As of the 7th of January, the Dutch ministry responsible for prosecution is looking into the possibility of punishing Dutch citizens who have signed the Nashville statement. The Nashville statement is a declaration of evangelical Christians relating to human sexuality and gender roles authored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This statement contains opposition to LGBT sexuality, same-sex marriage, polygamy, adultery and supports an opposite-sex definition of marriage.

After several Dutch politicians and church leaders signed the statement, a big state media led controversy started in the Netherlands. The responsible ministry called the “Openbaar Ministerie” or the Public Prosecution Service gave the following statement;

“We take this step because this statement is very much alive in our society, next to that several people have announced they will press charges”

The Netherlands as a democratic country has a rich history of suppressing freedom of speech and is a country where speech is actively censored. Recently the Netherlands has restarted prosecutions against Geert Wilders because he asked his public if they want more or less people from Morocco. When the crowd overwhelmingly shouted “Less, Less and Less” the Dutch government decided to prosecute Geert Wilders. Next to prosecuting people who have socially undesirable opinions, the Dutch government also bans books and literature which it dislikes.

This is another important milestone in the joint liberal/socialist struggle to make the Netherlands into a place where freedom of speech is only reserved for those with the right opinions.

