The issue of homosexuality is also being used to restrict free speech in Europe. In Britain the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act was passed in May 2008 creating the criminal offence of ‘incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation’. A group of dedicated Peers led by Lord Waddington won an amendment to the act in the House of Lords, forcing the Government to accept that people should not be hauled before the Courts for stating that homosexual sex is wrong, or for trying to persuade homosexuals to remain celibate. But now the government wants to remove that protection. The crime of inciting homophobic hatred includes any words or behaviour which is threatening and intended to stir up hatred. Speaking out Bible passages which say that homosexual activity is sinful in the sight of God may be perceived to be threatening and so be considered to be unlawful.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution which calls for abortion rights and ‘gay marriage’ to be promoted throughout the EU. The resolution was proposed by Italian Communist MEP, Giusto Catania. The resolution also calls on all EU member states to recognise same-sex civil partnerships equally with heterosexual marriage and calls for critics to be silenced. The resolution says the European Parliament ‘Takes the view that discriminatory comments against homosexuals by social and political leaders fuel hatred and violence, and calls on the relevant governing bodies to condemn them.’

Meanwhile, government ministers from the 27 member states of the European Union are debating a draft EU Directive that aims to outlaw discrimination and ‘harassment’ in the provision of goods and services. The new legislation would, for example, shut down Christian adoption agencies if they refuse to provide same-sex couples with children. Indeed, the definition of ‘harassment’ is so broad that even moderate explanations of Christian beliefs on sexual conduct or other religions could be considered a crime.

In the article quoted above Soeren Kern writes, ‘Europe’s war on free speech is the result of a profound identity crisis, one that is being generated by the blanket abandonment of traditional Judeo-Christian values coupled with mass immigration from Muslim countries. But in their zeal to criminalise free thought and free speech, the leftwing guardians of Orwellian political correctness are systematically destroying European democracy. Not only are European elites using hate crime legislation to silence people with opinions that do not conform to official state policies. They are also dividing Europeans into two groups (the majority and the minority), each with different rights and responsibilities. The minority (Muslims, homosexuals, Socialists) is imposing its will upon the majority (non-Muslim, heterosexuals, non-Socialists) by aggressively prosecuting those who refuse to fall into line.’

At the same time in America President Obama is poised to be the most pro-homosexual chief executive in history. Unveiling his agenda on the newly refurbished version of the White House Web site, Obama called for the repeal of the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), as well as the extension of more than 1,000 federal marriage benefits and of adoption rights to homosexual couples. The new administration laid out its plans on the Web site (whitehouse.gov). 

The site’s ‘Civil Rights’ section lists a number of items long on the homosexual agenda, including expanding federal hate-crimes laws, repealing the ban on homosexuals in the military and extending the definition of workplace discrimination to include sexual orientation. Obama also favours granting adoption rights to homosexual couples, saying that children benefit from a healthy home, regardless of whether the ‘parents’ are homosexual or not. 


A film produced by Coral Ridge Ministries in the United States shows how the planned extension of ‘hate crimes’ legislation could end up in the criminalization of Christianity. It shows how Christians in America, Canada, Australia, and Sweden have been arrested and prosecuted for expressing opinions that are rooted in the Bible regarding homosexual conduct, Islam or other topics about which Scriptures express clear teachings. ‘On the surface, hate crime laws might sound like a good idea,’ said Jerry Newcombe, of Coral Ridge, who hosts the film. ‘After all, none of us advocates hatred or violence against another person. But if you look below the surface, suddenly you realize that these laws are really thought crime laws.’



He gives the following examples. In Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law last year a plan that analysts believe effectively bans publication of the Bible in the state. The gender ‘anti-discrimination’ law bans publication of statements that can be perceived as being negative toward those individuals choosing alternative sexual lifestyles. Canada already has an aggressive ‘hate crimes’ law, and there authorities have gone so far as to tell a Christian pastor he must recant his faith because of the legislation that bans statements that can be ‘perceived’ as condemning another person. In Sweden, Pastor Ake Green spoke out against homosexual conduct in a 2003 sermon and was prosecuted for 'hate speech.' In Australia, all it took to bring two ministers into a courtroom on charges of vilifying Islam was a seminar in their own church about Muslim beliefs.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said ‘opposing’ homosexuality makes you a sick person, and he believes such thoughts need to be criminalized. The First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals was held in Brazil to condemn the biblical belief that homosexuality is wrong. President Lula not only officially opened the event to promote homosexuality across his nation but also issued a presidential sanction for the conference. Calling for ‘the criminalization of homophobia,’ he said opposition to homosexuality is ‘perhaps the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head.’ He said ‘prejudiced’ people need to ‘open their minds and clean them.’

In the face of all this Christians need to stand up for the right to teach what the Bible says on controversial issues. In doing this we have to realise that we are swimming against the tide. Gordon Brown may have spoken about his ‘moral compass’ when he took office as Prime Minister, but the direction the ship of state he presides over is going in looks increasingly perilous as far as issues of Christian conscience and freedom of speech are concerned.

Given the fact that these developments affect the whole of the western world and that anti Christian measures are already in place in the Muslim and Communist countries, it is not hard to see the development of a world wide anti Christ system which fits in with the prophecies of the end times in the Bible. Jesus said that in the last days ‘You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake’. Matthew 24.9. Revelation 13 describes the last days when the world system is ruled by the beast: ‘And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue forty two months (3 ½ years). Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation.’

How far we are off the fulfilment of these things only God knows, but we certainly see the preparation in the way the world is going. Often the people responsible for pushing the world in this direction think they are anti-establishment, daring radicals campaigning for freedom. In fact they are slavish conformists doing the will of spiritual forces of evil and the powerful people who are shaping the world for its final conflict with God.

The real non-conformists are those who refuse to bow the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19.18) and keep the faith delivered to us by the apostles of the Lord Jesus: ‘Beloved while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. … But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.’ Jude 3-4, 20-21.