Europe: intolerance towards Christians on the riseA few weeks ago the Observatory for Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe published the report "Under Pressure. The human rights of Christians in Europe."The report for the years 2019-2020 lists some of the main obstacles faced by Christians in Europe.
Faced with this reality of the radicalization of secularism in various environments, the Viennese Martin KuglerIn Omnes, he stresses the need for Christians to "be more authentic and less frightened, to be well informed and to express themselves with intelligible and reasonable arguments.
A very interesting point is the phenomenon that this study calls secular intolerance. There are those who call themselves Christians and defend this idea of religion as "something private". Is the public dimension of a religion being confused with a confessional state?
-The public dimension of the lived Christian faith is evident and necessary. To confuse it with "political Catholicism" is completely anachronistic, but it is deliberately used by proponents of radical secularism to intimidate Christians who actively participate in public life. However, the issue is very simple when one makes it concrete. Our relationship with God and the Church is a very personal thing, but it has consequences that affect our whole lives as citizens, workers or business people, journalists or teachers, voters and politicians, etc.
The same could be said of atheists or agnostics, whom no one would ask to discard their worldview when they write an article or get involved in politics. Yes, even when they make a judicial decision, they are influenced by their beliefs, which can be seen, for example, in decisions of the ECtHR.
The trick, very common among European secularist elites, works very simply: they present the agnostic or even anti-Christian point of view as the neutral position par excellence. In the Viennese Jewish tradition, this is called chutzpahshamelessness.
Our relationship with God and the Church is very personal, but it has consequences that affect our whole life as citizens.
Martin KuglerObservatory for Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe
Dialogues and rights
The report highlights the ignorance of the religious fact in many governments, which is a problem when dealing with these attacks against Christians. Is there a solution for this? How to act when there is no predisposition to dialogue?
-This ignorance also has to do with a pronounced unwillingness to take seriously the phenomenon of people of faith. To cross this threshold, we need to reduce prejudice and be considerate in style, especially in communicating our concerns and problems.
A good example is the pro-life movement. The choice of words can close doors, but it can also open them. There is a big difference between talking about abortion as "murder" or pointing out that every abortion ends the heartbeat of one of the weakest members of our society. And that abortion is irrevocable and remains a wound forever. It is also often useful to call prejudices by their name in a polite and clear way, and thus awaken part of the public.
We must not resign ourselves to the fact that Christians, especially the Catholic Church, always appear as victimizers and never as victims in movies and theater, in school books, in novels... In general, in the media. This seems to be a dogma, observable in the lack of attention to the drama of the growing persecution of Christians throughout the world or, regionally, in turning a blind eye to the discrimination of Christians in Europe.
The report points to Spain as one of the countries where this intolerance is not only permitted, but almost encouraged by the institutions.. How to combine this call for dialogue with the defense of rights that are violated by a supposed rule of law?
-Like many Austrians, I am a fan of Spain and am therefore very concerned about some developments. In fact, the ideology that prevails in part of the establishment Spanish reminds me of the attitudes of teenagers. Teenagers who, 50 years after Franco's death, had to demonstrate a rebellion against conservative values.
On some issues such as identity politics, sex and gender education or anti-discrimination, it seems as if all adults have left the living room in Western and Northern Europe. And I am not saying this myself, but British liberal author Douglas Murray, who as a homosexual shows great unease about this fact.
However, on certain issues there is hope for a victory of reason, because the cultural Marxist left is divided within itself. One example is the transgender movement, which is full of contradictions and yet is building up massive pressure, rendering the historical gains of the feminist movement obsolete.
In Great Britain, for example, they now refrain from hormonal and surgical treatment of young people only because they express this desire to a psychotherapist or a doctor. A bill to this effect has been stopped.
Responsibility of Christians
One of the serious problems we observe in Europe is the polarization of positions and even a certain "ghettoization" among those who defend one position or the other. How can we overcome this reality? Are there signs of hope anywhere?
-In the book "Democracy without Religion?" published in Madrid in 2014. (Stella Maris) we have already pointed out this danger. The famous Jewish professor Joseph Weiler wrote at the time about a double ghetto for faithful Christians in Europe. One in which they were forced by intimidation, political pressure or even the curtailment of certain rights such as freedom of conscience.
The other ghetto would be the one in which many Christians would have voluntarily placed themselves because it would take a lot of courage, energy and hope to remain in the assigned place, even in the main place of social discourse.
On issues such as identity politics, sex and gender education or anti-discrimination, it seems as if all the adults have left the room.
Martin KuglerObservatory for Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe
The report is intended to be an aid to dialogue, but there are those who may be even more afraid of seeing this regression of religious freedoms. How can we overcome this fear and lead, without extremism, these realities to a normalization of the rights of Christians?
Pope Benedict delivered an important speech in the German Parliament in 2011. He described the ecology of man as a reality that is always on our side, so to speak, and against all ideologies. His predecessor, St. John Paul II, pointed out that the great "evil" of the 20th century - Nazism and Marxism - was finally overcome also in this last century.
In 1989, in Eastern Europe, after 50 years of communist dictatorship, the people demonstrated a surprising capacity for resistance. And finally, dialogue can also mean preventing bad things from happening, so that a situation is only "half bad". So, please, no "all or nothing" posturing.
The study calls for the involvement of Christians in cultural, social and political life. Has there been a certain neglect of this duty on the part of Christians?
In general, Christians in Europe should abandon the position of a so-called angry majority and become a creative minority. As beacons of society, we could also get the silent majority to speak and act. Or at least give something like a witness of hope for the next generation and create the basis for a new beginning.
It is essential for Christians to be more authentic and less frightened, to be well informed and to express themselves with intelligible and reasonable arguments. In this world, they are increasingly becoming advocates of freedom and a full life.
