Attack on religious freedom

From 2005 to the end of 2014 , more than 1 ,400 cases have been documented and published in a yearly Shadow Report. Dr. Gudrun Kugler, director of the Observatory, explains that “Studies show that in Europe 85 % of crimes committed on the basis of religious intolerance were directed against Christians. It is time for an open public debate on this issue!” Especially noteworthy is the Canadian website LifeSiteNews, which reports comprehensively on the intensifying global culture war over the family, the right to life and the LGBTI agenda. The British Coalition for Marriage published a flyer listing 30 cases of people being punished for  believing in traditional marriage.3 These cases clearly demonstrate that same-sex “marriage” is not about freedom for a minority of a minority. Only around two percent of the homosexual minority, constituting around two percent of the population, make use of the legalization of same-sex unions. It is about a new sexual totalitarianism that seeks to destroy the meaning and reality of marriage and family. New cases arise daily in which freedoms are curtailed. A few will be given here as examples.

Concrete Discrimination

Attack on: Religious freedom, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly.

Methods: Boycott of the State of Indiana, travel bans, ban of organizations, public mobbing, financial ruin, charges of discrimination, fines, telephone and e-mail harassment, vandalism, violent attacks.

Cases: Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act of March 26 , 2015 ; InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Army Chaplain Wes Molder; Navy Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn; Pastor Åke Green; Bishop Anthony Priddis; Catholic adoption agencies; Christian retreat house; Church of San Vicenç; Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard; Pope Benedict XVI; Catholic University of Milan.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of Indiana is nearly identical with the RFRA signed into law by President Clinton in 1993 . The law prohibits substantial government burdens on religious exercise unless the government can show that 1 ) it has a compelling interest in burdening religious liberty and 2 ) is doing so through the least restrictive means possible. An unprecedented, nationwide, hysterical campaign for the protection of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” ensued, including urging state governments to proclaim travel-bans on Indiana, closing down of businesses, and threats to individuals. Indiana had to amend the law. The rights of the non-heterosexual minority were given preference over the personal moral conscience of citizens. Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers of an evangelical church in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, declined to marry a same-sex couple in October 2014. On the grounds of a non-discrimination statute that  includes sexual orientation and gender identity, the ministers were informed that they had to officiate same-sex marriages in their own chapel. Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman had been previously struck down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Knapps now face a 180 -day jail term and a $1 ,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.4

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship , a well-established Christian college group, founded in 1947 with 860 chapters in the United States, was “derecognized” by California State University, with 23 campuses; as well as by Vanderbilt University, Rollins College, and Tufts University. This means defunding as well as no access to on-campus meetings rooms, student fairs, or official school functions. The reason is that InterVarsity refused to sign a general nondiscrimination policy, which demands that leadership positions be open to all (i.e. all “sexual orientations”). InterVarsity spokesman Greg Jao said that changing InterVarsity leadership policy would undermine its Christian foundation.

Lieutenant Commander Wes Modder, a highly respected Navy chaplain, was removed from his position because his gay assistant officer filed a complaint against him. Having been on the job just for a month, his assistant accused him of telling a student that homosexuality was wrong. The chaplain was accused of being unable to “function in the diverse and pluralistic environment of the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command.” Franklin Graham, President and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said, “It’s a sad day in America when military chaplains have to choose between being true to their faith and keeping their jobs.”5

Army Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn, who conducted a suicide prevention training session with the 5th Ranger Training Battalion, received a Letter of Concern that accused him of advocating for Christianity and “using Christian scripture and solutions.” The offense: the chaplain had provided a two-sided handout that listed Army resources on one side and a  biblical approach to handling depression on the other side. Because one person complained, the chaplain was warned to be “careful to avoid any perception you are advocating one system of beliefs over another.” All the chaplain did was to give his personal testimony of how he himself had dealt with depression.6

A Christian retreat house in New Jersey was ordered by the court to provide spaces for same-sex wedding receptions with the justification that the Constitution allows “some intrusion into religious freedom to balance other important societal goals.”7

Anthony Priddis, Anglica bishop of Hereford, United Kingdom, was fined £47 ,345 in 2008 and ordered to participate in “equal opportunity training” because he was not willing to hire active homosexuals for youth work. Additionally, the bishop had to pay the rejected applicants £7 ,000 for “psychiatric injury” and £6 ,000 for “injury to feelings.”8All Catholic adoption agencies in the United Kingdom have been forced to close, because of their policy of only placing children with married heterosexual couples. Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard of Brussels was attacked by having pies thrown at him during Holy Mass and at a lecture at the Catholic University of Louvain. One of the attackers said, “He deserves it for all the homosexuals who don’t dare come out to their families, and all the girls who want an abortion.”9 In April 2013 again he was attacked by four topless, “femen” activists, who interrupted the Archbishop’s speech at a conference at the University of Brussels, screaming loudly and holding up a poster labeled “Stop Homophobia.”10

Pope Benedict XVI was formally condemned by the Belgian parliament for saying on his trip to Africa that condom distribution could not  prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, says, “The best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments.”11

The Catholic University of Milan was forced by a 2009 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to extend the contract of Prof. Luigi Lombardi Vallauri. The university had wanted to dismiss the professor because he agitated against Christianity with statements such as “Jesus was through and through a bad human being.” The ECHR felt this came under the right to free expression of opinion at a Catholic university.12

Vladimír Spidla, E commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, declared in November 2009 that there could be no exceptions to anti-discrimination laws in regard to “sexual orientation,” even based on religious conscience.13

Attack on: Freedom of expression, freedom of speech, f reedom of assembly, scientific freedom.

Methods: Defamation, character assassination, exclusion from public discourse, pressure through politics and the media, disruption of events, vandalism, exclusion from party, incarceration, fines, demonstrations, disciplinary measures.

Cases: Marburg Conference, politically incorrect journalists.

Marburg Conference

At the Fachkongress der Akademie für Psychotherapie und Seelsorge (Professional Conference of the Academy of Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care) in Marburg, Germany, May 20 –24 , 2009 , the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD) fought by every means the public appearance of two invited speakers: Dr. Christl Vonholdt, publisher of the bulletin of the German Institute for Youth and Society, which  publishes scientific research on homosexuality; and Markus Hoffmann, director of the organization Wüstenstrom, which offers help to people with ego-dystonic same-sex attraction—i.e., helps people who suffer due to their homosexuality. An “action coalition of queer, feminist, anti-sexist, anti-fascist groups, critical scientists and individuals” intended to bring down the entire conference. In a public statement 370 well-known figures, including philosophy professor Robert Spaemann, constitutional judge Martin Kriele and constitutional expert Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, published a Declaration for Freedom and Self-Determination . It says:We protest the LSVD’s acting on unproven claims and by slanderous means against Wüstenstrom e.V. and the Deutsches Institut für Jugend und Gesellschaft and discrediting them in the media. Intimidation is being used to create a climate of fear to silence politicians, journalists, scientists and therapists.14

This time, the LSVD campaign did not succeed. The conference took place. A thousand police officers had to be deployed to protect a thousand conference participants against a thousand demonstrators. The protesters carried picket signs reading:

We’re here to offend your religious feelings!
God is a lesbian!
Fuck your neighbor as yourself!
Freedom to all perverts!
Better to gang bang than to pray!
If Mary had aborted you wouldn’t be here!

That same year, Germany celebrated the 60th anniversary of its constitution. Public institutions and party-affiliated foundations are contributing to curtailment of the freedoms this magnificent constitution gave the German people in the wake of the Nazi terror. They regularly stigmatize politically incorrect journalists as the “radical right” who come out against gender mainstreaming, the LGBTI agenda and abortion. Prof. Edith Düsing. In December 2012 , the Autonomous Lesbian and Gay student organization of the University of Cologne (LuSK) demanded a ban on a lecture by philosophy professor Edith Düsing on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Friedrich Schiller’s birth. The  sole reason for the attack: Prof. Edith Düsing had signed the Declaration for Freedom and Self-Determination in support of the Marburg Conference. The lecture was disrupted by a half-hour same-sex “kiss in.”15

Melanie Phillips , a prominent British columnist, received death threats after her criticism in The Daily Mail of positive treatment of homosexuality in all school subjects. “The response, however, exceeded even my expectations. . . . I have been subjected to an extraordinarily vicious outpouring of hate and incitement to violence [through e-mail, the Internet and the mainstream media].”16

Phillip Lardner, a Scottish Tory candidate, was thrown out of the party in April 2010 because on his website, he spoke out against treating the homosexual lifestyle as equivalent to marriage and supporting it with state subsidies.17

A street preacher in Scotland called homosexuality a sin. He was arrested by the police and levied a fine of £1 ,000 for his “homophobic statements.”18

The Spanish government under Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero fined a Christian TV broadcaster €100 ,000 Euros for broadcasting a series of ads promoting the family and opposing the homosexual lifestyle.19

2 . http://www.isp-dortmund.de/institut-sexualpaedagogik/referenzen.html (accessed October 17 , 2011 ).
3 . www.herzklopfen-muenster.de (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
4 . Ursula Enders and Dorothee Wolters, Doktorspiele oder sexuelle Übergriffe (Zart-bitter e.V.), 19 . http://www.praevention-bildung.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/praevention/microsite/Downloads/Zart-bitter_Doktorspiele_druckgesperrt.pdf (accessed August 19 , 2015 ).
5 . Sigmund Freud, Gesammelte Werke , vol. V, 136 .14

• Intolerance and Discrimination

1 . Michael O’Brien, Elijah in Jerusalem (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015 ).
2 . Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe , abbreviated as IAC. The keyword can be used to find the case using the search function at www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu .
3 . http://www.c4m.org.uk/downloads/30cases.pdf (Accessed May 2015 ).
4 . https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/idaho-ministers-face-fines-jail-time-for-refusing-to-perform-same-sex-marri (accessed October 7 , 2015 ). Keyword: Donald and Evelyn Knapp .
5 . http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/03/12/more-than-40000-rally-for-navy-chaplain-accused-being-anti-gay.html (accessed May 15 , 2015 ).
6 . http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/09/chaplain-punished-for-sharing-his-faith-in-suicide-prevention-class.html (accessed May 2015 ).
7 . https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-rules-christian-facility-cannot-ban-same-sex-civil-union-ceremony-on (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
8 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/anglican-bishop-fined-47-345-and-sent-to-re-education-in-gay-employment-case.html Keyword: Priddis.
9 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/belgian-archbishop-hit-in-face-with-cream-pies.html . Keyword: Leonard.
10 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/archbishop-of-brussels-andre-leonard-attacked.html .
11 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/parliament-issues-formal-protest-against-popes-statement-on-condoms.html (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
12 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/italy-european-court-of-human-rights-violates-freedom-of-religion.html . Keyword: Vallauri.
13 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/eu-commission-demands-uk-abolish-religious-freedom-rights.html . Keyword: Spidla.
14 . http://www.medrum.de/content/initiative-fuer-freiheit-und-selbstbestimmung (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
15 . http://www.medrum.de/content/vorlesungsverbot-fuer-die-philosphin-edith-duesing (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
16 . https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/death-threats-against-uk-columnist-for-opposing-homosexualist-agenda (accessed October 7 , 2015 ). Cf. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down (New York: Encounter Books, 2011 ).
17 . https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/i-stand-by-my-statement-absolutely-scottish-candidate-sacked-by-conservativ (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
18 . https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/street-preacher-arrested-in-scotland-for-condemning-homosexuality (accessed October 7 , 2015 ).
19 . http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/case/100-000-euro-fine-for-christian-broadcaster.html . Keyword: 100 ,000 Euro Fine.

Gabriele Kuby
The Global Sexual Revolution
Destruction of Freedomin theName of Freedom