Jonathan Kay on Charles McVety, Gay Pride, nudity, and anti-Christian censorship

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Jonathan Kay on Charles McVety, Gay Pride, nudity, and anti-Christian censorship

(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)

Media - Homosexuality

Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/antichristian-censorship

As Charles Lewis reported in Friday’s National Post:

Christian broadcaster Crossroads Television System (CTS) has been found in violation of broadcasting codes for statements made by evangelical television personality and minister Charles McVety that implied there was a “malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial purpose” to the activities of homosexuals. Rev. McVety said he was told Thursday by CTS that his show, Word TV, would be temporarily pulled from the air … The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a self-regulated industry watchdog, said that Rev. McVety disparaged gays in episodes that ran between July 2009 and February 2010 when commenting on Toronto’s massive gay pride parade and a revised Ontario sex curriculum for grade schools. It said Rev. McVety violated sections of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters code of ethics, particularly the clause that calls for “full, fair and proper representation.” Rev. McVety has been known for expressing controversial remarks that reflect his conservative and evangelical views. He is also the most quoted evangelical in Canada and has modelled his ministries on more aggressive American counterparts. On air he expressed opposition to the use of taxpayer money to fund the pride parade, questioned whether it really brought tourists to the region and called it a “sex parade.” “One reason is because this [parade] is a criminal activity, to parade down the streets in the nude,” Rev. McVety said on Word TV. “There is the Criminal Code of Canada that says you can’t do that. It’s an abuse of public space, it’s abuse of our children.”

Let’s put aside McVety’s anti-gay activism for a moment. (He’s an evangelical Christian, and no one should be particularly surprised that he takes a dim view of a lifestyle that the Bible says goes against God’s will.) Is he really off base to say that “This [parade] is a criminal activity, to parade down the streets in the nude”?

I happened to be at this year’s Pride parade in Toronto — covering the event for this newspaper. As you can see from some of the photos I took, McVety is perfectly correct that some of the people in attendance were completely nude. You can also see, from my photos, that some of the people in attendance at the parade are small children.

What does the the Criminal Code say about this?

Section 174 tells us:

(1) Every one who, without lawful excuse,
(a) is nude in a public place, or
(b) is nude and exposed to public view while on private property, whether or not the property is his own, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction;
(2) For the purposes of this section, a person is nude who is so clad as to offend against public decency or order.
(3) No proceedings shall be commenced under this section without the consent of the Attorney General.

If McVety is correct that the Toronto Pride parade contains “criminal activity” — and I think he has Section 174 on his side — then it seems odd to censure his comments, even if you don’t happen to like his general outlook on homosexuality. What we effectively have here is a religious Christian being driven off the air for doing little more than appealing to the provisions of our Criminal Code — not the Bible. He’s not even calling for the gays in question to be arrested. He’s just saying that we shouldn’t subsidize their event with taxpayer funds. When did that sort of speech become illegal?

Of course, it could be argued that being nude at Gay Pride doesn’t offend “public decency” — even though it would offend public decency under normal circumstances. (I, for one, wasn’t particularly offended — but that’s just urban, metro-sexual me.) But isn’t the definition of public decency the sort of thing that reasonable people can disagree about, and debate — even if they are (gasp!) religious Christians?

Canadian human rights commissions have come in for a lot of flak in recent years, largely thanks to Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, who have pointed out that the people running them have neither respect for, nor knowledge about, Canada’s free-speech tradition. In this case, Canadian Broadcast Standards Council seems to be answering to the same description. Why, one wonders, is CTS rolling over in response to their verdict? And why aren’t the rest of us making a bigger deal about this threat to free speech?

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 December 2010 21:47

Comments

0 #5 Ken_M 2011-06-24 09:03

I get sick of all of the misinformation around this issue. McVety was never censored and he wasn't pulled off the air by the CBSC. The CBSC censured him, little more than a slap on the wrist, for not conforming to the standards that he agreed to follow.

He was censured because he used misstatements and outright lies to support his twisted viewpoint. And when he was called on this, he used misstatements and outright lies to defend his actions.

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0 #4 H.Bart Vincelette 2011-06-09 12:59

Charles McVety; like most conservative Christian leaders across the continent; Has gone far beyond religious opposition to homosexuals based on verses from the Bible. They have consistently used lies, slander, defamation & innuendo. This is thoroughly documented by myself & others. An example for the uninformed, is the problem of child sexual abuse.The vast majority of pedophiles & sexual predators are heterosexual.This is from the RCMP, the FBI, Interpol, & Scotland Yard(UK).The consequences of their unseemly & unethical actions are endemic violence, bloodshed, & murders.Homosexuality is about who one falls in love with, rather than specific sex acts, & is innate.LGBT citizens are amongst the most tolerant people in western society. There could easily be 10 times the number of lawsuits, which would stand up in any courtroom abiding by principles of constitutional liberty & justice.

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-2 #3 Gary 2011-02-24 06:26

I took a stance and quit my employment with BMO Nesbitt Burns because they started a BMO-PRIDE dept. in 2008 that exclude all other employees. BMo has a kids Charity and yet endorses and enables child-abuse by funding the naked TNT males exposing themselves to kids in public. Cheri Dinovo confirmed this nudity by men is a Crime already as she defended the trans males using female washrooms.
The HRTO has now denied my Complaint as valid for the harm to my right to employment free of being complicit in child-abuse or Crimes against children.
Barbara Hall is tight with BMO and PRIDE as I saw in many Fund-raising Pictures for BMO and PRIDE. no wonder the HRC sided with the Bank's right to endorse child-abuse and enable naked men to flash their penis a little girls and boys

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+1 #2 Gigi 2011-02-08 07:49

McVety's show wasn't pulled from the airwaves for saying that the Pride parade in Toronto was a "criminal activity" because of isolated instances of public nudity. He also called it a "sex parade" and said that gay events in general were "malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial." If I had a television show in Canada and made comparable remarks disparaging Christians I would be cancelled as well. And the Christians would be cluck, cluck, clucking with glee!

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