cults more information is available on our websites at:
mmmoutreachinc.com (Keith and Lorri MacGregor’s web site)
7 thoughts on “Radio interview with Frank Pastore”
Cheryl,
I listened with great interest to Mr. Pastore’s interview with you on his radio show. I am also appalled that the Canadian Government has decided to take this route with Christian apologetics ministries, and it seems highly inconsistent with one of your own Supreme Court Justices, (McLachlin) who wrote the following in the wake of R. vs. Keegstra, a 1990 case on hate speech:
1) Free speech promotes “The free flow of ideas essential to political democracy and democratic institutions” and limits the ability of the state to subvert other rights and freedoms.
2) It promotes a marketplace of ideas, which includes, but is not limited to, the search for truth.
3) It is intrinsically valuable as part of the self-actualisation of speakers and listeners.
4) It is justified by the dangers for good government of allowing its suppression.
I think that Mr. Pastore is wrong to conclude that the U.S. will soon follow suit in the suppression of Christian organizations who argue their points in the free-marketplace of ideas.
We Yanks are very jealous and protective of our Constitution and the rights it enumerates, and are very aware of the many good men who bled and died so that those rights will neither be abrogated nor abridged.
Sooner or later, landmark decisions over free speech will be handed down here in the U.S., which will affirm that there exists a vast gulf between the free exchange of ideas, and “hate speech”, which harms, and is destructive to individual liberty. I am confident that the American experiment will weather the storm.
I also noticed that Mr. Pastore’s website appears to be closely allied with the right-wing of Christendom here in Southern Cal. One of the links on his site is to the works of David Barton, who holds that the U.S. was founded on the Bible. Barton’s works have been thoroughly debunked as wistful longing for a past that never was.
The architects and thinkers who drafted and revised the U.S. Constitution did so in order to ensure individual liberty apart from any one or particular religious persuasion whatsoever.
I’m going to go on record here, and it may cost me; but so what? I’ve already been ejected from one church for holding egalitarian convictions too, no big deal.
Just as I have vigorously opposed the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama State Courthouse, I will also vigorously oppose any so-called “gay marriage” amendment as a trampling of those rights which are explicitly reserved to the states and local municipalities alone.
“We Yanks are very jealous and protective of our Constitution and the rights it enumerates, and are very aware of the many good men who bled and died so that those rights will neither be abrogated nor abridged.”
Greg, I agree with this except for one thing: Tax exemption. Because of this, churches do have curtail their free speech in politics, etc. I think there will eventually be a showdown over this even though one party seems to get by with it quite a bit.
Churches are exempt from labor laws, unemployment, social security, etc. This is good until you see some of the major abuses that are perpetuated. I saw it all the time, people just fired from church with no insurance, etc. Recently, a female professor of Hebrew was fired from SWBTS because she is a women and the new President did not think women should be teaching men what he thought was theology through the Hebrew language.
She is sueing. His defense is that SWBTS is a church and therefore exempt.
Greg,
I appreciate you comments! I hope you are right in your thought that the US will not follow Canada in limiting free speech. Right now Canada is the most intolerant of free speech when an organization is under their control i.e. Charities. We were told point blank that there is no free speech for us as a charity in Canada. This is where those who speak on the radio are held back. Most ministries are registered charities and if they speak out publicly against homosexuality or a religion such as Islam, etc, they are sanctioned and/or threatened with having their charity status pulled.
Will the US follow Canada in stopping Christians with 501c3 non-profit status from speaking out against false doctrine? One thing we do know is that the US has adopted the exact same new definition of a charitable organization that could be used to disqualify those organizations whose main purpose is to protect the sheep from false doctrine. The ground work is already set up and in the application paperwork unless one is a church with a church building and a congregation or one teaches in a recognized college or university, the process is already in place to disqualify people from having non-profit status. It appears that the US is being lenient right now, but they have everything in place to do to other Christian groups just as Canada has done to us. True, they may not use this new tool, but who knows what the political atmosphere will be like in 5 years. I would not have believed 10 years ago that Canada would be as intolerant as they have become. May God protect the US from this same bias so that God’s servants in the US may continue to preach the gospel without hindrance.
Cheryl and Lin,
Excellent points! I neglected to mention that down here in the lower 48, many Islamic organizations have 501c3 status, and nobody bats an eyelash, even though they advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution, the extermination of Jewry, and the establishment of sharia law.
Take heart, one thing that the American people are very keen on, is the equal application of the law. We take a very dim view of a set of laws that applies to one group, but not to another.
Thanks to the efforts of Christian legal defense organizations, the rights of many home-schoolers, and Christian students have been preserved.
The powers that be will have no easy time taking away one group’s 501c3 status for merely arguing in favor of religious ideas, and yet allow another who advocates the overthrow of the Constitution, to keep their’s.
Cheryl
may the Lord give you and Richard his perfect wisdom and insight.
If he is for you (and he IS!) – WHO can possibly stand against you!
Things like this on the political scene dont happen over night – they creep up slowly while those of us in the Church are often far too busy navel gazing… then bang – a bill goes through and we wonder what’s hit us…
it’s a big challenge for all of us to be active in our faith in the community and in politics where policies go against scripture.
much love
your friend
kerryn
Cheryl, just in case your readers didn’t hear your interview with Frank Pastore, it has been recorded in MP3 and Real Play format by Randall Watters at: http://www.watchtowernews.org/macgregor.htm
Love,
Cynthia Hampton
Cynthia,
Thanks for that outside link to Randy’s site.