You would think that someone who has spent as many years in public service and politics as Ric McIver, aka ‘Dr.No’ when he was on city council, would have acquired a sense of what endeavours to support and which ones to stay away from. Naiveté can be forgiven in a political rookie – they all have to step in it a few times in order to learn how to navigate the political meadow – but McIver is no rookie. He has been around a while.
So when he lent his public support/endorsement to the rather infamous street preacher, Artur Pawlowski, and his March for Jesus this past Fathers’ Day, did he not realize what he was stepping into? One need only have listened to one of Pawlowski’s rather loud street sermons or, gee, check his website to realize that, while Pawlowski’s ministry is a street ministry and he is concerned about poverty and the disenfranchised, he also holds odd views towards homosexuality and our advancements in equality rights.
This, for those of us who have dealt with evangelical and conservative ‘born again’ type Christians, is not surprising. While one can applaud, even support, the good works such individuals and groups undertake there is also that seemingly ever-present undertow of anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
Pawlowski came to public attention not just for ministering to the homeless and street addicts, which he felt called to do, but also for his use of loud speakers and megaphones to broadcast his sermons to the people who showed up at his Feed The Homeless events. Very loud speakers and megaphones. Loud enough that he could be clearly heard all the way to Bridgeland when he was preaching in the park next to the Calgary Drop-In Centre.
This has been going on for years. When I was the Regional Co-Director for Egale Canada I received a call from an individual who lived in Bridgeland complaining not just about the noise factor, which was a concern, but the content of Pawlowski’s preaching. Even back then, in 2005/2006, he was vehemently preaching against homosexuality.
Pawlowski ‘found Jesus’ after his son was, in his view, miraculously cured of a life-threatening illness. In his preaching he bears witness to this, and uses it to illustrate God’s love for all, even those who are on the down-and-out. He is doing what the Bible says Jesus did and, if one holds to Scripture, what all Christians are called to do. Unfortunately, such good work is too often sullied by condemnation of a whole segment of society – namely the LGBTQ community. Pawlowski has even gone so far as to describe the annual Pride Parade as a celebration of Satan.
He describes Pride as a parade of "people of wrong sexual preferences"; that it is something which "openly proclaim[s] and manifest[s] that they are not ashamed to declare the name of their master, Satan" and are "not concerned with provoking greatly the wrath of the Living God". He goes on to state that the devastating flood that hit Calgary last summer was some sort of divine retribution, that is was Jesus "weeping for the perversions of homosexuality which includes the walking out the pride of their abominations in the streets of our cities."
That is pretty heavy-duty stuff, and while Pawlowski is free to believe such crap, having a provincial MLA and former city council member such as McIver participate in an event specifically designed as a counter-measure reaction to the Pride parade is a whole other matter. That McIver has participated in the March for Jesus – an international event originally meant to create visibility for what the founders thought to be a too-invisible church – for the last four years, one can’t help but wonder if in all that time did he not once hear anything that would send up some red flags for him. He maintains he never did.
It’s not just the march in which he involved himself. He also produced a video when he was Minister of Infrastructure promoting a documentary the Street Church Ministry made about itself, attended the premiere of that film, and co-introduced it at that premiere.
McIver claims he viewed the annual March for Jesus as a celebration and an affirmation of his own faith. There is nothing wrong in that. After all, those who attend Pride are likewise celebrating and reaffirming their beliefs and self-identity. In that sense, the March for Jesus is little different than the annual Stations of the Cross march the Roman Catholic Diocese conducts each year on Good Friday. The issue is the strong anti-gay message Pawlowski has interjected into the event.
McIver spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to distance himself from Pawlowski after the fact. I have no doubt the man had many an oh shit moment. McIver had ambitions to become the provincial Progressive Conservative’s next leader and, perhaps, premier.
He issued a statement a week after his participation calling the March for Jesus website’s anti-gay message disgusting, ugly, nasty and mean-spirited, and then apologized for "calling attention" to the website. Calling attention to such nastiness to deem it as such would have been a good thing; but the high-profile politician supported something he should have known not to support.
Putting the shoe on the other foot, the same sort of arguments now being tossed McIver’s way could be tossed towards those politicians who participate in this city’s, or any other, Pride celebrations; and they have been. The difference is that one is a celebration of a population which, for too long, was criminalized, persecuted, dismissed, and denied basic civil and human rights, while the other feeds into the hate of that same group.
The annual Pride parade is a celebration of ourselves. The origins go back to the 1969 Stonewall Riots when homosexuals rioted for three days against the New York City Police Department’s ongoing campaign of raiding gay bars and arresting homosexuals. The Stonewall Riots have come to be seen as the birth of the modern gay movement, although Pride celebrations have long since dropped the political overtones the early marches had and now focus more on the celebratory aspects of being LGBTQ. In that, I see Pride as little different than Caribfest, for example, and nobody freaks out over that!
When asked, McIver said he would "consider" attending Calgary’s Pride Parade, schedule permitting. He did attend the ARGRA rodeo.
Politicians of all stripes like to use various events to reinforce their connection with the people, to be seen supporting the diversity of the electorate they represent. Nobody wants our political leaders to ensconce themselves in some ivory tower and not mix with the common folk. But diversity, like democracy, is messy.
If a politician innocently – and perhaps naively – lends his support to a group he thinks is doing good work, and then has it revealed that there is another agenda at work, it affects their credibility. The key is to do the research, something McIver now admits he didn’t do, and appears foolish and disingenuous for.
As a politician with leadership aspirations, McIver, as well as his advisors, failed. Damage control is one thing. The damage itself is quite another. One incident can derail an otherwise pretty decent political career. McIver may learn this the hard way.
