JOHN DOYLE
Globe and Mail, Monday May 25, 2009
Hip 2B Holy (Global, 10 p.m.) is an excellent, eye-opening news doc about the contemporary Christian evangelical movement in Canada. The focus is on the urban evangelicals and how a very Canadian kind of soft-sell is used to spread the Christian message. A good deal of it is about the presumably representative Connexus Community Church, in Barrie, Ont., which holds its services in a local multiplex movie theatre, and uses the Internet and video on demand to reach its congregation. As narrator Kevin Newman (also a producer and co-writer) points out, for all the cheeriness at Connexus, many Canadian evangelicals share their American counterparts' deeply conservative beliefs on gay marriage and abortion. Another part of what's called "a race to define the Canadian evangelical voice," we're told, is the Alpha Course, a heavily promoted Christian-lifestyle movement backed by businessman Jim Pattison.


Documentary probes Canadian evangelism
By Andrew Ryan, Globe and Mail
Friday May 22, 2009

Praise the Lord and pass the converter. The evangelical movement has received a makeover, nose-ring included.
No more the domain of sleazy TV pastors in seersucker suits, today's new evangelism plays straight to the youth demographic and high-energy versions of the old revival meeting are taking place in pubs, clubs and hockey rinks all over the country. For a growing number of Canadian kids, that old-time religion looks pretty cool.

The steady rise of evangelism in Canada is well-covered in Revealed: Hip 2B Holy (Monday, Global at 10 p.m.). The original documentary is narrated by Global anchor Kevin Newman, who also co-produced and co-wrote the film. The subject matter was a strong draw for the TV news veteran, who witnessed the hard-sell of American evangelism while working for ABC back in the nineties.

“Evangelicals believe they have a duty to spread the gospel,” says Newman. “In the U.S., the evangelical strain has been fused with the fundamentalist strain; that isn't true here. The evangelical movement links into many different strains in Canada. We're a more secular country.”

Keep in mind that approximately 80 per cent of Americans are regular churchgoers, whereas roughly 26 per cent of our population is. “The role traditional church plays in our lives is one of the major differences between Canadians and Americans,” says Newman.

The film's genesis dates back a few years ago to a time when Newman began noticing signs for something called the Alpha Course. “At first I thought it was a self-help thing, an outreach program from the Anglican church,” he says. “Later I learned it was a major evangelical campaign with billboards all over the country. It got me thinking maybe my eyes needed opening.”

In consort with director Karen Pinker, Newman waded into the evangelical world. As shown in the report, the Alpha Course is a 10-week Bible primer conducted after work hours in bars, churches and any other available space. The course teaches the wonders of conservative Christianity and has apparently been taken by more than 10 million people worldwide.

In Toronto, the film interviews some Bay Street types who speak highly of the Alpha program. “Christians seem to be going one way and everyone else seems to be going another way,” says one young devotee.

Alpha also has the backing of Vancouver billionaire and lifelong evangelical Christian Jim Pattison, who sees nothing wrong with the group's aggressive ad campaign. “You've got to appeal to young people,” he says, “because that's the future of the country and the whole Christian movement.”

And assorted offshoots of the evangelical faith have sprung up all over Canada. The program visits the fledgling Connexus Community Church in Barrie, Ont. A good portion of Connexus parishioners previously belonged to a conventional Presbyterian congregation. Now they meet Sunday mornings in a local movieplex, where thirtysomething pastor Carey Nieuwhof eases new members into the group (“How is this?” “This feel good?”). His gentle sermons are conveniently made available for video-on-demand download.

“He's pretty typical of what we saw across the country,” Newman says. “It's not a rural western movement, it's an urban-surburban cross-Canada movement. These people are your neighbours; they just happen to have some interesting beliefs.”

Also profiled is Nate Gerber, a 25-year-old youth pastor who uses music and dance to spread the word. The charismatic Gerber describes his group, the Divine Force Company, as “a Christian hip-hop dance team.”

The cameras follow Gerber to an event in Kingston, Ont., put on by a travelling U.S. evangelical group. The Kingston Arena is packed to the rafters with young Christians who came to watch skateboarding and fire-jumping displays, in between the peace and love pitches. “Nate's there as an observer, but it's a very strident evangelical message. It's too in your face for him. It's not Canadian,” says Newman.

The program also travels to Ottawa, where a group of young political activists are shown working to expand the evangelist agenda amongst Canadian power brokers. “Their political stance is a little more nuanced,” says Newman. “They're seeking influence in any number of issues, including the environment, financial affairs and the assisted-suicide debate.”

Politicians are listening. The evangelical rise in Canada coincides with the decline of other denominations. The United Church of Canada, for example, has seen its congregation dip by 20 per cent since the seventies; the Presbyterian Church has reportedly lost 36 per cent of its members.

Current polls figure Canadian evangelical membership to be somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent of the population – and the number is steadily rising. And the Christian message has found its way to the highest corridors of power.

“What's interesting to me,” says Newman, “is that we've had a succession of three prime ministers who self-identified themselves as being quite religious. Stephen Harper is evangelical; Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien, both strong Roman Catholics. Journalists don't often ask them about it, but it must influence how they see public policy. When they are asked, the usual answer is there's a line drawn between church and state. It's still a very interesting question.”


The new Jesus Movement
By Melissa Hank
Sympatico/MSN TV Guide, May 25, 2009

Are Christians taking over Canada? 
Tightly wound, judgemental, pious, ignorant, and almost laughable. Television's comedies and dramas make most Christians seem as appealing as a root canal followed by a blood test, followed by a colonoscopy.

Think of Angela Martin of The Office, Bree Hodge of Desperate Housewives, Kenneth Purcell of 30 Rock or Reverend Lovejoy of The Simpsons. Not exactly people you’d want to split a plate of nachos with, are they? (OK, maybe Kenneth – he’s just adorable.)

But recently, a different kind of Christian has emerged and the new breed is younger, hipper, more media-savvy. Street preacher London Levi-Nance competed in last season’s America’s Next Top Model, and purity rings have been spotted on the pretty little fingers of Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, Jordin Sparks and The Jonas Brothers.

Coincidence, marketing ploy or something deeper? Global National news anchor Kevin Newman posits the latter. We all know of American documentaries like CNN’s God’s Warriors. But Newman’s new doc, Revealed: Hip 2B Holy, proves that Canadian evangelicals (a Protestant group including Baptists and Pentecostals) are also going forth and multiplying.

“The evangelicals say there’s a market in young Canadians who haven’t been told the Christian stories because their parents have largely abandoned church,” he says.

“Like a lot of people, I made assumptions about it. It’s not an older, rural, western movement at all. It’s a hip, urban, growing movement in Ontario. For them, church is not a place. It’s a belief they take to where people want to hear it – whether it’s pubs, a hip-hop dance or a skateboarding competition.”

It’s an approach reminiscent of the Jesus Movement of the ‘60s, which sprung from the U.S. West Coast, spread through North America and Europe, and fizzled in the early 1980s. In fact, while the Presbyterian church has lost 36 per cent of members since the ‘70s, evangelicals have enjoyed growth in the double digits.

Assistant pastor Alvin Frank has already seen a boost in his Stone Church congregation in Toronto, and it’s a decidedly fresh-faced population. “There are a lot of university students between 18 and 35 who come in week after week. In the past year, I think we’ve seen a growth of about 100 people,” he says.

“There’s a deep hunger in the hearts of young people and they’re looking for something that satisfies them inwardly. They’re dissatisfied with the economy and they’re realizing that they can’t put their trust in money and materialism. They want something that’s more stable.”

As it stands, roughly between three and five million Canadians are evangelical Christians; in the States, there are about 75 million – so it’s understandable that, like with television and pop music, Canadians are struggling to differentiate themselves from their bigger, more strident neighbours.

But they’re managing quite nicely, thank you very much. “We’re basically the same, but the American movement is a little more conservative. Canada is a little more reserved and has more of a separation between religion and politics,” says Frank.

“But people in the States aren’t shy about it. They always seem to want their politicians to declare their faith. It may be a good thing, but sometimes it turns people off.”

Newman‘s seen the difference firsthand: “I worked in the States for a long time and there’s a lot of reporting on religion and faith issues. But we don’t do a lot of it in Canada because we’re not as religious a country. And because of that I think we assume that religion isn’t important to people. But it is.”

In terms of cultural effect, of course, Hollywood’s eager to respond to the demands of the coveted 18-25 demographic. And if they want populist spirituality, they’ll get it – likely with shows of punishing similarity (see: My Name is Earl and Samantha Who?).

In Canada, since we largely consume what the U.S. feeds us, one could wonder if it’s a chicken-or-egg phenomenon – what came first, the religious interest or the U.S. media planting the seeds? According to a 2005 Ipsos-Reid poll, more than 60 per cent of Canadians say they believe in God and religion is important to them.

“By attaching itself to young Canadians, I think the evangelical church has a good chance of becoming one of the dominant Protestant religions in the country,” says Newman.

“I’m hoping that people will come to the documentary with preconceived notions, have those challenged – and some of them reinforced – and then ask themselves what they really think of all this.”


It's Hip 2B Holy
Global documentary explores Canada's growing evangelical underground
BY LARISSA LIEPINS
CANWEST NEWS SERVICE, MAY 20, 2009
 
With their showy megachurch services and socially conservative beliefs, American evangelicals are a large and visible part of the Christian Right, making up about a quarter of the U.S. population.

The Protestant Christian movement has never gripped Canadians with the same force, but as a Global TVdocumentary airing Monday reveals, evangelical Christian groups are emerging here in surprising places - and even more surprising numbers.

As traditional church attendance in Canada dwindles - since the 1970s, the Presbyterian Church has lost 36 per cent of its members, the United Church, 20 per cent - the evangelical movement is experiencing double-digit growth, with 10 to 15 per cent of Canadians calling themselves evangelical Christians.

Narrated by Global National anchor Kevin Newman, who also co-wrote and co- produced the documentary, Hip 2B Holy ventures inside Canada's evangelical underground to reveal its growing influence, supporters, and political aspirations.

"The growth and power of the evangelical movement is a fascinating part of Canada's current fabric," says Newman. "But the mutual mistrust between journalists and followers has prevented a judgment-free examination. With our current prime minister among those who believe in this new version of church, we need to examine the evangelic movement for what it is, not what secular Canada assumes it is." (Non-Quebecers who attend regularly at evangelical churches are four times more likely to vote for the Conservatives than for Liberals or the NDP, according to an exit poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid after the January 2006 Canadian election.)

Aside from re-igniting discussions of morality and belief among predominantly young Canadians, the movement uses aggressive online proselytizing, dropping pop-culture references and making a concerted effort to be as accessible as possible. For instance, the documentary introduces viewers to the Connexus Community Church, a church in Barrie, Ont., that holds its services in a local multiplex movie theatre, and uses the Internet and Video on Demand to reach its congregation.

Underneath the modern trappings, however, many Canadian evangelicals share their American counterparts' conservative beliefs, including opposition to gay marriage and abortion. Yet, as the documentary points out, they're less likely to push that agenda in the political sphere.
"One of the things evangelicals have learned is they're not in the mainstream of the issue of gay marriage or a woman's right to choose. They've lost those political debates in Canada and, probably, for good," Newman says.

Rather, "they're broadening their appeal; they're trying to find out what is the Christian approach to the question of environmental sustainability. What's the Christian approach to right to life, euthanasia? So they're defining where they stand on a broader range of issues than they used to."

The documentary also follows the stories of young people associated with the evangelical movement, including Nate, a charismatic youth pastor in Toronto who replaces hymns with hip hop, and Aaron, an atheist whose devout girlfriend hopes he will embrace her faith.

Conspicuously absent in the documentary, which was shot over a full year, is footage from what could be considered Canada's Bible Belt.

"There's nobody from western, rural Canada in this documentary," Newman says. "This is now urban, suburban, small-town. It's everywhere - and that's new."


Newman's Hip 2B Holy clear-eyed journalism
Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, May 25, 2009

Summer is a time for half-baked programming ideas and cheesy reality shows -- does anyone really need to see something called Here Come the Newlyweds? -- so if you're looking for something a little more substantial and thought-provoking, you might want to check out tonight's news program, Revealed: Hip 2B Holy, co-written and hosted by Global National anchor Kevin Newman.

Hip 2B Holy is a low-key, clear-eyed look at Canada's homegrown -- and growing -- evangelical Christian movement, and how it's reaching out to young people through YouTube, Facebook and other online meeting places. As the program reveals, more young adults and teens are finding appeal in the evangelical message of spreading the word, even as traditional church attendance -- and interest in organized religion in general -- is on the wane.

Newman has said a feeling of mutual distrust between Christian evangelical followers and journalist filmmakers has made it next to impossible to maintain the healthy but respectful distance needed to make an honest program. Newman said it's time the media examine the evangelic movement for what it is, rather than what secular Canadians assume it to be.

Hip 2B Holy is also timely. The new American Idol, Kris Allen, is active in the evangelical Christian community. While a worship leader at the New Life Church in Maumelle, Ark., Allen performed missionary work in several countries around the developing world, including Mozambique and Morocco, despite being only in his late teens at the time. If the new American Idol has embraced the evangelical Christian movement, it shows just how deeply the spiritual message has tapped into young people's consciousness.