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# Babylon or Canada?
- URL: https://matthew-d-burkholder.ghost.io/babylon-or-canada/
- Published: 2021-12-17T15:57:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T19:42:37.000Z
- Author: Matthew D. Burkholder
- Tags: Theology, conversion therapy, #Migrated-1787946130805, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-28 15:42

On a drive to Toronto the other day, I noticed on a Hamilton city bus the words "Merry Christmas" scrolling across its digital sign. While waiting for the GO Train, I assisted two women who were wearing lanyards with the words "I love Jesus" written on them. I then sat on the public subway and looked up to see an ad for a Bible society with a large Bible verse printed on it. I then walked into an evangelical theological institution, an institution I am currently receiving government-funded grants to study at, and worked with students, pastors, and people from all over the world to learn about Christian theology. On the drive home, I was struck by how much freedom I have in this country. Freedom to see things that represent my faith in public spaces, freedom to study theology, and freedom to discuss religious beliefs without any fear of censure or harm.

I read an interesting Facebook post the other day by a well-respected pastor that suggested a different Canadian experience. Or at least, a perception of Canada that is moving towards the erosion of those freedoms. It contained the concerns about our culture's alleged descent into a secular "religion" that I have come to expect from evangelical leaders. Thankfully, it avoided the typical sabre-rattling rhetoric that these posts tend to employ and was well-intentioned and reasoned.

The shape of the argument was this. We were once a culture with values inspired by Judeo-Christianity. As our culture changed and added new values, the aim was to move towards a pluralistic society. One evidence of this? The removal of prayers in school-something many in society (including the author) accepted under the terms of a free society. However, with recent changes to the criminal code outlawing conversion therapy, among other things, the evidence now points to a culture that is moving towards ***coerced*** secularism. Our Judeo-Christian values, and religious values in general, are under attack and ["pluralism is dead and along with it the freedom of religion."](https://www.facebook.com/tdugard/posts/10158353550731937)

It was one of his concluding statements that gave me pause: "Christians, we are living in Babylon." Presumably, according to this author, Christians are now living in a foreign land. Hearing this comparison, I would think we have been captured and separated from that which gives us our identity. Living in Babylon, we are separated from our people. Our homes are gone. Our language is discouraged. To be in Babylon is to be in exile. To be forced to live in an unrecognizable country. To be *different*.

I understand the rhetorical strategy at play. Turning to Scripture is second nature as we try to articulate our perception of ourselves and the world. But are we like the Jewish people, the 'historically insignificant', once-enslaved people, suffering under the occupation of a powerful nation? There *are* people in this country who can relate to being exiled. Canada is still trying to come to grips with the horrors of Residential Schools and the colonial destruction our ~~Judeo-Christian~~ European values unleashed on indigenous populations. And of course, if persecution against *evangelical* Christianity is indeed coming, we must extend the same kind of protection every multicultural society is supposed to be grounded in.

But there is an almost greater imperception about ourselves when we sound these alarm bells. Right now, a generation is wrestling with the harms of evangelical purity culture, growing suspicious of mega-churches and highly-produced worship, dealing with anger over the moral hypocrisy of celebrity leaders, wondering how one can read the gospels and think our most important mission is to fight against homosexuality or abortion, grieving over the political take-over of our faith, and coming to grips with how certain views of marriage, sexuality, leadership, women, gender-roles, evangelism, war, drugs, minorities, truth, doubt and even art has caused significant harm. And all from the multi-million dollar, tax-free temples, we constructed to the glory of our own brands.

Maybe we have become so accustomed to our us vs. them mentality, that an elevation of the "other's" dignity becomes a threat to the power structures we have so carefully constructed to keep them at bay. Maybe freedom is not what is under threat, but our *control* over the very people we are called to love. A group, which has historically been marginalized to a shocking extent, is asking *not* to experience coercion because of their identity. Perhaps now is the time to ask why that upsets us.

The answer might just be-because *we* are Babylon.