“Defender of the Faith” to be Dropped
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/11/19
As noted by John Paul Tasker in CBC News, the status of the Church, particularly the Christian Church, in Canada has been a long history of privilege over other sectors of society, other religions, and non-religions. Those come with benefits to Christians, generally speaking, and costs to everyone else.
As Christianity has continued its decline, we have seen a carving back of the overextensions of religious belief and practice into religious privilege more into equality. One of those is more symbolic, but an important footnote to the conversation around religion in Canada.
King Charles had the title of Defender of the Faith for about a century. However, there is a push to change the identity of the head of state, especially because of the lack of established church. We have a declining Christian population, rising non-religious population, and no established church.
So, the title of Defender of the Faith seems both practically absurd and symbolically unequal. The Trudeau government has indicated, according to Tasker, a disinterest in the continuation of the King of England’s religious role in Canada.
Tasker said, “The ‘defender of the faith’ title dates back to the Tudor period in the 16th century and refers to the monarch’s unique position as the “supreme governor” of the Church of England — the state religion established after King Henry VIII pulled English churches from papal control.”
I didn’t know this, but, apparently, the King becomes a sovereign religious figure in the Westminster parliamentary democratic system with sacred duties. It’s laughable. No less an ass-colonizer Christian nation at its foundation as Canada could conceive of such a position.
It’s important to note the still-existing symbolic representation of a deity in the Charter of Rights of Freedoms in the Preambular clause with the recognition of the sovereignty of “God.” Whose god? Why one, not many? What definition of a god? And so on, it’s simple prejudice shoved in for Christian appeasement.
Tasker opines that there is a push to show the relevance of the King or the monarchy, probably more generally, to the Canadian public. The reference to the United Kingdom is being dropped, too, by the way.
There must be a push in other countries within the commonwealth, so as to modernize and make consistent the standards of reference for the contemporary period.
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