Amid all the talk about tariffs with China, and how they steal America’s intellectual property and establish all kinds of trade barriers with this country, you might have missed this story. It’s not about economics, but at the same time, it tells you a lot about what authoritarian countries like China fear the most.
Beginning on May 1, China will accelerate its crackdown on religion, and Christianity in particular. Foreign missionaries will be banned from preaching unless they obtain formal approval from the government.
According to Chinese state media, the goal of the new regulation is to protect “national security” and “political stability” by forcing people to attend official, state-run religious services with pre-approved messaging. Additionally, Chinese state media has recently boasted about the fact that religious groups — which the government calls “cult organizations” — have been increasingly shut down in China. At this point, one of the fastest ways to disappear in China is to deliver a sermon that upsets the ruling party.
Of course, this is the exact opposite of the result we were promised when the United States normalized free trade with China several decades ago. As Bill Clinton put it, “Membership in the W.T.O. will not create a free society in China overnight or guarantee that China will play by global rules. … But over time, I believe it will move China faster and further in the right direction.”
That hasn’t happened. Instead, China is now aggressively moving to crush Christians, for the simple reason that Christians believe in a higher power than their government. We have not introduced Western norms to China. We have not exported our values to them. Instead, despite the promises of free trade, China has successfully exported its totalitarian impulses to the West. One by one, Western countries are adopting anti-Christian crackdowns, to the point that they’re making it illegal for Christians to practice their faith.
What’s happening right now in New South Wales, which is a state on the east coast of Australia, makes this very clear. Earlier this month, something called the “Conversion Practices Ban Act of 2024” became law in New South Wales. This law, by its own terms, allows the authorities to arrest Christians for praying. That is not an exaggeration or an overstatement. It’s actually written into the legislation. From the government of New South Wales: “Praying with or over a person with the intent to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity is unlawful. It is unlawful even if that person has asked you to pray for them to be able to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity.”
This again is in Australia, a western nation. Not China. Praying with someone who wants you to pray with them could land you in jail. That’s happening right now, in a supposed western democracy.
WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show
In other words, if someone wants to pray to God so that he can overcome his gender dysphoria — a condition that, by definition, causes significant mental distress — then his pastor cannot pray with him. In fact, his own family members cannot pray with him. If the police discover that any unapproved prayers have been occurring, they can kick down the doors of the church, or the family home, and haul away the violators. And then they’ll spend up to five years in prison for their crimes against the state: The crime of praying.
Just to emphasize this point, the government of New South Wales published the single most Orwellian video you’ll ever see. No matter how many times you’ve heard the word “Orwellian,” believe me, this qualifies. This is the government’s attempt to intimidate the millions of people who live in New South Wales, with their new law that bans prayer.
Here’s how the video begins:
First of all, by the terms of this legislation, every single gender activist in Australia is a criminal. They all believe, without exception, that you can choose to be “LGBTQA” (which is apparently the acronym now). There’s no other way to explain people who ping-pong between genders at will, or people who de-transition. In fact the concept of “fluidity” is now dogma in the LGBT religion. Fluidity — sexual fluidity, gender fluidity — means that you can change at will from one sexuality or gender to another. If someone identifies as a Bi-gender Toasterkin, and then a few weeks later decides he’s really a Demi-gender, half-humanoid alpaca, or whatever, then at some point, we can conclude that this person made a choice to identify in some arbitrary way. And every step of the way, gender activists — according to the tenets of their ideology — have no choice but to affirm everything. This is one of the reasons trans activists keep losing in court, by the way. They have to admit that, under their logic, so-called “Trans people” can choose, at any time, to be trans or not trans. And therefore, because “trans status” is malleable — again, malleable by definition, by THEIR definition — they’re not entitled to civil rights protections, which only apply to immutable, unchanging traits.
As the video continues, things become even more dystopian.
There’s this line for example: “All people should feel welcome and valued and be able to live authentically and with PRIDE.”
Yes, all people — every single one of them — should feel welcome and valued. They should all be able to “live authentically.” But this promise apparently does not apply to Christians who believe (as all of humanity did until 15 minutes ago) that men are men and women are women. Those Christians do not have the right to live authentically or “feel welcomed.” Instead, they can go straight to prison. Here’s more of the video, because again, as it goes along, things get worse and worse:
This is where they casually establish that “family members” — including a mother and father — can be incarcerated if they don’t affirm their child’s imagined gender identity. And of course they do it with a sing-songy, HR lady reading the voiceover. Scratch an HR lady and you will find a power-mad despot, every single time.
We’ve talked about so-called “conversion therapy” before, and how efforts to ban the practice are both unconstitutional and incoherent. In this country, the Supreme Court is about to hear a case concerning whether Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy violates the First Amendment. The problem is that bans on “conversion therapy,” in every case, are premised on the idea that sexual orientation cannot be changed. But in the same breath, the government of New South Wales will tell you that sex is extremely changeable. In fact, you can go to the doctor and change it tomorrow. See the problem? If you’re changing your sex, then you’re also changing your sexual orientation, under their logic. A man who supposedly “becomes” a woman, but retains his attraction to men, would become a lesbian, in their view. This is the logical problem with these conversion therapy bans that they simply have no answer for. It’s like dividing by zero.
But now they’re using this phony logic to justify throwing parents and priests in prison. Watch:
The scope of this law is so broad that you could probably claim I’m violating it, if my show is broadcast in New South Wales. They want Australians to snitch on each other if they get a whiff of anyone who dares to suggest that gender ideology isn’t real. In a lot of ways, it’s like the COVID lockdowns all over again. You might remember that, at the height of the “pandemic,” there was a nationwide manhunt in Australia when some guy sneezed in an empty elevator without a mask on. Now they’re going to have manhunts over unauthorized prayers.
If you don’t believe that, consider what just happened a few weeks ago to Billboard Chris. He was peacefully standing in a market in Brisbane, wearing a sign that expressed his opposition to the castration of children in the name of gender ideology. He only spoke to people who spoke to him first. He didn’t obstruct anyone’s movement or anything like that. People were walking around him the whole time. There’s no dispute about any of this; it’s all on video. Nevertheless, Brisbane police arrested Billboard Chris, on camera. Watch:
They arrested him for standing in a public place with a sign. There’s no doubt that, if the sign had been pro-gay marriage or whatever, then none of this would have happened. If you watch the full video, the police can’t name a single other instance where they’ve jailed someone for peacefully protesting at that location. But Billboard Chris blasphemed Australia’s state religion, so they took him away in handcuffs. And now they’re planning to do the same thing to the clergy.
The other day, an Australian commentator named Evelyn Rae outlined exactly what’s happening here. Here was her assessment, which is worth playing — not only because she’s right, but also because it’s good to know that Australia hasn’t been completely captured yet. Here it is:
Everything Evelyn Rae just said also applies to many other countries. This is not a problem that’s limited to Australia.
Here’s a report from Reason late last year, for example. This is the kind of story that JD Vance mentioned in his recent address to European leaders.
A British man was convicted of criminal charges for praying silently near an abortion clinic. The man, Adam Smith-Connor, did not attempt to harass, intimidate, or interact in any way with those entering the clinic. Instead, he wordlessly prayed with his head bowed slightly. He wasn’t even on clinic property—he was outside the sightline of the clinic itself. … As a result, Smith-Connor was questioned by police and later charged with violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), a broad censorship order enabled by the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. Under this law, local authorities can obtain special status for some public places, allowing them to ban a huge range of conduct. In the name of limiting ‘anti-social behavior.’
Yes, prayer is considered “anti-social behavior” in England. These kinds of arrests are happening because — from Britain to Colorado to Canada to Australia to China — authoritarians in government detest any challenge to their authority. These government officials know that they’re not impressive people. Australia’s prime minister has barely held a real job in his life. Most of the country is represented by people like this. They’re petrified that their subjects might worship someone other than themselves. As a result, they’re now throwing Christians in prison for practicing their faith. This trend has accelerated in China, and it’s now spreading throughout the West. Christians are being forcibly silenced, at scale. They are being vilified and incarcerated for what they believe.
I began by saying this isn’t a monologue about economics or trade wars. That’s true. But as we consider how we’ll work with these countries in the future — as we negotiate trade deals and so on — the assaults on Christians simply cannot be ignored. These attacks are as unlawful and immoral as they are systematic. They are becoming a fundamental part of the culture of both our allies and our adversaries. For the benefit of billions of Christians, and to preserve basic constitutional rights like the freedom of speech, this coordinated assault on religion must end before it progresses any further.
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
Amid all the talk about tariffs with China, and how they steal America’s intellectual property and establish all kinds of trade barriers with this country, you might have missed this story. It’s not about economics, but at the same time, it tells you a lot about what authoritarian countries like China fear the most.
Beginning on May 1, China will accelerate its crackdown on religion, and Christianity in particular. Foreign missionaries will be banned from preaching unless they obtain formal approval from the government.
According to Chinese state media, the goal of the new regulation is to protect “national security” and “political stability” by forcing people to attend official, state-run religious services with pre-approved messaging. Additionally, Chinese state media has recently boasted about the fact that religious groups — which the government calls “cult organizations” — have been increasingly shut down in China. At this point, one of the fastest ways to disappear in China is to deliver a sermon that upsets the ruling party.
Of course, this is the exact opposite of the result we were promised when the United States normalized free trade with China several decades ago. As Bill Clinton put it, “Membership in the W.T.O. will not create a free society in China overnight or guarantee that China will play by global rules. … But over time, I believe it will move China faster and further in the right direction.”
That hasn’t happened. Instead, China is now aggressively moving to crush Christians, for the simple reason that Christians believe in a higher power than their government. We have not introduced Western norms to China. We have not exported our values to them. Instead, despite the promises of free trade, China has successfully exported its totalitarian impulses to the West. One by one, Western countries are adopting anti-Christian crackdowns, to the point that they’re making it illegal for Christians to practice their faith.
What’s happening right now in New South Wales, which is a state on the east coast of Australia, makes this very clear. Earlier this month, something called the “Conversion Practices Ban Act of 2024” became law in New South Wales. This law, by its own terms, allows the authorities to arrest Christians for praying. That is not an exaggeration or an overstatement. It’s actually written into the legislation. From the government of New South Wales: “Praying with or over a person with the intent to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity is unlawful. It is unlawful even if that person has asked you to pray for them to be able to change or suppress their sexuality or gender identity.”
This again is in Australia, a western nation. Not China. Praying with someone who wants you to pray with them could land you in jail. That’s happening right now, in a supposed western democracy.
WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show
In other words, if someone wants to pray to God so that he can overcome his gender dysphoria — a condition that, by definition, causes significant mental distress — then his pastor cannot pray with him. In fact, his own family members cannot pray with him. If the police discover that any unapproved prayers have been occurring, they can kick down the doors of the church, or the family home, and haul away the violators. And then they’ll spend up to five years in prison for their crimes against the state: The crime of praying.
Just to emphasize this point, the government of New South Wales published the single most Orwellian video you’ll ever see. No matter how many times you’ve heard the word “Orwellian,” believe me, this qualifies. This is the government’s attempt to intimidate the millions of people who live in New South Wales, with their new law that bans prayer.
Here’s how the video begins:
First of all, by the terms of this legislation, every single gender activist in Australia is a criminal. They all believe, without exception, that you can choose to be “LGBTQA” (which is apparently the acronym now). There’s no other way to explain people who ping-pong between genders at will, or people who de-transition. In fact the concept of “fluidity” is now dogma in the LGBT religion. Fluidity — sexual fluidity, gender fluidity — means that you can change at will from one sexuality or gender to another. If someone identifies as a Bi-gender Toasterkin, and then a few weeks later decides he’s really a Demi-gender, half-humanoid alpaca, or whatever, then at some point, we can conclude that this person made a choice to identify in some arbitrary way. And every step of the way, gender activists — according to the tenets of their ideology — have no choice but to affirm everything. This is one of the reasons trans activists keep losing in court, by the way. They have to admit that, under their logic, so-called “Trans people” can choose, at any time, to be trans or not trans. And therefore, because “trans status” is malleable — again, malleable by definition, by THEIR definition — they’re not entitled to civil rights protections, which only apply to immutable, unchanging traits.
As the video continues, things become even more dystopian.
There’s this line for example: “All people should feel welcome and valued and be able to live authentically and with PRIDE.”
Yes, all people — every single one of them — should feel welcome and valued. They should all be able to “live authentically.” But this promise apparently does not apply to Christians who believe (as all of humanity did until 15 minutes ago) that men are men and women are women. Those Christians do not have the right to live authentically or “feel welcomed.” Instead, they can go straight to prison. Here’s more of the video, because again, as it goes along, things get worse and worse:
This is where they casually establish that “family members” — including a mother and father — can be incarcerated if they don’t affirm their child’s imagined gender identity. And of course they do it with a sing-songy, HR lady reading the voiceover. Scratch an HR lady and you will find a power-mad despot, every single time.
We’ve talked about so-called “conversion therapy” before, and how efforts to ban the practice are both unconstitutional and incoherent. In this country, the Supreme Court is about to hear a case concerning whether Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy violates the First Amendment. The problem is that bans on “conversion therapy,” in every case, are premised on the idea that sexual orientation cannot be changed. But in the same breath, the government of New South Wales will tell you that sex is extremely changeable. In fact, you can go to the doctor and change it tomorrow. See the problem? If you’re changing your sex, then you’re also changing your sexual orientation, under their logic. A man who supposedly “becomes” a woman, but retains his attraction to men, would become a lesbian, in their view. This is the logical problem with these conversion therapy bans that they simply have no answer for. It’s like dividing by zero.
But now they’re using this phony logic to justify throwing parents and priests in prison. Watch:
The scope of this law is so broad that you could probably claim I’m violating it, if my show is broadcast in New South Wales. They want Australians to snitch on each other if they get a whiff of anyone who dares to suggest that gender ideology isn’t real. In a lot of ways, it’s like the COVID lockdowns all over again. You might remember that, at the height of the “pandemic,” there was a nationwide manhunt in Australia when some guy sneezed in an empty elevator without a mask on. Now they’re going to have manhunts over unauthorized prayers.
If you don’t believe that, consider what just happened a few weeks ago to Billboard Chris. He was peacefully standing in a market in Brisbane, wearing a sign that expressed his opposition to the castration of children in the name of gender ideology. He only spoke to people who spoke to him first. He didn’t obstruct anyone’s movement or anything like that. People were walking around him the whole time. There’s no dispute about any of this; it’s all on video. Nevertheless, Brisbane police arrested Billboard Chris, on camera. Watch:
They arrested him for standing in a public place with a sign. There’s no doubt that, if the sign had been pro-gay marriage or whatever, then none of this would have happened. If you watch the full video, the police can’t name a single other instance where they’ve jailed someone for peacefully protesting at that location. But Billboard Chris blasphemed Australia’s state religion, so they took him away in handcuffs. And now they’re planning to do the same thing to the clergy.
The other day, an Australian commentator named Evelyn Rae outlined exactly what’s happening here. Here was her assessment, which is worth playing — not only because she’s right, but also because it’s good to know that Australia hasn’t been completely captured yet. Here it is:
Everything Evelyn Rae just said also applies to many other countries. This is not a problem that’s limited to Australia.
Here’s a report from Reason late last year, for example. This is the kind of story that JD Vance mentioned in his recent address to European leaders.
A British man was convicted of criminal charges for praying silently near an abortion clinic. The man, Adam Smith-Connor, did not attempt to harass, intimidate, or interact in any way with those entering the clinic. Instead, he wordlessly prayed with his head bowed slightly. He wasn’t even on clinic property—he was outside the sightline of the clinic itself. … As a result, Smith-Connor was questioned by police and later charged with violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), a broad censorship order enabled by the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. Under this law, local authorities can obtain special status for some public places, allowing them to ban a huge range of conduct. In the name of limiting ‘anti-social behavior.’
Yes, prayer is considered “anti-social behavior” in England. These kinds of arrests are happening because — from Britain to Colorado to Canada to Australia to China — authoritarians in government detest any challenge to their authority. These government officials know that they’re not impressive people. Australia’s prime minister has barely held a real job in his life. Most of the country is represented by people like this. They’re petrified that their subjects might worship someone other than themselves. As a result, they’re now throwing Christians in prison for practicing their faith. This trend has accelerated in China, and it’s now spreading throughout the West. Christians are being forcibly silenced, at scale. They are being vilified and incarcerated for what they believe.
I began by saying this isn’t a monologue about economics or trade wars. That’s true. But as we consider how we’ll work with these countries in the future — as we negotiate trade deals and so on — the assaults on Christians simply cannot be ignored. These attacks are as unlawful and immoral as they are systematic. They are becoming a fundamental part of the culture of both our allies and our adversaries. For the benefit of billions of Christians, and to preserve basic constitutional rights like the freedom of speech, this coordinated assault on religion must end before it progresses any further.
“}]]
