Rick Hiemstra is director of the Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism (CRCE) and recently wrote an article entitled, “Is the census really an evangelical issue?” as a Guest Blogger for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) – an affiliate ministry of FMCIC.
The census causes marginalized groups to be visible to governments who might otherwise ignore them because they aren’t powerful.
Is the census really an evangelical issue? It depends on how the census question is framed. Right now the government is framing it as an issue of privacy. If you ask me “Are you for privacy?” I’ll say, “Yes, how can you be against privacy? It’s like being against motherhood.”
There is a lot of heated talk about the census asking how many bathrooms you have in your house. It doesn’t; it never did. Here are links to the census long forms for 2001 and 2006. These questions are very important so we should be on the same page about what is and isn’t being asked. This is a big form. Some of the questions could easily be construed as intrusive. So why might anyone advocate for the government to continue to collect this kind information, if not exactly the same information?
