PRAIRIE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY AND "ANTI-GAY" ALLEGATIONS

Prairie Christian Academy and "anti-gay" allegations

“Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch fire?”  Proverbs 6:27

            In the late 1930s, Fergus Kirk, co-founder of Prairie Bible Institute (PBI) at Three Hills, Alberta, Canada, pulled his sons from the local public school in opposition to the nature of certain literature considered required reading.  For his insurrection, Mr. Kirk spent a few days cooling his heels in jail presumably on charges of some form of parental-approved truancy.

            Against this background, Prairie High School – from which I graduated forty years ago next month – was formed. The school, now known as Prairie Christian Academy (PCA) and operated under the Golden Hills School Division, initially functioned without government accreditation. When provincial endorsement was eventually acquired, the ideological orientation in Alberta was significantly different from that which prevails in Alberta today.

             For one thing, the premier at the time was a lay preacher, William Aberhart, who had established a fundamentalist Bible school in Calgary known as the Prophetic Bible Institute (PrBI). Aberhart’s successor, Ernest C. Manning, had studied at PrBI and regularly preached on the Alberta radio airwaves.  It was not uncommon in those days, for someone directly associated with PBI – a graduate of the school, in one instance - to serve as MLA for the Three Hills area. In brief, the conventional wisdom that governed the public square within Wild Rose Country during the 1940s was decidedly different than that which prevails in the 21^st century.

            Such came to mind recently when stories of “anti-gay” Christian schools like PCA and Calgary’s Heritage Christian School (HCS) garnered front-page headlines about government funding being awarded private schools perceived to be at odds with Alberta human rights legislation. PCA, for instance, reportedly received seven million dollars to modernize its facility.

            This scenario involves nuanced matters that cannot be adequately addressed here. That fundamentalist Christians are also taxpayers is but one of many relevant issues in the discussion. Nevertheless, one pertinent point crosses my mind as I observe the debate unfold.

            As the Fergus Kirk anecdote suggests, one doesn’t need advanced training in neuro-science to grasp that conflict between the standards of Christ-followers and those of the political-corporate world(s) is inevitable. If, as schools like PCA and HCS maintain, they’re primarily committed to “truth” as they perceive it, it’s incumbent on their decision-makers to seriously consider that, last time I checked, truth is not driving the bus when it comes to the political and corporate sectors. Power and profits dominate therein and whatever ethical or ideological compromises need to be made to attain and retain such is merely the price of “doing business.”

            When I thus read the spokesperson for the Palliser School District (to which HCS belongs) declare that the offending statements regarding sexual behavior had been removed from HCS’s website, I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief. That’s because, as I know and you know, simply removing such from the web is irrelevant to the fact that those lifestyle expectations will remain in force at HCS. My point is not whether or not places like PCA and HCS are entitled to believe and require whatever it is they believe and require; the issue at stake here is that Truth requires far more than merely rearranging window dressing. 

            The Bible verse noted above – which I’ve lifted from its strictest context because I firmly believe that money/materialism represent the immorality-of-choice in the North American religious world – is most instructive here. Hop into bed with any government or corporate entity these days and you will indeed pay a price - the magnitude of which cannot be calculated by QuickBooks.