On March 26, Finland’s Supreme Court convicted former Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen (header photo) and Bishop Juhana Pohjola of a hate crime. The case stands out not only for the conviction itself, but for how it was prosecuted. Authorities used the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section of Finland’s criminal code — a category typically reserved for far more severe offenses.

The charges stem from a pamphlet published more than 20 years ago, in which the two outlined a biblical view of family and expressed concerns about gender-related issues. Päivi Räsänen has also previously faced accusations of hate speech for citing Scripture, including the book of Romans, though she was acquitted of those charges in earlier court rulings.

Floyd Brobbel of Voice of the Martyrs Canada explains the legal basis behind the ruling: “It’s under a hate speech law that has a very loose or vague definition of hate, that these two were convicted.”

From Finland to Canada’s Bill C-9

The decision is now echoing beyond Finland, fueling renewed discussion in Canada over Bill C-9, also known as the Combatting Hate Act. For more background on the bill and its potential impact on religious groups, see our previous coverage (here and here).

(Photo courtesy of VOM Canada)

Brobbel says the concern lies in how “hate” is defined and applied: “The concern remains that the loosening of the definition of hate could, in fact, in the long run, do exactly what they say the bill will not do.”

At a deeper level, the situation raises questions about how religious beliefs are interpreted in modern legal systems — whether they are assessed on evidence or increasingly through the lens of perceived offense. Some observers see parallels between the developments in Finland and what could potentially unfold in Canada.

Bill C-9 has already passed the House of Commons and is now before the Senate. If it advances, it will return to Parliament for final reading.

As lawmakers consider the bill, Brobbel is calling for prayer: “Pray that they would have the wisdom to carefully consider the implications of this bill and tighten up some of the descriptions that need to be tightened up.”

Visit Voice of the Martyrs Canada to learn more about how they serve the persecuted Church.

Header photo: Portrait of Päivi Räsänen (photo courtesy of FinnishGovernment via Wikimedia Commons)

In 2017, the Myanmar military killed 10,000 Rohingya and drove many more from their homes into Bangladesh. The coup and continuing violence in Myanmar mean the Rohingya will likely have no chance to return home any time soon.

Bruce Allen with FMI says the plight of about 1 million Rohingya is an ongoing disaster.  “Just this week, 1,000 little shanty shops that these refugees have set up (in order to do business, buy food, or whatever they need) have gotten bulldozed by the Bangladeshi Government. Now the Bangladeshi government says these shops were illegal. And perhaps they truly were. But it’s what these refugees were relying on in terms of access to household items.”

Bhasan Char

This week, a human rights expert from the United Nations will visit the Rohingya in Bangladesh. This includes an investigation of the island of Bhasan Char, where the government has moved many Rohingya. “Some of the refugees are saying, ‘Oh, what a terrible situation this island is because it’s almost like a prison now for us. We don’t have access to things. We’re locked on an island.’ Bangladesh says they set this island up for about 100,000 people.”

Allen says Bhasan Char will be exposed to storms in the Bay of Bengal as well, though not any more than the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp on the mainland.

How to pray

Many Christian ministries work among the Rohingya. Ask God to give these refugees hope and provide for their needs.

Pray for the citizens of Bangladesh as well. Allen says, “What our Bangladeshi partners are saying is ‘Yes, we welcome the refugees. But we’ve been overrun by 1.2 million additional people. Life has gotten a lot harder for the Bangladeshis as well. They’ve lost fields, plants, farming areas, things like that.”

The header photo shows the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh. (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Is it your imagination? Not entirely. Between last week’s brouhaha involving President Donald Trump’s tweets and rally and France’s National Assembly taking Facebook to task, the issue of internet civility is raising concerns.

(Photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash)

The Data

A Barna Group study released on July 16 reveals that 70%  of U.S. adults believe hate speech and hate crimes have increased in the past five years. 22% say they have stayed the same, and just 3% believe it has declined. Barna’s researchers defined hate speech/crime as “speech or crimes that are motivated by racial, sexual or other prejudice.”

When asked about causes behind the perceived increase, two of the top four responses related to the internet and social media. 

The breakdown is as follows:

•    65%-“Politicians are encouraging or feeding it”

•    62%-“Social media and the internet have amplified and encouraged it”

•    61%-“America is more divided as a country”

•    57%-“The internet has provided a forum for hate groups to multiply and grow”

Some observations

Many parents, when presented with this information, struggle with how to protect their children while at the same time helping them learn to defend themselves. Keys For Kids’ executive director Greg Yoder says this is a timely discussion for families. First, he observes that people THINK hate speech is on the increase because there are more accusations of racism, homophobia, and bigotry. Many times it is merely a different political view. 

However, he adds, “One thing that I think is increasing is hate speech against Christians. I think here the United States especially, we’re seeing more and more people who view our Judeo Christian ethic as being intolerant.  I think, in their minds, I think that’s hateful.” That perspective doesn’t improve when Christians go on the defensive in a conversation and wind up sounding militant as a result. “They’re wanting to stand their ground. They’re saying Truth, but they’re not necessarily doing it in love, as Christ would have done.”

When asked how followers of Christ can be part of the solution, he responded, “What does Jesus say? ‘Love your enemies.’ We need to talk to our Christian kids about how to defend our beliefs and becoming more of apologists and asking questions, rather than flinging Christian insults at people or preaching at them or quoting a Bible verse out of context or something.”

(Image courtesy of Keys For Kids)

Be part of the solution 

Get familiar with what the Bible says, suggests Yoder, because that directs worldview. “The bottom line is that we’re pointing young people and families to Christ through His Word. And, frankly, that is the only way you’re going to build a foundation, ready to answer some of the world’s questions, especially in light of the hate that is present out there. God isn’t one of those gods of hate. He is a God of love…He’s a God of judgment, but He is (also) a God of love. And we need to tell people about that.”

Keys For Kids offers tools to help families develop the discipline of studying God’s Word together. They offer devotional booklets (print and electronic), audio programming (via internet radio and mp3 players), Keys For Camps devotionals, Unlocked (for teens) and the new Storyteller ministry. 

These tools support parents as they teach their children about their faith, Yoder adds. “It’s pointing to real life, anecdotal situations, that tell kids about the Scripture that kind of goes behind that, and then how to apply it to your life.” 

(Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash)

Moving forward

The point: to ignite a passion for Christ and a natural outgrowth of ‘what would Jesus Do?’ Then, confrontation has the potential to become an exchange of ideas and Truth rather than the polarization we see now. “Once you can apply biblical principles to your life, and then begin practicing them, that’s when you get grounded. And that’s when you realize there’s more to this faith than just reading a story and reading the Word. It’s actually practicing what you’re reading and understanding it that way, and then sharing it.”

Is it really that simple? Well, nothing is ‘simple’ when it comes to a world without hope. However, being part of the solution starts with one heart at a time.

Yoder concludes with this thought: “If you’re struggling– you don’t know what to say to people when they ask these tough questions–maybe you should start reading the Word and digging in. YouVersion has some great ways for you to begin digging into the Word.”

Headline photo courtesy William Iven on Unsplash.

(Photo courtesy of Raphael1/Wikimedia CC)

International (MNN) –Google the phrase ‘anti-Muslim’ on a news website and you’ll get a page full of political stories from around the world, along with a smattering of terms like ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘hate speech’.

The rise of terrorism and extremism is hard to deny. It’s increasingly difficult to separate the issues of national security from religion. It’s a topic fraught with controversy and high emotion. Chris Ruge, Prayercast director and overseer of the project ‘Love Muslims’ says Islam is an ideology. Taken to the extreme, you see violence.

Ruge says there is a distinction between Muslims and terrorists but observes that much of the divisive dialogue and rhetoric seems fear-driven.

“We’re not dealing with people, necessarily, who desire our demise–although some do. There are people all over the world who would wish us ill, but that doesn’t mean that we need to be afraid because the reality is that God loves those people.”

Relentless Love

(Screen capture courtesy of Prayercast)

Leaning hard on that truth, there’s a question that remains: “If we don’t love Muslims to Christ, who will?” Ruge reminds us that God transformed terrorists before. “This is Paul—he looked an awful lot like this amazing evangelist like Billy Graham and yet the reality is that before he was ever that, he was Saul, and he looked an awful lot more like Osama bin Laden. He was a persecutor of the Church and he had blood on his hands.”

With the advent of the Islamic State (ISIS) and its subsequent rampages throughout the Middle East and North Africa, its fighters gained a fearsome reputation. Then stories began trickling out of some of these fighters having dreams and visions of Jesus and finding themselves profoundly affected.

It’s because people were praying.  Ruge shares one piece of advice given to him by a friend who counseled him on forgiveness and restoration of a broken relationship.  He said,” ‘It’s almost impossible to dislike or hate someone who you are actively praying for.’”

Fanning The Flame

(Screen capture courtesy of Prayercast)

Ruge took that to heart and started thinking about ways to help other Christians actively, knowledgeably and passionately pray for Muslims, despite a growing anti-Muslim sentiment.  Enter: ‘Love Muslims’.

“’Love Muslims’ is creating over 130 different videos, short videos to lead us in prayer. Every one of those videos is built on testimony or a prayer by a former Muslim who is now a follower of Jesus.”

‘Love Muslims’ is a counter-culture movement, since the vocabulary that comes with ‘Islamophobia’, ‘hate speech’ and ‘anti-Muslim’ usually includes words like ‘bigots’, ‘racists’ and ‘hypocrites’. Strong language deserves a strong response, but one in a context that reflects the hope of Christ.

Encouraging The Hope

‘Love Muslims’ launches at the beginning of Ramadan.  It’s a symbolic way to say that Christians are praying for Muslims in time on the calendar when they are most receptive to hear from God, where they’re actively fasting and seeking after hearing from God. Ruge says, “More Muslims have turned to follow Jesus in the past 15 years than in the previous 1400 years combined.”

From May 5 through June 4, “We are going to be leading a 30-day prayer journey, through the month of Ramadan.  When people sign up, we’ll send an email each day as a reminder. We’ll be releasing a brand new video, never seen before, every day during the month of Ramadan.” Click here to sign up.

Headline photo courtesy Venca24/Wikimedia CC

Andrew and Norine Brunson (Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

Turkey (MNN) – There’s a saying that goes ‘To be Turk is to be Muslim and to be Muslim is to be Turk’. It’s also been the root ideology behind increasing pressure on Christians in Turkey.

The recent high-profile case of American pastor Andrew Brunson seems to have coincided with a spike in public hate speech against Christians in Turkey. It’s an alarming trend, notes Miles Windsor of Middle East Concern. Where other countries might have citizens who would take the state-controlled press with a ‘grain of salt’, the same cannot be said in Turkey.

“There is an unfortunate trend in Turkey that the society often accepts and is motivated by what the government and the press are saying.”

Persecution detailed in report

The reality is, he points out, that hate speech towards the Christian community in Turkey isn’t new. What’s more, this is not simply the result of the Andrew Brunson case.

As a campaign, Windsor remarks, ”It’s hard to say exactly what the end goal is of it. It certainly seems to be part of some wider narrative and agenda and we need to acknowledge within that, that Turkish press can’t really be described as a ‘free press’. It is, in many ways, a mouthpiece of the Erdogan government.”

In the 2018 annual human rights report released by the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches, Turkey’s media outlets (national, local and social) published information designed to incite hatred of Protestants “due to their beliefs”. Brunson’s arrest, incarceration, and trial provided plenty of fodder.

Windsor explains that as a result, ”There is a sense of concern and insecurity amongst the religious minorities, including the Christians in Turkey. What we’re seeing in these spurious articles with terrible allegations, often photos, names, and activities of churches are being published.”

A climate of uncertainty

(Image courtesy of Wikimedia)

Open Doors observed the trends in their annual World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries around the world where persecution of Christians is the worst. On the 2019 list, Turkey moved up to 26th place, up from 37th last year.

This is due, in part, to continued fallout from an attempted coup in 2016. In the name of ‘national security’, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gradually took on more powers and eventually his government dropped the democracy façade and began openly restricting freedom.

Converts from Islam face the most pressure. Turks regard leaving Islam as a betrayal of Turkish identity, Islam and family. The training of Christian leaders is legally impossible, and it is extremely difficult to register as a new church, although small congregations can register as “associations.”

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors UK)

In trying to shift the government from a secular one to one under Sunni Islam, there’s little space left for religious minorities like Christians. That creates a climate of uncertainty, according to church leaders in Turkey.

Windsor observes, “Whether it is in relation to these articles or whether it is in relation to some of the actions, some of the verbal assaults or the vandalism that seems to come off the back of these provocations, police are not acting in response to these situations.”

Do something

Everyone is under more scrutiny. Many Christians outside of Turkey wonder how they can help or how effective any help they can offer might be. Windsor says that we can do two things to come alongside Christians in Turkey.

First, ”It’s deeply concerning, in terms of the direction of Turkey. Understanding and acknowledging what’s happening there is part of it. We want to see the international community recognizing the challenge and the potential deterioration of the situation in Turkey for religious minorities, and in general, should Turkey continue in the direction that it’s going.”

Second, he urges, ”We’d also encourage prayer for the small Christian community that there is in Turkey, which is feeling the pressure, which is concerned about what’s happening. Prayer that they would be able to stand firm, that God would be able to protect them against the evil that might be done against them and that they would be a light in that country.”

Headline photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan courtesy of Pixabay.

The legislation adds sexual orientation to the list of groups
under the protection of the federal law. It also gives states and local jurisdictions federal help in prosecuting
hate crimes.  

The bill passed the House in April as a stand-alone, but
there was enough controversy surrounding it that passage in the Senate was not
guaranteed.  

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the
Martyrs says, "They
kind of went about it in a back door way. It does go to the Senate. Apparently, it will pass the Senate, from what
we understand, partially because it's attached to this Defense Spending Bill,
and the President has said he will sign it."

Nettleton clarifies that the Hate Crimes Bill is not the
same as a Hate Speech Bill, but, "Is this the first step toward a hate speech bill that would then
make it illegal to express Christian principles about some of these
subjects?"

There is legal precedence. Already, cases have been
tried in Canada and Sweden where Christians have faced criminal prosecution
for preaching that homosexual practice is a sin.

Nettleton notes that there's good reason for evangelical
Christians to be alert and to pray. "The concern is that somewhere down the road, a pastor speaks about
homosexuality, shares what the Scriptures say about it and is accused of
inciting violence because he shared what the Scriptures say about
homosexuality."

A vote on the Senate version of the defense-spending bill,
which includes the hate crimes measure, could come as early as next week.

President of International Christian Concern Jeff King says it could be a new day under an Obama administration. "Bush, no matter what you think of him, was a great friend of the persecuted church. He stood up for them. He would intervene. He would talk to government leaders of other countries. With Obama, I'm not so sure."

King expects to see hate speech legislation pushed through congress. "While these laws on the surface sound good and they sound like they're going to tap down hatred, the whole point is it's going to be a tool to shut down Christians. We will no longer be able to speak our mind [or talk about what the Bible teaches]."

King says hate speech isn't their only concern. He says access to lawmakers and other government leaders could be at risk. "Bush was a great friend, and that filters down through the state department, through the halls of Congress, [impacting] the ability for groups like ours and others to get attention on cases of persecution. With the new president, I'm not so sure, and I'm a little worried about hate speech laws."

While the situation isn't encouraging, King says we need to pray, because this isn't someone crying "wolf." He says, "It is an absolute danger. Most people are asleep on this. The Christian community probably doesn't know it's coming. The threat has been that in the first 100 days, this will be pushed through."

Pastors have been arrested and tried in Australia under hate speech
laws for simply teaching Christians about Islam and helping Christians
to be more effective in sharing their faith with Muslims.

Pray that God would give wisdom to the Obama administration and that he would allow religious freedom to continue in the United States.

President of the International Christian Concern Jeff King says this type of legislation in the United States would violate the First Amendment. "People need to understand this: you can't have hate speech laws or anti-defamation laws and have religious freedom. They're in conflict with one another. So if you're going to have religious freedom, we're going to be allowed to say that Mohammad's wrong and our way it right. And then Muslims should have the same right."

This is what's being called a soft jihad. "The defamation suits, especially coming from Islam, are funded from Saudi Arabia in the Gulf. And they've set up a strategy to set up legal precedence to constrict the Christian community, to keep it from criticizing Islam, [and] to inhibit free speech."

However, if religious defamation legislation is approved in the U.S., King says, "You could have pastors who are arrested for saying things about homosexuals, for saying things about Islam. It's happened in other countries. It's coming here. I've talked to legislators on Capitol Hill who've said, 'You just watch. It's coming.' They've already tried to raise it."

King says this should spur American Christians into action. "They need to get on their congressman or congresswoman's website and say, 'I am against hate speech laws and defamation laws. They are anti-freedom.' That would be a good start."

If religious defamation laws are approved, evangelism would be difficult.

Kings says hate speech legislation in Australia affected two pastors who were giving a seminar on Islam. "These seminars largely consisted of opening the Koran and reading from the Koran. There was Saudi money that went into Australia; they hired the best lawyers in the country and sued these guys for defamation."

The pastors were convicted; the case was appealed and was settled after mediation.

King is asking Christians worldwide to pray. "Christians are famous for being the frog in the kettle. The temperature is turned up slowly, and we slowly cook. So because it's a far off threat, we don't take things seriously."