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Europe’s Christians face “spiritual battle” to safeguard religious freedom

“I think we are in a spiritual battle and of course the freedom to proclaim the gospel is at stake,” said Julia Doxat-Purser during a plenary forum at the European Evangelical Alliance Assembly this week in Evia, Greece.

The session on “Increasing Influence in Religious Liberty/Freedom of Speech” addressed the present challenges faced by Christians in Europe, particularly in light of the hate laws and blasphemy laws that are coming into place in a number of European countries.

Mats Tunehag, representing the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, led the session together with Doxat-Purser.

He warned that the blasphemy laws in the UK and Norway were “problematic” because they were being used by countries like Pakistan – which has a poor track record on religious freedom – to justify their own more repressive blasphemy laws.

“If you really want to see what a blasphemy law looks like, go to Pakistan,” he said, where the country’s tiny Christian minority faces daily the threat of violent attacks and marginalisation.

Tunehag also defended the right of newspapers like Jyllands-Posten in Denmark, which published the controversial Muhammad cartoons, to publish religiously sensitive material.

“Occasionally we will be offended. You cannot have free speech and guarantee that no one will ever be offended,” he said.

Tunehag warned that Europe was experiencing a shift away from freedom of speech towards the freedom of hearing, where the right to voice an opinion is trumped by the right of an individual or group to not hear what they do not agree with.

He maintained that limiting free speech would only stifle political debate and curtail democracy.

“Freedom of hearing kills freedom of speech and the ramifications are huge if we go down the slippery slope.

“When certain groups like Muslims and homosexuals gain these rights, in the end they will also be the losers because what we want is freedom of speech for all,” he stated.

Doxat-Purser stressed, meanwhile, that the freedom of speech, and particularly the freedom of newspapers and media outlets to express their views, had to be exercised sensitively.

“Journalists shouldn’t cause such offence to Muslims or Christians,” she said, adding, “Journalists should be more responsible.”

She pressed assembly delegates to extend God’s love, justice and compassion to Muslims, fanatical secularists, homosexuals and other groups deemed a threat to the freedom of Christians in Europe.

“I think we are in a spiritual battle and of course the freedom to proclaim the gospel is at stake,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how frustrated we are in the battle, we have to remember our foundational ethics of love and tolerance and doing what Jesus would do.”

Doxat-Purser went on to encourage evangelicals to seek out those with political influence to fight the human rights battle whilst at the same time inspiring the churches to keep up compassionate outreach.

“We have to reach out and take seriously the idea that Jesus loves these people,” she told delegates, referring to the example set by Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

She concluded: “The church is called to love the people we don’t want to love.”