By Lloyd Mackey

Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College, is characterized as a "Christian nationalist" in The Armageddon Factor. Photo: canadachristiancollege.com.

But in her first post-release interviews, given after the book was launched May 11, McDonald softened her stance, pointing out that she has no intention of "demonizing" right-leaning Christians.

Pressed to say as much as she wanted about her faith, she told CC.com that she is, indeed, a Christian.

However, she emphasized, "I am not a polemicist . . . but a reporter. I am not an atheist. I believe that faith is a strong motivator for some of the finest actions in public life."

McDonald said she sees herself as a "centrist" politically, and acknowledged that there "might be some issues" espoused by the religious right, with which "I would agree."

She described her own pilgrimage as one where she was "raised from a young age to have an abhorrence of intolerance. I am a Christian who lost my faith for some years, and came back to it."

She said that, to her, the Christian message always included tolerance. This, she maintained, fits with mainstream society in this country. Canada, she said, has attained an exemplary level "of tolerance, moderation and inclusion. Our population is very diverse."

McDonald attends worship in a mainstream denominational setting, and said she finds many other ways to develop and maintain her spiritual life and awareness.

Her new book has been described by some pundits as "an explosive" expose of the growth of "Christian nationalism" in the Canadian political setting.

Particularly, The Armageddon Factor presents such faces as 4MyCanada's Faytene Kryskow, Canada Christian College's Charles McVety and the National House of Prayer's Rob and Fran Parker as examples of Canadians who have, in her view, a powerful underlying influence on Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government.

Quieter and seemingly more moderate influences presented by McDonald include such as Brian Stiller, recently-retired Tyndale University College and Seminary president; Trinity Western University's Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa; and Preston Manning's Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

McDonald's thesis is that some of what she suggests are the more radical influences come from a concept of "dominionism." That term grows out of Psalm 72:8, which states: "And he shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."

Because that psalm is carved into the stone of the Peace Tower in Ottawa, some Christians, McDonald suggests, believe it is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy directly applicable to contemporary Canada.

Continue article >>

Interviewed by Wendy Mesley on CBC's The National May 11, McDonald suggested the ultimate meaning of dominionist and similar concepts was that "it means governed only by born-again Christians, according to biblical precepts. And it is a very small subset of this larger conservative Christian movement. But they have a lot of power, and they are very noisy and very well organized."

She added: "I think having a secular Canada where all faiths have a place -- and feel comfortable and welcome -- is what most Canadians still want."

While McDonald's book is being promoted as "connecting the dots" between dominionist and other similar movements and the present Canadian government, she was careful to suggest that Harper knows how not to capitulate to those influences.

Former Harper advisor Tom Flanagan, she told CC.com, "has always said Harper wants to govern from the centre -- and is not by nature prone to radical political moves. He is an incrementalist."

This government, she said, "has a great deal of listening capacity," adding that this capacity extends across the political spectrum. Specifically with respect to social conservatives, she suggested that group "reaches across ethnic lines."

The current situation, however, is that the stimulus spending and other seeming departures from conservative fiscal and economic policies has disconnected the government from some of its economic conservative base. That means, she maintained, that Harper must be seen to be listening to the social conservatives -- by doing things like reducing gay-lesbian event grants.

McDonald said she became involved in writing The Armageddon Factor, a 420-page tome, as a result of an article she wrote in 2006 on the same subject. Many told her Canada would not be fertile ground for an American-style religious right movement.

The emergence of McVety and, more recently, Kryskow, persuaded her that there is, perhaps, more fertility than any might have guessed four years ago.

Her book combines strong reportage with a dramatic flair for story-telling, particularly in her recounting of Kryskow's life story and penetration into the Ottawa political community.

While some critics have contended that there may be a number of factual errors in the book, a 35-page "source notes" appendix outlines where her material came from. That appendix may do well in protecting the author from suggestions that she stinted on research.

McDonald has been a winner of several major journalism awards, and was a former bureau chief in Paris and Washington. She has interviewed three American presidents; and she was a senior writer for US News and World Report.

May 13/2010