OPINION:
A version of this story appeared in the Higher Ground newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Higher Ground delivered directly to your inbox each Sunday.
As society navigates the percolating intensity of the culture wars, the fragility of freedom and liberty is ardently being tested. Nations predicated upon these ideals have begun to allow the erosion of what was once sacrosanct at the whim of emotive impulses and self-indulgent cultural shifts.
From arrests and legal battles to fines and potential prison time, we’re increasingly watching people face penalties for speech and the expression of personal ideals. The criminalization of truth is particularly perplexing amid a renaissance of toxic relativism, yet it’s an arduous reality.
Take, for instance, Matthew Grech from the Southern European nation of Malta. Mr. Grech, a former LGBTQ activist, is facing potential jail time. His offense? He’s accused of advertising conversion therapy, an attempt to change a person’s sexual identity or proclivities.
Mr. Grech merely appeared in a media interview detailing his journey of leaving the LGBTQ lifestyle behind and embracing Christianity. But with Malta banning conversion therapy, he quickly faced some troubling legal issues.
“Last year, I was invited to share my story on a program and answer questions about so-called conversion practices,” Mr. Grech recently told me. “And I mentioned an organization … that supports men and women who leave LGBT and an organization that promotes a biblical sexuality.”
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He suddenly found himself under police investigation and is currently on trial. Mr. Grech could face five months in jail or be fined up to $5,460 (5000 euros) for what he said was akin to simply exercising “freedom to be a Christian and to support others who want to move away from unwanted LGBT identities or desires.”
Tragically, Mr. Grech’s battle is only the beginning. Rodrigo Iván Cortés, a former Mexican congressman who has been found guilty of “gender-based political violence,” lost his appeal this month and was fined $1,135 (19,244 Mexican pesos).
Mr. Cortés also has been ordered to publish a daily apology on social media. This all stems from him tweeting that a transgender politician is a “man who self-ascribes as a woman.” Despite the disturbing loss, Mr. Cortés said he’s “committed to seeking justice” — something some Western nations have apparently forgotten.
“No laws should be used to silence or punish individuals for sharing their convictions, especially on issues of great importance,” Mr. Cortés contended. “Peacefully expressing the truth of biological reality can never be a crime.”
These two cases are troubling on their own merits, but one of the most disturbing scenarios thus far surrounds Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Finnish parliament and a former minister of the interior who is back on trial over past statements about homosexuality.
The grievous offenses that could land her in prison for two years? She tweeted a Bible verse from Romans while questioning her church’s support for a Pride event, wrote a 2004 pamphlet about traditional marriage, and dared share her Christian views during a radio interview.
SEE ALSO: November trial set for British man accused of ‘thought crime’ in silent prayer
Mrs. Räsänen was acquitted last year on charges she was guilty of “agitation against a minority group” for sharing her biblical beliefs, yet a prosecutor decided to appeal that decision, sending her back on trial on Aug. 31.
Despite these setbacks, Mrs. Räsänen is undeterred.
“Now it is time to use these rights to speak and to express your beliefs,” Mrs. Räsänen recently told me. “What I have spoken or what I have written, it has been about similar things that Christians have spoken and have been teaching … for 2,000 years.”
Shockingly, it doesn’t end there. Over in the United Kingdom, there are a series of unfortunate events taking the culture by storm.
British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was criminally charged this month and will face a Nov. 16 trial after praying silently outside of an abortion clinic. Mr. Smith-Connor recently became emotional while speaking outside of a courthouse and defending his noiseless invocations.
“I simply stood silently,” Mr. Smith-Connor said. “I am being tried for the prayerful thoughts I held in my head.”
Another woman, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a pro-life volunteer and co-director of March for Life U.K., has been arrested twice for silent prayer outside of clinics. Both cases are the result of “buffer zone” laws that prevent protests — and apparently silent prayer — outside abortion clinics.
All of this dysfunction presents us with a pressing question here in America: When will such wicked, human rights abuses come to our shores? Some might argue they’ve already arrived, though a slew of recent religious liberty victories at the Supreme Court does seem to be holding back the rising tide.
Regardless, these cases force us to pay close attention and to recommit to defending our First Amendment freedoms. The truly terrifying reality at the core of every one of these cases is the shocking willingness with which people have collectively decided to punish views they don’t like.
And the speed and force with which these retributions have emerged only adds to the concern. A truly free society doesn’t behave this way, and the aforementioned circumstances expose a march toward ideological totalitarianism that should terrify everyone, not exclusively Christians.
With some communities and nations tragically gnawing and chipping away at their foundations, we must commit to sustaining our cultural bedrock of freedom and liberty, regardless of where the culture might go.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Hallowell is the author of four books.
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