Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, addressed matters of faith and politics in an exclusive interview with BCCN associate editor Jim Coggins.

BCCN:  You have been identified as a Christian politician. You go to church, you preach sermons and so on.

EM:  I guess some people think that is a bad thing, but I am a practicing Christian, I am an Anglican. That has been a really central part of my life since I was a child. I have been a Sunday school teacher since I was confirmed. It is important to me to contribute time to my church community, and my faith is very important to me. Of course, the Green Party is not a party that takes any particular religious view . . .

BCCN :  What are the most important Christian influences in your life?

EM : I am very influenced by C.S. Lewis – and Fr. Thomas Berry, who originated the notion of Creation Theology.

In the 1960s, it became fashionable to say that the Judeo-Christian tradition and the early chapters of Genesis contributed to some kind of disrespectful relationship between humanity and the natural world. Some very prominent theologians, in particular Berry, made the point that no, that is a misinterpretation of scripture. Our role as humanity was clearly set out to be stewards of creation . . . It is entirely our responsibility as Christians to respect the natural world . . .

The lessons from the New Testament, I find enormously inspiring. When you live in one of the world’s most wealthy nations and you look around the world and you realize the inequities, it certainly comes to me quite often that Jesus Christ invoked us: “That which you do to the least of my brethren you do unto me.” It makes me wonder how we can live our comfortable lives and ignore the suffering of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa . . .

One of the few political people who wrote in religious terms in Canada, and who was a great inspiration to me, was Dalton Camp. He wrote a column in the Toronto Star once that really stayed with me. He said: “We are a nation that claims to believe in God, but worships Mammon.”

BCCN:  How do you relate to other politicians? Does being a Christian make a difference?

EM:  It does. I try to find something in everybody I meet that I can love, that I can relate to, which we will have in common. I will fight very hard, and I will put forward views very clearly and unequivocally around issues, but I will not let it degenerate into personal attacks . . .

BCCN: Prime Minister Harper is also known as a committed Christian. How do you relate to him?

Continue article >>

EM:  When I have met with him, what we have found in common is that we are both very dedicated parents. In personal discussions, we have managed to stick to that pretty well. I have tried to link for him the legacy for future generations around issues like climate . . .

BCCN:  You have recently been in the news because of a statement you made about Stephen Harper’s environment policy being a worse appeasement than Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis. How does that fit in with what you just said about trying not to use personal attacks?

EM: What I did was quote George Monbiot, a British journalist Heat . . . There is no question what Mr. Harper has done. It is not a question of personal ethics or his behaviour or who he is as a person, but what he has done as the prime minister of a country that has signed and ratified a legally binding commitment which is the only treaty in existence that will act to protect us from a quite dangerous future for our children and their children due to the climate crisis.

I found what Mr. Monbiot said to be significant. I shared that quote that he had said about Mr. Harper’s policies and Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Howard’s of Australia, as a collection of politicians who have chosen to ignore the clear and present danger of the climate crisis.

In his view, this was an appeasement that was more culpable than that of Neville Chamberlain. I cited it, and I have no apologies for citing it, for pointing out to Canadians how much disrepute our country will be in, how deeply our friends around the world will regret that Canada has shifted from being a country that exhibited moral leadership to one that is in a category of having reckless disregard for our future . . .

BCCN:  You have in some cases been accused of believing in ‘earthism’ – that you worship the earth rather than the Creator.

EM:  Oh no, that is silly. If people want to accuse me of paganism, they can, but it is completely off base.

As I have mentioned, I have been a practicing Christian, and I am pretty clear in my theology. In fact, I have studied theology as a part-time effort. I am interested, in the long term, in becoming ordained as an Anglican priest, so I am certainly not a pagan.

But if you want to talk about what is sacred, this is a world created by our Creator, and if you as a Christian embrace Genesis, then you are aware of course that at every stage in the creation story God pauses at the end of the day to say that it is good.

That is an affirmation, and we have no right as human beings to destroy that with which we have been entrusted . . .

We’re the only species capable of designing our own demise, and we’re the only species capable of accepting our responsibility of behaving appropriately and ensuring that life continues on this planet for us and the 10 million other species with whom we share this sacred orb.

June 2007