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The U.K., Germany, Finland, the U.S., and other Western countries are putting in place laws, ordinances, and internalized messaging that only approved speech is welcome in the public square.
Christian expression is being further restricted in Europe, as the U.K. sees new “unofficial” crackdowns on which speech is allowed in public and as Germany introduces legislation that would implement buffer zones that have led to numerous arrests in the U.K. for silently praying.
As laws and ordinances are passed that characterize pro-life and Christian speech as wrong, hateful, or criminal, law enforcement officers are absorbing and internalizing the message and taking it upon themselves to try to shut down Christian speech and behavior when in public. The most disturbing case happened recently when a special U.K. constable confronted a gospel singer who was singing a hymn on the sidewalk.
“You’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds,” the constable stated.
The exchange is going viral after gospel signer Harmonie London posted a video to her social media. London, who has nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram and 324k subscribers on YouTube, shared the video two days ago, which has left many either outraged or baffled.
London titled her video, “Unpaid volunteer officer doesn’t like gospel songs”, with the caption reading, “Special constables are volunteer police officers who invest their free time to make a real difference to our city. You will get a tremendous amount of pride from giving back to the community.”
While her caption regarding special constables may be true and complimentary, her interaction with this special constable was a downright hostile one.
After the officer told her she was not allowed to sing church songs outside of church and London disagreed, the officer told London that she was not permitted to sing “outside of church grounds unless you have been authorized by the Church to do these kind of songs.”
“That’s a load of rubbish, you’re allowed,” retorted London.
Another officer then answered that the special constable would not be saying any more.
As London questioned her about Article 9 of the Human Rights Act, which grants the right to manifest one’s religion in private or in public, the officer responded by laughing and sticking her tongue out at the camera.
Former Conservative Minister Ann Widdecombe called for the special constable to be “struck off from the voluntary force.”
“She really has got the law completely wrong and she was obviously enjoying herself rather too much, trying to boss this woman around,” Widdecombe explained. “And there is no basis at all for saying you can’t sing. I could walk down the street singing Onward Christian Soldiers and I would be committing no offence at all.”
The incident is yet another in a trend of U.K. police officers targeting those who they view as ideological opponents of secular state. As the Freedom Center reported, numerous arrests have taken place inside censorship zones after police questioned bystanders about the nature of their thoughts. Censorship zones are located 150 meters in all directions from an abortion clinic.
There have been a number of arrests, but one of the most high-profile was that of Isabel Vaughn-Spruce, a woman who has been harassed repeatedly for the nature of her thoughts and silent prayers. Vaughn-Spruce was first interrogated in early 2023 when police officers approached and told her they received a complaint that she might be praying silently in her head. She was searched and arrested and then taken to the police station for further interrogation about the “nature” of her thoughts. She was charged but later acquitted. Police then arrested her in March when they told her that her crime was “engaging in prayer.”
In September 2023, police issued an apology for the lengthy process and dropped the charges.
In spite of these arrests, Parliament last March voted to expand the Public Space Protection Order to all of England and Wales. Members of Parliament voted not to include an exception for silent prayer.
If the aftermath of the arrests, however, the Home Office issued guidance instructing the police that they cannot arrest anyone because of their thoughts or silent prayers.
But that hasn’t stopped officers from interrogating and harassing people on the street who appear to be praying. New video, for example, shows Vaughn-Spruce being questioned about what she was thinking about even after the guidance was released.
Despite the obvious civil rights violations associated with the U.K.’s censorship zones, Germany is now taking steps to try to put in place its own censorship zones around abortion-related facilities.
Germany’s Family Minister Lisa Paus introduced legislation last week that would criminalize messages that could be considered “disturbing” or “confusing” with no definition for what those terms include.
Harassment is already illegal, meaning that peaceful expression would be included under the bill.
The law goes against a decision by the nation’s top court last year in which it affirmed the right of a prayer group to pray across the street from an abortion clinic.
Dr. Felix Böllmann, a German lawyer and director of European Advocacy at ADF International, explained,
“Peaceful gatherings, prayer and offers of help should never be banned. The plans of the German government are alarming—not only do they put blanket restrictions on fundamental freedoms, but also they weaken civil society’s engagement for the protection of the right to life. Any form of harassment is obviously forbidden. But censorship zones are not pro-choice, they are no-choice and have no place in a free and democratic society.”
The effort to criminalize any unapproved speech is already well underway in Finland, where disagreement with LGBTQ orthodoxy can bring about to criminal charges of hate speech, ethnic agitation, and human rights violations. As the Freedom Center has written about repeatedly, the government of Finland is set to, once again, criminally try Parliament Member Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola for posting Bible verses about God’s design for marriage and sexuality — despite the fact that the pair have already been acquitted twice.
This violation of the right to freely speak in public spaces isn’t just happening in other countries. It’s happening here too. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for example, has enacted a censorship zone around all abortion clinics, a zone in which all speech is allowed except for pro-life speech. The law was challenged in the case of Reilly v. City of Harrisburg, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld it.
On Tuesday, Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief asking the Supreme Court to reverse that decision, arguing that the law violates the Constitution not only because it prohibits free speech, but because it only prohibits the speech of pro-lifers, a group of Americans largely motivated by their Christian beliefs.
We’re seeing this double standard play out in other areas as well. In America, it’s viewed as an act of free speech to protest loudly on city streets, topple historic and religious statues, firebomb pro-life pregnancy centers, vandalize churches and even set them on fire, and shut down highways, tunnels, and bridges. Those who perpetrate such actions are largely either ignored or get away with a mere slap on the wrist. But if a small group of pro-lifers conduct a peaceful sit-in at an abortion clinic to draw attention to cruel, immoral practices and to encourage expectant mothers to give their babies life, then they are arrested on federal conspiracy charges and sent to prison for more than a decade.
We are a crossroads in the great government experiment with human freedom. Either we have the right to express our views in public, regardless of our religious beliefs and ideology, or we don’t. Once the government is allowed to take that freedom away, it will continue to restrict it until only approved views can be legally espoused. And what views are “approved,” will, of course, change with the agendas and paranoias of those in power.
The Supreme Court needs to step up and defend the Constitution in all of these efforts to criminalize Christian belief and free speech, and courts in Germany, the U.K., Finland, and other Western countries need to likewise wake up and begin safeguarding the inalienable freedoms of their people. If courts and patriotic lawmakers don’t nip this in the bud, tyranny will continue to strengthen its iron grip until it fully strangles all of free society, and at that point, it won’t just be Christians being harassed, persecuted, and jailed for holding unpopular views. As history has repeatedly shown, when such conditions take hold, no one will be exempt.
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