The popular image of Poland in the United States is still dominated by memories of the end of the Cold War, and how the Solidarity movement of Polish dock workers helped to weaken the stranglehold of Soviet Communists on Eastern Europe. That victory is worth remembering, but it’s also worth taking note of the way that right wing Christian extremism has worked to replace Communist tyranny with Christian tyranny in Poland.

WorldCrunch reports on the Polish government’s campaign to imprison opponents of the Roman Catholic Church. The lower house of the Polish national legislature has already passed a bill that imposes penalties ranging from monetary fines to two years in prison for the new crime of “mocking the Church or other religious association with official legal standing, or dogmas or rites”. In Poland, religious associations with official legal standing are overwhelmingly Christian. The very wording of the legislation, with its assumption that “the Church” is the Roman Catholic Church, demonstrates the extraordinary political dominance that the Roman Catholic Church enjoys in Poland. The new anti-blasphemy law is expected to be signed into law within months.

The campaign against blasphemy by the national government of Poland hasn’t been accompanied by a new atmosphere of tolerance. To the contrary, the pro-Catholic government has been imposing religiously-designed laws that restrict the ability of the Polish people to defy the moral regulations of the Roman Catholic Church. Abortion has been banned in the country and right wing groups there are working to take away the legal rights of non-heterosexual citizens.

The oppression going on in Poland today is Christian Nationalism, plain and simple.