Secularist
Europe Silences Pro-Lifers and
Creationists
LAST week, a German court
sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to one year
in jail for "Volksverhetzung" (incitement
of the people) because he compared the killing of
the unborn in contemporary Germany to the
holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is
going to vote on a resolution imposing Darwinism as
Europe's official ideology.
The European governments are asked to fight the
expression of creationist
opinions, such as young
earth and intelligent
design theories. According to the
Council of Europe these theories are "undemocratic"
and "a threat to human rights."
Without legalized abortion the number of German
children would increase annually by at least
150,000 &endash; which is the number of legal
abortions in birth dearth Germany. Pastor
Johannes Lerle compared the killing of the
unborn to the killing of the Jews in Auschwitz
during the Second World War. On 14 June, a
court
in Erlangen ruled that, in doing so, the
pastor had "incited the people" because his
statement was a denial
of the holocaust of the Jews in
Nazi-Germany. Hence, Herr Lerle was sentenced to
one year in jail. Earlier, he had already spent
eight months in jail for calling abortionists
"professional killers" &endash; an allegation which
the court ruled to be slanderous because, according
to the court, the unborn are not humans.
Other German courts convicted pro-lifers for
saying that "in abortion clinics, life unworthy of
living is being killed," because this terminology
evoked Hitler's euthanasia program, which used the
same language. In 2005, a German pro-lifer,
Günter Annen, was sentenced
to 50 days in jail for saying "Stop
unjust [rechtswidrige] abortions
in [medical] practice," because, according
to the court, the expression "unjust" is understood
by laymen as meaning illegal, which abortions are
not.
Volksverhetzung is a crime which the
Nazis often invoked against their enemies and which
contemporary Germany also uses to intimidate
homeschoolers. Soon, the German
authorities will be able to use the same charge
against people who question Darwin's evolution
theory.
Indeed, next Tuesday, the Council
of Europe (CoE), Europe's main
human-rights body, will vote on a proposal which
advocates the fight against creationism, "young
earth" and "intelligent design" in its 47
member states.
According to a report
of the CoE's Parliamentary Assembly,
creationists are dangerous "religious
fundamentalists" who propagate "forms of religious
extremism" and "could become a threat to human
rights." The report adds that the acceptance of the
science of evolutionism "is crucial to the future
of our societies and our democracies."
"Creationism, born of the denial of the
evolution of species through natural selection, was
for a long time an almost exclusively American
phenomenon," the report says.
"Today creationist theories are tending
to find their way into Europe and their spread
is affecting quite a few Council of Europe
member states. [
] [T]his
is liable to encourage the development of all
manner of fundamentalism and extremism,
synonymous with attacks of utmost virulence on
human rights. The total rejection of science is
definitely one of the most serious threats to
human rights and civic rights. [
]
The war on the theory of evolution and on its
proponents most often originates in forms of
religious extremism which are closely allied to
extreme right-wing political movements. The
creationist movements possess real political
power. The fact of the matter, and this has been
exposed on several occasions, is that the
advocates of strict creationism are out to
replace democracy by theocracy. [...] If
we are not careful, the values that are the very
essence of the Council of Europe will be under
direct threat from creationist
fundamentalists."
According to the CoE report, America and
Australia are already on their way towards becoming
such undemocratic theocracies where human and civic
rights are endangered. Creationism is
"well-developed in the English-speaking countries,
especially the United States and Australia," the
report states.
"While most curricula in Europe today
unashamedly teach evolution as a recognised
scientific theory, the same does not apply to
the United States. In July 2005, the Pew
Research Center conducted a poll that showed
that 64% of Americans favoured the teaching of
intelligent design alongside the theory of
evolution and that 38% would support the total
abandonment of the teaching of evolution in
publicly owned schools. The American President
George W. Bush supports the principle of
teaching both intelligent design and the theory
of evolution. At the moment, 20 of the 50
American states are facing potential adjustments
of their school curricula in favour of
intelligent design. Many people think that this
phenomenon only affects the United States and
that, even if it is not possible to be
indifferent to what is happening on the other
side of the Atlantic, it is not the Council of
Europe's role to deal with this issue. That,
however, is not the case. On the contrary, it
would seem crucial for us to take the
appropriate precautions in our 47 member
states."
Though one may disagree with people who take the
Book
of Genesis literally (believing that God
created the world in six days and rested on the
seventh), surely secularist political organizations
telling people what they may or may not believe,
constitute a far greater threat to human rights
than religious institutions telling their faithful
how to vote. In the voting booth people are free to
do what they like, whilst in contemporary Europe
people are no longer free to publicly voice their
own, deeply felt opinions in public.
In Germany, believing abortion to be as
murderous as the holocaust is a crime, and
educating your own children is a
crime too. In France, saying that
"homosexual behaviour endangers the survival of
humanity" is a
crime, and so is the distribution
of pork soup to the poor. In Belgium,
speaking out against immigration is a
crime.
In the latest issue of the Dutch conservative
magazine Bitter Lemon the Dutch author
Erik van Goor writes
that European courts are silencing
conservative and orthodox citizens. Freedom of
speech no longer exist, says van Goor.
"While many in the West still
idolize the second-hand fighters for free
speech, such as [Ayaan]
Hirsi Ali and Theo
van Gogh, the true
victims of curtailment are
deliberately kept under wraps. Hirsi Ali,
[Pim]
Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh were not
curtailed by the state or by court, Johannes
Lerle is. The former voiced mere opinions
&endash; expressions of a public opinion which
one may or may not value or believe. The latter
&endash; Dr Lerle &endash; shows that what is at
stake is not merely opinions, but a moral
order which is being questioned; a
reality of life and death which is at risk."
Hirsi Ali, Fortuyn and van Gogh did not defend
Europe's traditional Christian moral order. People
such as Johannes Lerle and Christian Vanneste, the
French parliamentarian who was convicted for
"homophobia," do. The latter are being persecuted
by Western Europe's political regimes &endash; a
phenomenon which is ignored completely by the
Western mainstream media, who participate in the
persecution.
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