The law that would jail Christians who preach the word of Christ. The project, filed in Israel

The law that would jail Christians who preach the word of Christ. The project, filed in Israel
The law that would jail Christians who preach the word of Christ. The project, filed in Israel
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The law that would send to prison the people who preach the word of Jesus Christ could be adopted in the very country where the Savior was born.

Two Israeli lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban the spread of the Christian evangelical message.

It is possible to pass a law this year that would outlaw the spreading of the gospel message in the very country where Jesus was born, raised, preached, died, was buried and rose from the dead. A bill to that effect was introduced last week by two members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. In essence, if it becomes law in this form, any speech about Jesus Christ would be banned in Israel, according to the publication All Israel News.

Moreover, in this context, the bill was submitted just before Palm Sunday and Easter – the two days of major significance in Christianity around the world. The bill provides prison terms for those who preach the word of God, the source said, and if passed, would create big problems for Netanyahu’s government, triggering a serious confrontation with evangelical Christians in the United States and around the world, who are among the biggest supporters of the state of Israel, the quoted source says.

In the United States alone, there are approximately 60 million evangelicals and worldwide, there are an estimated 600 million, according to the World Evangelical Alliance.

The bill could also draw sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the executive branch, US governors and others who have always stood by the Jewish state but would oppose it. with fierce efforts to silence the followers of Jesus in the Holy Land.

Former US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback – who served during the Trump-Pence administration – is the first US leader to publicly warn that this new bill poses a massive threat to free speech, human rights and religious freedom.

“Free and democratic countries simply do not prohibit the free exchange of ideas, and this includes religious beliefs and convictions. Article 18 of the Universal Charter of Human Rights – which Israel is a signatory to – guarantees freedom of religion, including the right to decide on one’s own religious beliefs,” said Sam Brownback.

The provisions of the bill submitted to parliament

The bill would outlaw all efforts by people of a particular faith who in any way wish to discuss or try to persuade people of other faiths to consider changing their current religious beliefs. The penalty for this would be “one year in prison”.

If the conversation takes place with a minor – a person under the age of 18 – the penalty would be “two years in prison”.

This bill would apply to people who have spiritual conversations with Israelis of any religion.

However, in the statement of reasons for the bill, the two Israeli lawmakers specifically emphasized the warning to stop Christians in particular.

Therefore, the main objective of the bill seems to be to make it illegal for followers of Jesus (“Yeshua” in Hebrew) to explain why they believe Jesus is both the Messiah and God, in the hope that Israelis might take considering the possibility of following him.

The bill doesn’t just make a simple personal conversation about Jesus with another person a crime.

It would also make illegal “any person who recruits a person – directly, digitally, by mail or online – ‘for the purpose of religious conversion.’

Thus, producing and publishing online videos explaining the Gospel to Jews or Muslims in Israel – and those of any other religious faith – would suddenly become illegal.

Publishing books, other types of printed literature, online articles, podcasts, or other forms of media that explain the life and ministry of Jesus and his New Testament message would also become illegal.

So would discussing the gospel message via email, text, letters, and/or social media, including responding to questions initiated by non-followers of Jesus.

It is already a crime in Israel to try to proselytize minors or to bribe people of any age with money or material goods to change their religious views.

But this new legislation tries to go much further.

“Sometimes these attempts do not involve monetary promises or material gains and are therefore not illegal under current law,” the bill notes, “but the many negative repercussions, including psychological harm, warrant legislative intervention.”

“Therefore, it is proposed that, along with the prohibition of giving favors as an inducement for religious conversion, the act of soliciting religious conversion, when it is done directly to a person,” be it a face-to-face meeting face or through any other means of communication.

Who are the authors of the anti-Christian bill?

The authors of the bill, Moshe Gafni (pictured) and Yaakov Asher, are ultra-Orthodox Jewish members of the Knesset.

Both are members of United Torah Judaism (UTJ), a Haredi (ultra-religious) political party that holds a total of seven of the 120 seats in the current Israeli parliament.

And both are influential voices in the Netanyahu-led governing coalition.

Moshe Gafni is 70 years old. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1988 and has been in office almost continuously since then. He is currently the chairman of the powerful Knesset Finance Committee, as well as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Joint Committee on the Defense Budget.

Yaakov Asher, 57, was first elected to parliament in 2013. He currently serves as chairman of the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environmental Protection Committee.

But Gafni has a long history of opposition to the followers of Jesus.

He first introduced the legal ban on evangelism in Israel in 1999.

His bill failed to pass, but since then Gafni has repeatedly reintroduced other versions of the restrictive legislation he envisioned.

And Prime Minister Netanyahu has not, in the past, allowed such legislation to pass, and neither has the center-right party he belongs to, Likud.

The reason would be that Netanyahu and most, if not all, members of the Likud party have always demonstrated that they are adamant about preserving and protecting the Jewish state as a liberal democracy.

They have always believed that even unpopular views should be able to be held and expressed in Israel and that the rights of religious and ethnic minorities should be protected under the rule of law, the source said.

Source: All Israel News, Pro TV

Publication date: 03-22-2023 16:58

The article is in Romanian

Tags: law jail Christians preach word Christ project filed Israel

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