Church Contract Terminated Over “Hate Speech” Allegation

After more than a year of meeting in a municipal building in Toronto, Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries (CFM) was recently sent a termination notice informing them that they could no longer meet in the facility—effective immediately (LifeSiteNews, November 21, 2019). The e-mail from the building’s manager explained that CFM was “in violation of the City’s Hate Activity policy.” The notice also informed the church that they could no longer book meeting space in any city-run facility.

The pastor of CFM has a history of provocative action in Toronto, but it would be hard to call such action “hateful.” Yet, society is rapidly moving in a direction where truths of the Bible and biblical morality are automatically attacked for being offensive and are viewed as “hate speech”—even if they are spoken in love. While Psalm 52 concerns a specific situation in the life of King David, it also speaks of the evil inherent in the heart of mankind under the sway of Satan: “You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness” (Psalm 52:3). Sadly, this condition is increasingly visible in our anti-Christian societies today, and it resembles attitudes that the prophet Isaiah foretold would appear in Israelite nations in the last days, when people would say, “Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:10).

What many do not realize today is that there is an evil force in the world, Satan the devil, who is referred to in Scripture as a liar (John 8:44) and “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and who has deceived the world into believing that the Bible is full of hate speech (Revelation 12:9)—a lie that prevents humanity from seeing the benefits of God’s loving and abundant way of life (John 10:10; 14:6). To learn more about what the future holds for mankind, read or listen to The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?