On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon discusses JD Vance's 'bombshell' Munich Security Conference (MSC) speech, why it received considerable backlash from European elites and political commentators, and more.
(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon discusses JD Vance’s recent Munich Security Conference (MSC) speech, why it received considerable backlash from European elites and political commentators, and more.
Jonathon opened the episode by emphasizing how the U.S. vice president's speech rightly called out the failures of European elites.
“The speech really was a bombshell speech. I don’t think there’s ever been a leader, an American leader in particular, who is this high-ranking in the administration, coming across to Europe and confronting the leaders with their own failings,” Jonathon said. “This is not the way diplomacy has been exercised, but I really don’t think diplomacy was really JD Vance’s intent.”
READ: JD Vance exposed European elites’ anti-democratic hypocrisy in his bombshell Munich speech
Then Jonathon read from part of Vance’s speech which highlighted how Christians across the so-called "democratic" continent have had their speech censored and have even been arrested for simply praying outside abortion mills:
Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be ‘hateful content.’ I look to my own country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny on the internet.’I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder. As the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant, and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.’
Perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends in the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the crosshairs. A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes.
Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before.
Now the officers were not moved. Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new buffer zones law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.
Now I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person.
But no, this last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law. Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime. In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.
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Jonathon stressed how significant it was to hear the sitting American vice president address these issues.
“To hear the American vice president confront the European leadership with their totalitarian instincts, with their censorship and suppression of Christians, it was truly wild to watch this speech,” the host said.
A bit later, Jonathon noted the significant pushback the speech received from European leadership, underscoring that this was in response to Vance challenging the modern dogmas they hold.
“What exactly are the shared values of the Western countries? ... It’s really difficult to tell when what you actually see for the most part is the European leadership, including the Brussels leadership that imposes its views on sovereign nations, they’re trying to essentially enforce pro-abortion dogma, they’re trying to enforce the pro-LGBT agenda,” he said.
“We see the way they responded to Poland’s pro-life laws. ... We see the way that the European Union attempts to pressure member states that still hold pro-life laws like Malta, we see the way that the European Union responded to Hungary passing laws that banned LGBT propaganda aimed at children,” he added.
For Jonathon’s full analysis, tune in to this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show.
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