Pressure on Western Nations to Defend Religious Freedom
Western countries are being urged to safeguard religious freedom, including for individuals with traditional beliefs on marriage and sexuality.
At a recent meeting in Berlin, Germany, religious freedom experts from across the globe expressed concerns about the “growing intolerance” toward people of faith in Europe and North America.
Anja Hoffmann, executive director of the Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians in Europe and co-organiser of the event, cautioned that the increasingly hostile environment is leading many believers to conceal their views.
She said, “It is very worrying that the peaceful expression of personal religious beliefs on matters relating to marriage and family has become the potential end of a political career or employment or even the beginning of a court case.”
“This is a serious threat to religious freedom and leads to widespread self-censorship among traditional believers in the West.”
READ: CAFO Celebrates 20 Years Anniversary at Nashville Summit
The event was held alongside the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief, which convened representatives from 38 member states of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA) in Berlin earlier this month. Member states of the IRFBA include the U.K., the U.S., Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany.
This fringe meeting was coordinated by the Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, the Hungarian State Secretariat for Aid to Persecuted Christians, and the Religious Freedom Institute based in Washington, D.C.
The religious freedom institute said, ”The institutions that monitor and advance religious freedom in the EU and around the world have come together in response to a common concern: religious believers in the West are increasingly being targeted, marginalised, and sometimes even prosecuted for peacefully expressing their traditional religious convictions about family, marriage, and human nature.
“This problem must be addressed to safeguard the pluralistic societies of Western democracies.”
José Luis Bazán from the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) stated, “This phenomenon, which Pope Francis has aptly termed ‘polite persecution,’ can be seen as policies and legislation, along with social pressure, that undermine and restrict Christians’ ability to express and live according to their moral and religious principles in modern liberal societies.”
The meeting also addressed the issue of Western nations trying to impose liberal ideologies on other countries. Aid to the Church in Need and a member of the IRFBA Council of Experts, Marcela Szymanski, explained that countries in the Global South may face material penalties if they implement local measures that conflict with the dominant beliefs of Western nations or refuse to comply with ideological conditionality clauses.
Further, the organisers presented a declaration to IRFBA member states, urging them to support religious freedom for everyone, including individuals with traditional beliefs regarding marriage, family, and human nature.
Also, Todd Huizinga, senior fellow for Europe at the Religious Freedom Institute, stated, “We believe this declaration could significantly contribute to protecting religious freedom for all, as well as fostering greater mutual understanding, tolerance, and peace in our diverse societies.”
President of the Religious Freedom Institute, David Trimble, voiced concerns about widespread efforts in the West to marginalise and even eliminate fundamental truths about God, family, and human sexuality that are central to the Abrahamic faith traditions.
He said, “When accommodation means the unwillingness to recognise these enduring truths, then freedom of religion for all is no longer freedom of religion at all.”
Content Credit| Igbakuma Rita Doom
Picture Credit | https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/10-things-every-christian-should-know-about-the-cross.html
