David Blaikie - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by David Blaikie
Required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. Wron... more Required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. Wrongful dismissal, potential liability for the actions of employees or volunteers, a parishioner slipping on icy church steps... these are just some of the legal issues that should be of concern to every Christian church and parish community in Canada. Recognizing that most people working in the church need guidance when confronting church-related legal issues, lawyers (and long-term church members) David Blaikie and Diana Ginn have assembled a comprehensive legal overview, coupled with practical advice, that will be required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. This handy reference book begins with a general overview of the way the law works and then takes readers, step by step, through all the legal implications of the daily operation of a church and parish community. Blaikie and Ginn then explain different areas of the law, including adminis...
Stories of Canadian churches offering sanctuary to failed refugee claimants have been much in the... more Stories of Canadian churches offering sanctuary to failed refugee claimants have been much in the news in the past several years. Church leaders and members of the church community justify their acts of civil disobedience on two inter related grounds, one secular, around Canada's international legal obligations and fundamental justice, and the other religious, relating to Christian obligations to the poor and oppressed. This paper examines the second ground and the Judeo-Christian theological foundation for sanctuary. We conclude that although there are moral grounds for civil disobedience, many of the biblical practices pointed to by Churches misappropriate customs for purposes they were not intended.
'The Legal Guide for Religious Institutions provides an excellent overview of the legal land... more 'The Legal Guide for Religious Institutions provides an excellent overview of the legal landscape for religious organizations in the United States. I highly recommend this book as the standard text for clergy board members and administrators, of every religious ...
It may seem surprising that faith groups would offer sanctuary to refused refugees, or material s... more It may seem surprising that faith groups would offer sanctuary to refused refugees, or material support to undocumented migrants. These acts of resistance and compassion require normally law-abiding moral people to make a conscious choice to defy government and perhaps, if necessary, even break the law. The success of sanctuary movements (defined broadly here) relies on broad public support both to attract willing collaborators, and to forestall government intervention. Previous studies have examined the discourse around sanctuary practice, and the ensuing public debates. This chapter adds to this body of work by offering an empirical study of how individuals and groups publically justified acts of sanctuary; we offer a comparative analysis of these claims in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom; and finally we attempt to respond, in a limited way, to the challenges raised by these voices. The jurisdictions considered share similar legal, faith and cultural histories, but we seek to understand how their distinct political and geographic contexts shaped their movements. We find that sanctuary practice, and even its very definition; vary widely across these jurisdictions, from shelter in a church, our traditional conception, to rescue in the wilderness. We also discover that sanctuary supporters we heard share a common motivation, and perhaps for those from a Christian worldview, a theological commitment broad enough to encircle all these expressions
Constitutional Forum Forum Constitutionnel, Jan 25, 2013
Constitutional Forum/Forum …, 2011
Full, open, and civilized discourse among citizens is fundamental to the life of a liberal democr... more Full, open, and civilized discourse among citizens is fundamental to the life of a liberal democracy. It seems trite to assert that no discourse should be prohibited or excluded simply because it is grounded in religious faith or employs religious beliefs to justify a ...
Required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. Wron... more Required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. Wrongful dismissal, potential liability for the actions of employees or volunteers, a parishioner slipping on icy church steps... these are just some of the legal issues that should be of concern to every Christian church and parish community in Canada. Recognizing that most people working in the church need guidance when confronting church-related legal issues, lawyers (and long-term church members) David Blaikie and Diana Ginn have assembled a comprehensive legal overview, coupled with practical advice, that will be required reading for every Canadian pastor, church administrator, and parish council member. This handy reference book begins with a general overview of the way the law works and then takes readers, step by step, through all the legal implications of the daily operation of a church and parish community. Blaikie and Ginn then explain different areas of the law, including adminis...
Stories of Canadian churches offering sanctuary to failed refugee claimants have been much in the... more Stories of Canadian churches offering sanctuary to failed refugee claimants have been much in the news in the past several years. Church leaders and members of the church community justify their acts of civil disobedience on two inter related grounds, one secular, around Canada's international legal obligations and fundamental justice, and the other religious, relating to Christian obligations to the poor and oppressed. This paper examines the second ground and the Judeo-Christian theological foundation for sanctuary. We conclude that although there are moral grounds for civil disobedience, many of the biblical practices pointed to by Churches misappropriate customs for purposes they were not intended.
'The Legal Guide for Religious Institutions provides an excellent overview of the legal land... more 'The Legal Guide for Religious Institutions provides an excellent overview of the legal landscape for religious organizations in the United States. I highly recommend this book as the standard text for clergy board members and administrators, of every religious ...
It may seem surprising that faith groups would offer sanctuary to refused refugees, or material s... more It may seem surprising that faith groups would offer sanctuary to refused refugees, or material support to undocumented migrants. These acts of resistance and compassion require normally law-abiding moral people to make a conscious choice to defy government and perhaps, if necessary, even break the law. The success of sanctuary movements (defined broadly here) relies on broad public support both to attract willing collaborators, and to forestall government intervention. Previous studies have examined the discourse around sanctuary practice, and the ensuing public debates. This chapter adds to this body of work by offering an empirical study of how individuals and groups publically justified acts of sanctuary; we offer a comparative analysis of these claims in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom; and finally we attempt to respond, in a limited way, to the challenges raised by these voices. The jurisdictions considered share similar legal, faith and cultural histories, but we seek to understand how their distinct political and geographic contexts shaped their movements. We find that sanctuary practice, and even its very definition; vary widely across these jurisdictions, from shelter in a church, our traditional conception, to rescue in the wilderness. We also discover that sanctuary supporters we heard share a common motivation, and perhaps for those from a Christian worldview, a theological commitment broad enough to encircle all these expressions
Constitutional Forum Forum Constitutionnel, Jan 25, 2013
Constitutional Forum/Forum …, 2011
Full, open, and civilized discourse among citizens is fundamental to the life of a liberal democr... more Full, open, and civilized discourse among citizens is fundamental to the life of a liberal democracy. It seems trite to assert that no discourse should be prohibited or excluded simply because it is grounded in religious faith or employs religious beliefs to justify a ...