LETTER: Christians are not being pushed aside in Surrey-White Rock

Published 7:00 am Thursday, April 23, 2026

Editor,

I have noticed that there have been recent letters addressing concern over the Christian faith being sidelined in public schools in our community. I would like to offer another opinion on this topic.

I am a 27-year-old woman who has lived in this community my entire life. I was not raised religious and identify as an atheist. I find it interesting that multiple different individuals have opinions that Christians are being pushed aside in this community.

Christianity is one of the most prevalent religions in the world. In just the South Surrey/White Rock community, I see churches on nearly every street corner. Most of our federal holidays are Christian-based holidays: Christmas, Easter, etc. Historically, Christians have dominated the Western world, and have condemned other religions such as Jews, or even smaller beliefs such as Wicca. By these standards, I don’t believe Christians are owed anything.

Perhaps, instead, we should focus our energy on supporting and highlighting communities in our area who are actually being sidelined: LGBTQ+ individuals, people experiencing homelessness, people with neurodivergence or other mental health differences, Indigenous communities, and other religions other than Christian denominations.

At the end of the day, we are all simply humans, and many of our worries are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I think that this quote by Christina Koch, an astronaut on the Artemis II mission, sums up this feeling:

“When you’re on the dark side of the earth, you actually see this thin green line that shows you where the atmosphere is and what you realize is, every single person you know is sustained inside of that green line and everything outside of it is completely inhospitable. You don’t see borders. You don’t see religious lines. You don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth, and you see that we’re way more alike than we are different.”

Diane Hennig, South Surrey