Written by:Hannah Davis
European religious censorship cases offer grave warnings for the future of religious freedom in the U.S. That’s according to a new notice from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International based on the recently released White House Religious Liberty Commission report.
The draft report, released in May, was presented to President Donald Trump late last month. The report cites stories of U.S. citizens facing unlawful restrictions on their freedom to exercise religion but briefly segues into warning that “heavy-handed government policies” affecting religious liberty in Europe may be becoming a norm.
“Even in other Western countries, governments have adopted many such policies,” the commission said. “In the United Kingdom, police recently arrested army veteran and physiotherapist Adam Smith-Connor for the crime of silently praying. … In Finland, Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen was recently convicted for the crime of expressing her religious perspective on human sexuality and also faced years of criminal prosecution for publicly sharing a Bible verse.”
ADF International, which is supporting both Smith-Connor and Räsänen, argues that these types of cases highlight the “evidence of growing threats to religious freedom in the West.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel at ADF, explained what cases like these reveal about the societies in which they occur
“The cases of Päivi Räsänen and Adam Smith-Connor are stark warnings of what follows when societies abandon their commitment to free expression and religious liberty,” Igunnubole said. “Päivi endured years of criminal proceedings for publicly expressing her Christian faith in a Bible verse tweet and a church pamphlet published decades ago.”
Räsänen appealed to the European Court of Human Rights following her conviction. The court stands as her last legal juncture in her free speech case, which could have implications for all European countries in freedom of speech cases.
Igunnubole said that as the commission recognizes, cases such as these are “not a series of isolated incidents” but instead “a dangerous drift towards state control over speech, belief, and conscience itself.”
“The Commission’s clarion call to defend fundamental rights and freedoms must be heeded in the United Kingdom and across Europe. These liberties are foundational to Western civilization, and we ignore their erosion at our peril,” he continued.
The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed concern over censorship in Europe.
Vice President JD Vance expressed concern over free speech infringements in the UK and referred to Smith-Connor’s case in a February 2025 speech at the Munich Security Conference. The administration has also pushed back against the EU’s Digital Services Act, which enforces policies for online services, including social media content-sharing platforms, used by European citizens. Opponents of the law say it threatens free speech and conscience protections and penalizes Christians, whose beliefs may be labeled controversial.
“When the state censors or penalizes individuals for expressing their religious beliefs, it violates not only the right to free speech, but the deeper freedom to live and worship in accordance with conscience,” Igunnubole added. “Such restrictions strike at the heart of religious liberty and cannot be reconciled with a genuinely free society.”
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