Separation Anxiety: The Alberta Referendum
Sep 22, 2026 · 36 min · 10 segments
Oh my lanta do we have an episode for you! On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on whether to hold a binding referendum on leaving Canada. Journalists Tim Querengesser and Danielle Paradis spend the…
Danielle ParadisHost
Tim QuerengesserHost
So, Danny, I think we've established that some in the Alberta independence movement are Christian nationalists.
Like, does it change anything for the rest of us who are not Christian nationalists?
I think the best way to answer that is to go back to what you asked earlier.
Christian nationalism at its broadest, most sweeping use as becoming more and more common is just the way in which people who aren't part of that tradition identify conservative Christians as they orient themselves towards politics.
In the 80s, we called them the religious right.
In the Bush II era, people called them theocons.
He worries it's getting stretched to mean any conservative Christian who votes.
Why did the Canadian government, when it decided it had to assimilate Indigenous people, turn residential schools over to churches, primarily to administer and run? Because the understanding was becoming Canadian had to mean becoming Christian.
And that was part of becoming a Canadian and therefore building a Christian nation and keeping it on track.
He thinks a Christian state would be a mistake, and there's a theological reason for that.
I think it's a profound theological error to think that a state itself ought to be Christian and show any partiality for Christians.
The state's task, as understood in my theological tradition, is to do public justice.
In other words, to create the conditions under which all of its citizens can thrive can exist freely to create and maintain public services and infrastructure, and that crucially are there to protect the vulnerable.
So the Old Testament repeatedly has this framing, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, right? And it's precisely that concern that is present throughout the Old Testament and therefore carried into the New Testament even more radically.
So, Danny, I think we've established that some in the Alberta independence movement are Christian nationalists.
Like, does it change anything for the rest of us who are not Christian nationalists?
I think the best way to answer that is to go back to what you asked earlier.
Christian nationalism at its broadest, most sweeping use as becoming more and more common is just the way in which people who aren't part of that tradition identify conservative Christians as they orient themselves towards politics.
In the 80s, we called them the religious right.
In the Bush II era, people called them theocons.
He worries it's getting stretched to mean any conservative Christian who votes.
Why did the Canadian government, when it decided it had to assimilate Indigenous people, turn residential schools over to churches, primarily to administer and run? Because the understanding was becoming Canadian had to mean becoming Christian.
And that was part of becoming a Canadian and therefore building a Christian nation and keeping it on track.
He thinks a Christian state would be a mistake, and there's a theological reason for that.
I think it's a profound theological error to think that a state itself ought to be Christian and show any partiality for Christians.
The state's task, as understood in my theological tradition, is to do public justice.
In other words, to create the conditions under which all of its citizens can thrive can exist freely to create and maintain public services and infrastructure, and that crucially are there to protect the vulnerable.
So the Old Testament repeatedly has this framing, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, right? And it's precisely that concern that is present throughout the Old Testament and therefore carried into the New Testament even more radically.
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