Brief Update: Social Collapse And The Churches

Yesterday I wrote with reference to Dennis Prager’s article regarding the response of organized religion to the Covid Regime: COVID-19 and the Failure of America’s Major Religions. Prager’s basic point was to criticize America’s “Major Religions” for, generally speaking, complying in servile fashion with government edicts—usually framed as public health emergency rules rather than specific laws—that prevented religious from freely exercising their rights to worship. The same has held true throughout much of the West as well as with regard to mandated injections that religious believers object to on conscience grounds.

In contemporary America we see a growing willingness to restrict traditional religious exercise—especially with regard to personal behavior. These cases are increasingly reaching the courts, often in response to Covid Regime edicts.

The growing trend of censorship and canceling in America highlights a new tactic in the attack on speech that is disfavored by the Left. That tactic is to use private companies to advance political agendas, thus circumventing the First Amendment restriction on government action against speech. What we rarely hear about is the degree to which the modern, omnipresent administrative state can pressure private businesses to fall into line with Leftist political agendas.

Another tactic has been especially prominent in government supported institutions such as schools—invoking “diversity” or “hate” in speech codes that purport to be concerned with public order. Often these speech codes are used by Leftist activists to explicitly attack traditional morality and social standards, and to cow religious people into silence.

Today two articles highlight a case in Finland that involves a government prosecutor who has charged a member of parliament in that country with a hate crime for citing verses from Paul’s Letter to the Romans: 1:24-27. Joy Pullman explains what’s going on here and what’s at stake:

How A Trial In Finland Could Have Worldwide Effects On Government Persecution Of Religion

The trial of two Finnish Christians for publicly stating mainstream religious teachings that reserve sex only for heterosexual marriage is heading towards a judgment scheduled for March 30. The case could end up hitting Finland’s Supreme Court and even the European Court of Human Rights, which means its outcome could affect the rights of religious believers and political dissidents across the world.

Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola have been prosecuted now for nearly three years after Rasanen tweeted a picture of Bible verses in June 2019. Complaints about this tweet led to her prosecution under Finland’s “hate crimes” laws.

It’s important to note, as the author Joy Pullman does, that the applicability of Finnish “hate crime” law to Rasanen’s speech is by no means a given. A human rights advocate noted:

“The prosecutor believes the law means you can’t preach the gospel in public, but some believe it means you can’t directly incite violence,” Price noted.

Moreover,

The charges against the two Christians include an attempt to criminalize statements they made years before the law being used to prosecute them passed.

Nevertheless, the penalties are quite draconian and have undoubtely chilled the speech of religious Finns for the time being:

The Finnish prosecutor who brought the case is seeking a fine of one-third of Rasanen’s annual income, the public erasure of documents and audio she’s made on the subject, and a financial penalty against the small religious organization Pohjola runs, the Luther Foundation. If the two Christians are convicted, the steepest possible penalty could be two years in prison.

The significance is the precedent that will be set:

It’s not clear Finland’s hate crimes law even bans controversial speech, but Finland’s top prosecutor is arguing that it does. If the prosecutor wins the case, it would mark an unprecedented expansion of identity laws that exist in most European countries, many U.S. cities and states, and that U.S. Democrats are trying to make a nationwide law in The Equality Act.

The case could embolden the Left to move on from backdoor tactics to frontal assaults on disfavored speech in America.

You may also wish to read Jonathan Turley’s thoughtful article on the same case, who notes an “alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West”:

Finish MP Criminally Charged After Quoting Bible in Opposition to LGBT Event

The question is: Do religious “leaders” care and are they willing to put their beliefs on the line. Or does their servile compliance with the State in so many matters indicate that there beliefs have already been put on the line.