Just how free is free speech? For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

We used to hearing about free speech being squashed in places like Iran or China, but Finland?

Well, according to Christianity today, several Lutherans in that country are now on trial for, quote, criminal incitement against a minority group, hate speech.

All this for affirming the same beliefs about human sexuality that Christians have held for thousands of years.

Now, on one hand, this is surprising. Finland's a Western country. It prizes human rights,

diversity of thought. On the other hand, this kind of thing is inevitable, since many now assume

that any opposition to LGBTQ ideology has to be born of hate and fear, and that hate speech

shouldn't be protected speech. That's when it becomes inevitable for a society to squash the tenets of Christianity.

Now, let's be clear, those who challenge the current sexual status quo do so because they love their neighbors.

And it's precisely the idea as the wider society finds distasteful that free speech is designed to protect.

What's happening in Finland is a reminder.

Political decisions flowed downstream from cultural assumptions.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.