FAITH & CULTURE 12 APRIL 2026 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition In recent weeks, Canada’s House of Commons has advanced Bill C-9, the federal Combatting Hate Act. The goal of combatting hatred, at first glance, is quite uncontroversial. No reasonable person and certainly no gospel-minded Christian supports hatred in any form. Indeed, God has granted human governments a legitimate role in restraining the effects of hatred, such as intimidation, harassment, or violence against vulnerable communities. But beneath the surface of this legislation lies a deeper development that should concern not only Canadians but citizens across the Western world. At issue is not the punishment of genuinely hateful acts but the redefinition of what counts as “hate.” When hate is redefined along secular ideological lines, you can rest assured that religious exercise will soon be restricted. What is religious liberty? Consider that the United States Constitution defines religious liberty as the free exercise of religion. That word, exercise, is decisive. A proper understanding of religious liberty isn’t confined to private beliefs or inward sentiments. It extends to public life: to speech, to action, to the ordering of one’s life in accordance with one’s convictions. Religion, by its very nature, cannot be contained. It radiates outward into every dimension of human existence. For that reason, religious liberty has long been recognized as a foundational freedom. America’s founders were affirming that human beings are not merely subjects of the state, but moral agents accountable to a higher authority. They were protecting the right to live openly and faithfully according to one’s deepest convictions. When that freedom is narrowed, even subtly, the effects are far-reaching. Canada’s current legislation introduces several provisions that appear, at first glance, to be straightforward protections against harm. It addresses intimidation near places of worship, establishes new hate-based offenses, and seeks to curb the public display of certain hate symbols. These measures are presented as necessary responses to a rise in hate crimes. Yet the most consequential feature of the legislation is less visible. It removes a longstanding legal safeguard that protected individuals who expressed religious views in good faith, particularly views grounded in sacred texts or longstanding doctrinal traditions. In practical terms, the law once acknowledged that religious speech — even when controversial — deserved a distinct layer of protection. As Canadian Christians are pointing out, that protection is now being endangered at some level. Disagreement or hatred? The question is not whether the law explicitly targets Christians. It does not. The question is how the law will function within the cultural environment in which it operates. Supporters of the legislation insist that it does not criminalize religion but only prohibits the willful promotion of hatred. This assurance, however, leaves unresolved the central issue: who decides what constitutes hatred? In a cultural moment in which traditional Christian teachings on sexuality, gender and human identity are increasingly regarded as harmful, the answer is not reassuring. Disagreement is often recast as hate and harm. Moral conviction is interpreted as exclusion. To articulate a historic Christian understanding of marriage or human identity is no longer received as a theological claim, but as a form of social injury. Once that shift occurs, the distinction between disagreement and hate begins to erode. And when that distinction erodes, the space for religious liberty narrows accordingly. Reshaping behavior This development is not confined to Canada. Across much of the Western world, the cultural status of Christianity has changed dramatically. Where Christians were once regarded as part of a moral majority, they are now increasingly viewed as an immoral minority. Their beliefs are not merely contested; they are often treated as harmful. In such a climate, legal changes that expand the definition of hate while removing protections for religious expression do not operate neutrally. They operate within a framework that already regards orthodox Christian belief with suspicion. The result is not necessarily immediate prosecution, but something more subtle and, in some ways, more pervasive. The more permanent result is the chilling effect on free speech and expression on the whole of society. Pastors begin to weigh their words more carefully. Educators hesitate to speak with clarity. Ordinary believers grow cautious about expressing their convictions in public. The law reshapes behavior not only through enforcement, but through uncertainty. At a deeper level, what is emerging is not merely a set of legal adjustments, but a shift in moral authority. Every society operates with an underlying vision of truth and the good. The question is not whether such a vision exists, but whether it allows for meaningful dissent. In many Western contexts, a new moral orthodoxy has taken shape. It presents itself as neutral and secular, but functions with its own set of doctrines and boundaries. Within this framework, traditional Christian beliefs are not simply alternative viewpoints. They are increasingly treated as violations. When a society begins to treat certain beliefs as violations, it inevitably begins to regulate them. Canada’s trajectory should not be dismissed as an isolated case. Cultural and legal developments rarely remain confined within national borders and this development could have a ripple effect in the United States. In past decades, we have already seen efforts to confine religion to the private sphere, in the redefinition of moral disagreement as harm, and in the elevation of certain rights claims without adequate mechanisms for balancing competing freedoms. None of this is to deny that genuine hatred exists or that it should be restrained. A just society must protect its citizens from violence, intimidation and direct incitement to harm. But a just society must also preserve the distinction between hatred and disagreement. Without that distinction, freedom cannot endure. A dangerous trajectory The challenge before us is to sustain a social order in which deeply held differences can coexist without coercion. Religious liberty is essential to that order because it protects not only Christians, but people of all faiths and those of none. It ensures that no single moral vision is imposed upon the entire society by force. Canada’s legislation may not announce itself as a direct assault on Christianity. Yet in its redefinition of hate and its removal of religious safeguards, it signals a trajectory that places orthodox Christian belief in an increasingly precarious position. That is why this moment matters. It illustrates how such restriction begins. It begins with subtle shifts in language, with incremental legal changes and with growing cultural hostility toward dissenting views. Over time, those shifts accumulate. This development in Canada, therefore, offers a warning that should not be ignored. It is a reminder that religious liberty is not self-sustaining. It must be understood, articulated and defended. If it is reduced to private belief or recast as a cover for harm, it will not long survive. The question is whether we will recognize the warning while there is still time to respond. Rob Pacienza is the Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the CEO and President of Coral Ridge Ministries, and the Founder of the Institute for Faith and Culture. - Dr. Rob Pacienza - Senior Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Canada’s New Hate Law and the Future of Religious Liberty
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