In the beginning of the film, Evan Almighty, Evan Baxter, a reporter turned U.S. Congressman, is confronted by a series of troubles stemming from his begrudging agreement to serve God by building an Ark on his property. Evan faces numerous stresses and strains, including humiliation among his congressional peers, and the departure of his wife and family— all of whom question his mental stability.
When Evan’s family walks out on him, Evan experiences insult added to injury, as he gets hit in the face by a jet of water from his own lawn sprinkling system, and (in the process) recalls something that God had recently taught him— that whatever God does, it is motivated by His love. His face and clothing drenched with water, Evan looks heavenward, and declares, “I know, I know, whatever you do, you do because you love me.”
He then adds, “Do me a favour; love me less.”
Unbeknownst to many, the Christian Church throughout North America may have experienced a kind of Evan Almighty, cultural moment this month. For the umpteenth time, a church— this time a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bellis, near Smoky Lake, Alberta— was burned to the ground, September 21st.
The vandalism and burning of churches is almost becoming a Canadian cultural fashion statement. On September 1st, an evangelical church near Turtleford, Saskatchewan, was reduced to ash, as well. And one cannot help but be reminded that this entire uptick in church arson attacks got going in 2021 in the confusion over whether ground radar anomalies in Kamloops could possibly represent the graves of native children. The assertion that 215 graves exist there is still a fiction, but the possibility was enough for Justin Trudeau, then Liberal Prime Minister of Canada, to describe the subsequent spate of church vandalisms and arsons, as “wrong” but “fully understandable”.
Well, fast forward to September of 2025— a month containing the total destruction of two more Canadian churches— plus the brutal assassination of American evangelical, Charlie Kirk, while he debated respectfully with students on a university campus in Utah. In the aftermath of Kirk’s murder, a Rasmussen poll was released in the United States, stating that 40% of registered Democrat voters and 54% of American liberal voters, believe that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was “tragic but understandable.”
“Wrong”, but “fully understandable.”
“Tragic, but understandable.”
What is it about the moral relativism of these days that members of our liberal elites find the destruction of Christian property “understandable”? What has bewitched our cultural progressives that an apparent majority find the politically motivated murder of public Christians “understandable”?
For all the “understanding” that our progressive culture supposedly possesses, we are now making excuses for clearly immoral actions. In the process of nursing historical slights and even theorizing about perceived wrongs, Canadians and Americans manage to rationalize blatantly lawless and violent acts. Is it any wonder why a recent Oberlin University student, fully convinced of the social progress of Mao’s China, looked straight at her phone camera and openly justified political assassination— like that of Charlie Kirk’s?
This is not “understandable” at all.
Without a doubt, Christians have every right to question such increasingly violent narratives and to call for cultural repentance. Alternatively, as in Evan Almighty, we could just raise our eyes to our Capitol buildings, parliaments, and universities and say…
“Do us a favour; ‘understand’ us less.”