Imagine a time where you could face legal consequences for hurting someone else’s feelings. We’re not citing an excerpt about the “Thought Police” from the George Orwell novel 1984. It’s what the so-called “Twitter Police” have actually been doing in England.
A former police officer from Lincolnshire was charged with a hate incident over alleged transphobic tweets he wrote in 2019. It took a two-year-long legal battle, but he’s finally just been vindicated.
Harry Miller’s tweets had offended an anonymous member of the transgender community and so he was reported to law enforcement. The Humberside Police followed up on the complaint which was classified as “offensive” and “transphobic.”
Miller, along with attorneys at Christian Concern, took legal action against the police and the College of Policing’s guidance. According to the guidance, a hate incident can be any non-crime incident that is “perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice.”
During an interview with Christian Concern, Miller explained that when police came to question him about the tweets, an officer told him, “I’m here to check your thinking.”
“After I got over the shock of there being a thing called the ‘Twitter police’,” he recalls, he then told officers, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Miller was so surprised he told the officers about Orwell’s groundbreaking novel 1984, advising them to “look it up, that 1984 was a dystopian novel, not a police ‘how-to manual’.”
He also argued that offensiveness toward someone is not a crime, “only when speech turns to malicious communication or targeted harassment against an individual should it be a problem.”
Miller’s lawyers told the Court of Appeal that the current police guidance unlawfully violates citizens’ right to speak freely.
Dame Victoria Sharp agreed, ruling that, “The recording of non-crime hate incidents is plainly an interference with freedom of expression and knowledge that such matters are being recorded and stored in a police database is likely to have a serious ‘chilling effect’ on public debate.”
Christian Concern says the Court’s decision will hopefully lead the College of Policing to update its guidance on the recording of non-crime hate incidents, so it doesn’t interfere with freedom of expression.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, said, “We welcome this judgment and are grateful for the judges’ recognition of the importance of freedom of expression. For too long, non-crime hate incidents have been weaponised against people who’ve spoken truthfully about sexuality and gender in particular.”
Miller has co-founded a group called Fair Cop which works with the College of Policing, police forces, and other authorities with the goal of improving the guidelines.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
In an interview with Christian Concern, Miller explained that the legal battle has required faith and a refusal to compromise.
“All I have done is place one foot in front of the other in the sure and certain knowledge that if God be for me who can be against me?” he underscored.
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, in his recent article, “Standing Firm When the World Says, ‘Give up’,” urged Christians to continue to speak Biblical truth whether it is welcome in our society or not.
“Right now, our spiritual enemy is desperate to separate Christians from the source of our strength — to force us to take our faith in Christ underground,” he wrote. “But the minute we surrender to that temptation, the minute we downplay the word of God so as ‘not to offend,’ we lose the very distinctive that makes unbelievers notice.”
“That doesn’t mean standing by those principles is easy,” Perkins continued. “As the growing hostility toward religious freedom shows, we need to be prepared for conflict. Paul was. In his letter to the Ephesians, he made it very clear that we are to stand our ground, taking up the ‘whole armor of God.’ Even this great man of God recognized that he needed help doing that in the face of opposition. ‘Pray for me that I will open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I would speak boldly as I ought to speak.'”
“Silence is not an option — it wasn’t then, and it can’t be now. We must speak the truth when people want to hear it — and even when they don’t,” he concluded.
2 Timothy 3:1, 8-9 states that “perilous times” will come in which “men of corrupt minds” will “resist the truth.”
Romans 1:18 similarly states that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against” those “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” The word “hold” in this verse, comes from the Greek word “κατέχω,” which means to “hold back,” “restrain,” or “hinder.”
The world may try to redefine morality and suppress opposing views, but it is the duty of Christians to be unwavering in the truth found in God’s Word.
As Ken Ham explained earlier this year, Biblical truth is the only thing that can save those taken captive by the transgender lifestyle.
“There are only two genders/sexes in humans: male and female (Genesis 1:27),” he maintained. “That’s how God has made us, and trying to change one’s gender is ultimately a sinful rejection of God’s design. Those who struggle with gender dysphoria need Gospel truth. They need to know that their identity need not be rooted in themselves and their feelings but rather in Christ, his death, and resurrection for them, and his design for them and their body.”
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SALVATION THROUGH JESUS CHRIST — CLICK HERE
