Religion and city politics an explosive mix
TORONTO, ON—Toronto's downtown wouldn't be what it is today without the "religious and, specifically, Christian influence" of some of its founding fathers, suggests government aide Russ Kuykendall. Writing in Think Different, Kuykendall takes an imaginary stroll along an eight-block stretch of College Street, starting at Yonge Street.
"Timothy Eaton's enterprise and business drive was informed and impelled by his Methodism," he writes. "There would be no YMCA, since this was a cooperative effort of 19th-century Toronto Protestants of various stripes. There might well be no Dundas Street as we know it or Bay Street financial district since the former was paved by James Beaty, a Christian entrepreneur, and 'Bay Street' was built by Ulster Protestants—Presbyterians, Methodists, and Disciples of Christ…
"The City of Toronto, still, enjoys the fruit of generations of contributions made by these people of faith."
Think Different, a collection of essays, subtitled "Urban Religious Communities: Problem Solvers or Trouble Makers?" and a conference with the same name held last November, were created to show the positive and negative roles faith communities play in the life of Canada's urban centres. Cardus, a Hamilton-based think-tank focused on the intersection between public policy and faith, developed both the book and the conference.
"The idea of religion and its institutions as a public good is a tough one for most urban thinkers," writes Cardus president Michael Van Pelt in Think Different's introduction. "Where religion is acknowledged it is often in the form of an obligatory genuflection to multiculturalism; a 'sigh' and an 'if you have to, I guess.' In my experience religion is treated like an unstable social element, the nitroglycerin of social innovation: perfectly stable if left to itself, but be awfully careful how you handle it, if you must."
Cardus aims to change both churches' attitudes towards public policy and politicians' perspective on the need for the churches.
That sort of cultural shift will require a two-way conversation between churches and urban centres, says Cardus research fellow Geoff Ryan. He also pastors The Salvation Army's 614 Regent Park congregation, located in one of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods.
Ryan says the point was brought home during a conversation with a prominent Toronto business leader at a Thanksgiving dinner. The leader, touted as a possible mayoral candidate, asked Ryan why Christians were never involved in the nitty gritty of urban life like zoning or other substantial policy issues such as poverty, racism or even gun control.
"We need to be nuanced, intelligent and engaging with the powers that be—not just hammering them about gay marriage or abortion," says Ryan. "[But] public policy isn't even on our radar screen. We're obsessed with private piety."
But there's hope. Ryan points to the example of an Ajax pastor who, after a meeting with the mayor, decided to get involved in the municipality.
"He went back to school and instead of taking another [Master of Divinity], took a degree in public policy.
"We need to find more folks like that."
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