Three cases, one pattern

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. 

There’s a pattern emerging across Europe with recent court cases putting speech and religious expression to the test.

Here is WORLD commentator Bethel McGrew.

BETHEL MCGREW: In 2019, Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen posted a Bible verse on social media questioning her church’s support for a Pride event. That post triggered a years-long legal ordeal.

Authorities eventually dropped charges over the tweet—but not before digging up something else:

RÄSÄNEN: There became more and more criminal complaints about my writings… about the booklet that I had written 20 years ago… Male and Female He Created Them was its title.

That pamphlet, outlining a traditional Christian view of homosexuality and the harmful effects of normalizing it, would become the basis for a so-called “hate speech” conviction. 

A court has now ordered the Christian lawmaker to pay fines, along with the conservative Lutheran bishop who helped her publish the pamphlet. They are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

In Europe more broadly, this is not an isolated case, as bureaucrats weaponize laws against so-called “conversion therapy” to crack down on the free expression of basic Christian doctrine.

In Iceland, a Catholic priest—Father Jakob Rolland—is under investigation for explaining church teaching during a radio interview. He made a careful distinction between same-sex attraction and same-sex behavior, urging repentance before receiving communion. Even this gentle answer was enough to trigger a complaint, with the possibility of jail time in his future.

A member of parliament went so far as to say Icelandic society “has nothing to do with the Catholic Church.”

Meanwhile, in Malta, a Christian man named Matthew Grechs spent three years in court for sharing his own testimony about leaving the gay lifestyle on a radio program.

He was ultimately acquitted. But listen to how he describes the cost:

GRECHS: We won, the court has decided in our favor. However, it doesn't stop here. This law has caused me and the co-accused to go through a lengthy and dragging three-year process—for a simple conversation.

Even in victory, his warning is clear:

GRECHS: This law… is a weapon. It doesn't matter what these laws say, all that matters is that activists will use these laws to target any dissenting view around sexuality and gender.

Seventeen court appearances. Three years of legal pressure, not just for Matthew but for the radio presenters who aired his testimony. 

Even when cases like this end happily, the process is the punishment. The message is clear: Some views may be expressed freely in the public square. Others may not.

In all of these cases, the conflict is disingenuously framed as protecting the dignity of sexual minorities. But it is traditional Christians who are pushed to the margins, in the name of “standing for the marginalized.” 

The game is zero-sum. One side will be normalized while the other is stigmatized.

But not without a fight. As Father Rolland in Iceland put it: “I must fight for the Lord. If we don’t speak up, no one does.”

For WORLD, I’m Bethel McGrew.

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