Our multicultural, pluralistic society should be celebrated as evidence that people can live together peacefully, acknowledging their differences while getting along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this irenic view of contemporary Canada is marred by a concerted campaign against religion by some that flies in the face of the espoused principles and values that a truly multicultural, pluralistic society holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole point [of pluralism<\/strong>] is to enable groups to “throw up a shield” against the pressure of consensus, and develop and promote alternatives that are rejected by the powerful, or by society as a whole…When people in liberal societies see themselves as out on the vanguard of history…they’re least likely to concede that they might, just might, be making a mistake, and most inclined to feel instead that the thing to do is shatter the shield wall around the remaining bastions of unenlightenment rather than permit them to persist. It’s when a consensus is at its most self-confident, in other words — and therefore most vulnerable to the errors of overconfidence — that the kind of pluralism that might serve as a corrective becomes hardest for that consensus’s exponents to accept.<\/p>Ross Douthat, New York Times opinion column “The Challenge of Pluralism”, March 19, 2014<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Many champions of tolerance have themselves become intolerant of views contrary to their own. They have fallen victim to the old axiom that power corrupts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is ironic because those who in the past were unjustly marginalized should know best the injustice associated with oppression. Yet they have gained power and now themselves are the oppressors of another minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clash of values that has polarized our society is (in my opinion) really a dispute about whether or not anything should be normative in our society. The goal of those with power or influence seems to be to eliminate anything normative for the sake of maximizing personal autonomy. Since all religions have group norms, religion is the focus of their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in theory<\/em>, pluralism offers peace and opportunity for all, while in the contemporary Canadian experience<\/em> it also offers conflict and challenge to religious people. Christians need to respond to both the challenge<\/strong> and the opportunity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n