Pending Directive Would Mean Open Season on Christians
by Stephen Bakervillw, WorldNetDaily
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - The attack on Christianity taking place throughout the Western world is not limited to cultural polemics. It has crossed the line into legislation that will silence not only Christians but all speech to which anyone objects.
A little-known directive now pending behind closed doors in the European Union will enable anyone objecting to Christian beliefs to sue Christians or anyone else to whose views they object.
The proposed Equal Treatment Directive is a blanket order issued to European governments by the EU, prohibiting "discrimination" and "harassment" virtually by anyone against anyone. There is no requirement that accusers prove their accusations; instead, the burden falls on the accused to prove their innocence. Indeed, it is formulated so that an accusation in itself amounts to a finding of guilt. It also offers rich financial rewards to accusers and inflicts crushing financial penalties on the accused.
Though the directive includes a number of potential victim groups, sexual ideology is uppermost. "Sexual orientation" is among the grounds listed for victimization, and anyone offended by Christian sexual morality can sue and collect from anyone expressing it.
As with other measures formulated by sexual ideologues, victim status is determined subjectively: An accuser automatically becomes a "victim" merely by being "offended," essentially simply by accusing. Discrimination is defined as being treated by someone "less favorably" than someone else, and the determination of whether one has been treated less favorably is made by the one claiming to be a victim.
Thus any accusation is automatically true by definition. As professor William Wagner of Thomas Cooley Law School has observed, it is impossible to defend against an accusation; one is guilty by virtue of being accused.
The accuser may then demand virtually any amount of money from the accused. Being offended brings lucrative payoffs, and offending means ruin. This creates financial incentives to bring as many accusations as possible, creating a windfall for lawyers.
The directive also creates new armies of bureaucrats for the express purpose of encouraging complaints and lawsuits. It requires governments to create officials to provide "independent assistance to [alleged?] victims of discrimination in pursuing their complaints." As Sophia Kuby of European Dignity Watch reports, these officials will mount legal challenges in the names of the victims and assume the legal costs. No similar officials exist to protect the accused. The directive even allows private groups to mount legal action on behalf of accusers. "Any NGO [nongovernmental organization], who has the necessary financial power, could henceforth accuse alleged offenders and appear in court as complainant although the presumed discriminatory behavior is not directly related to them," observes Kuby. Since such groups could then figure their own "costs" into the inevitable award, this becomes a risk-free invitation to loot Christians and anyone else whose views are deemed "offensive."
The vagueness of the directive also makes it difficult to know if one has violated it. "The ambiguous language … fails to provide the public with adequate notice of the kind of conduct that is prohibited," writes Christian Concern for Our Nation. If citizens cannot determine what is prohibited, they cannot know if they have transgressed. Everyone is potentially guilty.
Especially insidious is a provision on "harassment," taken directly from the concept of sexual harassment, which it broadens to make even more vague and subjective. Harassment is defined as anything having "the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment." This allows an accusation merely for expressing something the accuser perceives as creating an "offensive environment." Criticizing homosexual conduct in the abstract is considered harassment of individual accusers (who are potentially limitless).
The directive also penalizes discrimination based on "age" but gives no guidelines for what this means. Because it can include children, it further undermines the authority and rights of parents.
With audacious irony, the measure also purports to protect "religious belief," but this is inverted to mean not freedom to express one's beliefs but freedom to sue others for expressing their beliefs. As Kuby explains, "explanation of one's religious tenets to a person of another faith could also be interpreted as harassment."
As is often the case with radical ideology, this directive creates precisely the problem it claims to be combating. A measure advertised to protect religious freedom will destroy it. If anyone is creating an intimidating and hostile environment, it is the EU, and if anyone is being harassed, it is Christians and others who express unpopular views. As noted by Andrea Williams of Christian Concern for Our Nation, "Rather than protecting people against harassment, the harassment provisions become nothing less than a license to harass those who disagree with one's views." Perhaps the first action under this directive should be a suit by Christians against the European Union.
The very method by which this measure is being considered reflects a culture of censorship. It is being negotiated in secret at the EU, and requests for documents by CCFON have been denied.
CCFON's apparently apocalyptic scenario is not far-fetched: "Those with an anti-Christian agenda will wield a weapon capable of extinguishing Christian expression in Europe."
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Source: WorldNetDaily.com
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
COMMENT by ginnyrose:
Even if this possible legislation fails to become law, the fact that it is even up for consideration should give one pause.
