Polish LGBT Activist Being Charged for Depicting Jesus and Mary with Rainbow Flag Halos

The people of Poland are known for their deep Roman Catholic faith. It was that faith that produced a pope who many credit with helping to bring about the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war.

Poles take faith very seriously, and now some are saying they may be taking it too far:

Polish police say a woman put up posters of the revered Black Madonna that showed the Virgin Mary and Jesus with rainbows from the LGBT flag as the halos. Now she could face two years in prison for offending religious feelings. https://t.co/eBTBdMP3mf

— CNN (@CNN) May 7, 2019

More from CNN:

Polish police say Elżbieta Podlesna put up posters of the revered Black Madonna that showed the Virgin Mary and Jesus with rainbows from the LGBT flag as the halos. Now she could face two years in prison for offending religious feelings.

Police claim that Podlesna, 51, put up the posters in the small city of Płock, Poland. And they say they found even more posters when they searched her car and home.

Podlesna was detained by authorities as she returned from an Amnesty International advocacy tour.

As a result of the searches, prosecutors are charging her with offending religious feelings. And those charges mean Podlesna faces up to two years in prison if found guilty.

This is a law that has been made use of before and Polish officials say that they aren’t applying the law any differently than they have in the past.

“Our Lady of Częstochowa” is one of the most revered religious icons for not only the people of Poland, but people around the world who are of Polish descent. My Polish-American grandparents had two pictures of the “Black Madonna” in their home.

It is unclear whether Podlesna actually wants to change hearts and minds, or was merely seeking out an opportunity for publicity. She has allowed the police to release her name to the public, which CNN notes is “illegal” in Poland until a trial is over.

One quite conservative priest I follow on Twitter isn’t at all bothered by the Polish government’s move:

Approve https://t.co/W7P5P79V7E

— Fr. Kevin M. Cusick, LCDR (Ret.)🇻🇦 (@IntroiboAdAltar) May 7, 2019

I’m a little ambivalent about this as I am no more a big fan of hyperactive government than I am of people attacking my faith (which I do believe this to be). The law, however, is the law.

And too many social justice warrior activists are just publicity-seeking and purely ego driven.