Last week, a Western nation did what tyrants have tried time and again: put Christianity on trial. Former Finnish Parliament member Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola were convicted of “hate speech” for the unforgivable crime of affirming, more than 20 years ago, that marriage is between one man and one woman. A church pamphlet and a single tweet referencing Scripture were treated as felonies under the same legal framework used for war crimes. In a 3-2 ruling, the court ordered the pamphlet removed from public access and destroyed.

This is not a footnote in some obscure European courtroom. This is the future the radical progressive Left has planned for every Christian in the West.

Räsänen, a grandmother and lifelong public servant, has been dragged through years of investigations, trials, and acquittals only to be convicted now for the aggravated defamation of writing what every Christian church taught for two millennia. Bishop Pohjola’s only offense was publishing that same biblical teaching. Their “hate speech”? The ancient, orthodox Christian doctrine that God designed marriage as the union of male and female. Nothing more. No violence. No threats. No calls for discrimination. Just the plain words of Scripture in the public square.

The message from Finland’s government could not be clearer: traditional Christianity is now hate. Dissent from the new sexual orthodoxy is now a crime. And the state will use the full weight of its prosecutorial power to crush it.

This is what happens when “hate speech” laws are enacted: they become weapons in the hands of secular progressives. They do not prevent violence; they manufacture offenders out of anyone who refuses to bend the knee to pride flags and gender ideology. Europe’s elites have spent decades assuring us these censorship laws would only target “extremists.” Now the extremists, it turns out, are faithful Christians who still believe in the self-evident truth that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The hostility toward Christianity is no longer hypothetical. It is here, in the heart of the West, enforced by courts and cheered by cultural commissars who lecture us about “tolerance.” While European governments bend over backward to accommodate radical Islam and open borders, they reserve their harshest treatment for the one faith that built their civilization. The same officials who warn about “Christian nationalism” in America have no problem criminalizing actual Christianity in their own countries.

Americans dare not look away. Our First Amendment still protects religious liberty, but the cultural and legal ground beneath us is shifting. The same activists who dominate Europe’s human-rights bureaucracies already infest our universities, newsrooms, and federal agencies. They have tried to redefine religious liberty to keep your beliefs locked inside the church walls and never bring them into the public square.

If Europe teaches us anything, it is that “hate speech” laws are never satisfied with compromise. They expand until every pulpit, every wedding photographer, every Catholic hospital, and every parent teaching their children the truth about God’s design for sex and family is in the crosshairs. Today, it is a Finnish politician and bishop. Tomorrow, it will be an American pastor or a parent objecting to their child undergoing transgender surgeries.

Religious liberty is not a peripheral issue. It is the first liberty. Without it, every other freedom — speech, assembly, conscience — eventually collapses. Our Founders understood this.

Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights, but Christians across the West should not wait for Strasbourg to save us. The time has come for a free speech reset. European governments must repeal these Orwellian statutes before they devour what remains of free speech. In America, we must reject every attempt to import this poison — whether through “equity” mandates, Title IX reinterpretations, or corporate DEI regimes that treat biblical Christians as moral lepers.

The West was built by men and women who believed the Bible enough to die for it. If we do not defend their faith in the public square today, we will not deserve to keep the freedoms they bequeathed us. The conviction in Finland is a warning shot across the bow of every free nation. The state that can criminalize the Bible can criminalize anything — and eventually will.

Rep. Mark Harris (R) represents North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District. He served as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte for over a decade and president of the North Carolina Baptist Convention.