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How the Irish, and Many Others, Lost Their Religious Freedom to COVID Restrictions

In Ireland, you can face six months behind bars for forging a drug prescription. Or for stealing €20,000 from your employer for luxury holidays. Or, until recently, for attending church.

Even in a year that has turned societal norms on its head, it’s surely a surprise that the Emerald Isle, once a home away from Rome for Europe’s Catholics, got into this state. There are few places more steeped in Church tradition.

Until now…

Writes Lois McLatchie in National Review. Read the rest of the article here.

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Based on our adherence to the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture, we profess with the Christian Church throughout time and around the world the faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Adah

Adah had to flee her home after being threatened by her family for her conversion and obtained a protective order in another state.

Pastor Ezekiel

Pastor Ezekiel was captured and tortured by unidentified men for two weeks in February 2024, and then handed over to the police, who released him.

David

David was captured and tortured by unidentified men for two weeks in February 2024, and then handed over to the police, who charged him with kidnapping and obtained a conviction without a lawyer in 3 days. In July, the High Court in Northern Nigeria overturned his wrongful conviction. He is now free.

Naomi

Naomi had to flee her home after being threatened by her family for her conversion, and obtained a protective order in another state.

Rhoda Jatau

Nigerian Christian mother of 5, Rhoda Jatau, has been acquitted after being imprisoned for 19-months for allegedly sharing a video on WhatsApp.

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Yahaya Sharif-Aminu

In March 2020, a dangerous mob burned down his house and the Hisbah religious police, an official authority in charge of enforcing Sharia law, arrested Yahaya. Shortly after, the young man was convicted in a Sharia court for his alleged “blasphemy” and sentenced to death by hanging. His Supreme Court appeal has the potential to overturn Sharia-based blasphemy laws in Northern Nigeria.

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