Tyranny Pops Up in the Most Unlikely Places

Joy Pullman, at The Federalist has an article entitled Lawmakers Demand U. S. Punish Finland For Criminalizing Christianity As A 'Hate Crime', that makes the point that tyrrany and authoritarianism can pop up in any society. The hate crime laws that no doubt were passed in good faith have not ben turned against the Christian faith, which I doubt were the intended targets. But it shows the horrors that can arise with so called 'hate crimes'. Not only are these people facing charges for being Christians, but the law is one of those retroactive laws that supposedly can not happen here.

Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Parliament member Paivi Rasanen face fines and up to two years in prison under “hate crimes” laws that effectively criminalize speech and set the government up as the arbiter of what religious beliefs are legal in Finland. One of the charges against Rasanen is the alleged crime of posting a Bible verse on Twitter.

“Free people should not have to violate and recant their deepest convictions to remain part of a free society,” the U.S. lawmakers write in response to this situation. “True religious liberty both protects an individual’s right both to hold beliefs that are unpopular with the prevailing cultural winds of the world, but also their right to live out authentically and profess the truths they hold dear without fear of government interference. Those rights are fundamental and unalienable to the whole human race, and it is critical to the flourishing of both the human soul and civil society.”

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Pohjola is the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. His alleged hate crime is publishing a 2004 booklet written by Rasanen about the Bible’s teachings about sex and marriage. Years after the publication of that booklet, Finland passed laws creating legal privileges for LGBT citizens, under which the two Christians are now being accused of “incitement against a group of people.”

Back around 2000, Mrs. PolyKahr and I, along with my parents, took a Church trip to Scandinavia to look at, and worship in, the wooden church buildings there. Scandinavia has unique church structures. In addition, most of the Christians in Scandinavia are Lutherans. While the state supports the Lutheran church there, it leads to a lot of atheism. We noted that the churches were not well attended. Perhaps this is why the Finns felt it save to target Christians with their hate crimes laws.