United church minister battles sign maker over PC messages

It's a sad day when a signmaker knows more about Christian doctrine than a 'minister' at a major church. According to the Toronto Star,  Rev. Alexa Gilmour, minister of Windermere United Church, went crying to the Ontario Human Rights Commission over Archer Mobile Signs' refusal to post messages.

According to the complaint, the sign company refused to post:

1. a message encouraging people to “wish your Muslim neighbours a Ramadan Mubarak (Happy Ramadan)” 
2. a message promoting the celebration of diversity during Pride Week.

There are plenty of cases in which gay people have taken Christian bakeries to court over a refusal to put messages on cakes. (Oddly enough, gay activists don't try this sort of thing very often at Muslim  bakeries).

At least in those cases there is a prima facie claim that the customer whose order was refused suffered some sort of humiliation or distress. This is one of the first cases I have seen where someone who does not identify as gay is claiming some sort of discrimination.

“Interfaith dialogue and action is a central part of my faith and ministry,” Gilmour told the Star. “If Windermere United cannot post the messages we choose, then we cannot do the ministry we feel called by God to do.”

Apparently the idea of finding a new sign company never occurred to the good Reverend. Again, this is not a case where she suffered some form of harm as a result of identifying as a member of a given group. The mature and financially responsible option (for taxpayers) would be to simply find a new signmaker. Any contract between the two could be abrogated by mutual agreement.

“It’s not acceptable for a service provider to limit the way I express my Christian ministry,” she said. “I’m taking this step only because many attempts to resolve this issue through dialogue or mediation have failed.”

I rather doubt that. Running to a Human Rights Commission is a form of virtue signalling to various communities.

The really embarrassing part is that the Reverend was schooled on Christian doctrine. According to the sign-maker:

“...I do not see any support in the scriptures to encourage anyone in a false ideology, Islam or otherwise, I must refrain from posting your spiritual exercise. For me, this would be a sin.”

In fact, the Reverend could use a bit more time in Bible study and a little bit less time urging Christians to respect a competing religion:

Umm, Reverend. Jesus (assuming for the sake of the argument that he existed) was not a refugee. His parents were traveling to register themselves for tax purposes.

With leaders like these, it is no wonder that Christianity is drifting into irrelevance. The United Church of Canada is dying out, like many other liberal churches. Here's an example of some of the lugubrious soul-searching taking place at that church. Meanwhile, conservative churches in Canada are growing.