Pastor Pawel Chojecki has for years led a unique project in Catholic Poland to show the relationship of God and the Bible with history and politics. Thanks to this, tens of thousands of Poles have heard the Gospel, hundreds have been converted and many Protestant churches have been planted. By doing so, he drew the wrath of the Catholic hierarchy, which is losing believers en masse in Poland today, and the Communists and their supporters in the Polish government, who do not want an informed, anti-communist society. The punishment of Pastor Chojecki’s Against the Tide TV was demanded by a press organ affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, the Global Times. After a short time, the Prosecutor’s Office, led by a Catholic minister sympathetic to China, secretly began collecting “dirt” against the Pastor and charged him with bizarre “crimes.” The first conviction was handed down on June 10, 2021, and Pastor Chojecki’s appeal hearing was scheduled for November 22 of that year.
Paweł Chojecki is the pastor and founder of the New Covenant Church in Lublin, as well as the creator and editor-in-chief of the “Against the Tide” television, magazine and publishing house.
Since the 1980s (while still a student) he has been involved in the struggle against communism. Not only in Poland, but also in other countries. In 2018, Pastor Chojecki received a personal thank you from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen for supporting Taiwan in its fight against Communist China.
“We’ve noticed many people are using #SayYesToTaiwan to show support for #Taiwan’s #democracy. Thank you! At a time when the shared values we hold dear are being challenged, we pledge to keep building a more democratic world. Please visit Taiwan & experience a free & open society.” a spokesman for the Office of the President of Taiwan wrote about the Against the Tide TV campaign.
Two years later, in 2020 after winning the election, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen again thanked for the support from foreign friends such as Pastor Pawel Chojecki and Against the Tide Television.
Prezydent Tajwanu @iingwen dziękuje Pastorowi Chojeckiemu @PastorChojecki i środowisku @idzpodpradpl za wsparcie od zagranicznych przyjaciół!#SayYesToTaiwan @TW_nextmedia @MOFA_Taiwan @TaiwanPresSPOX @haniashen @HongKongFP @PAPinformacje @michalrachon @KurierWnet #IPPTV #Taiwan pic.twitter.com/ZQvO7K8cdw
— Idź Pod Prąd (@idzpodpradpl) February 11, 2020
In the same year, after the outbreak of the Chinese virus pandemic, the Against the Tide TV community, together with Taiwan’s editor Hanna Shen, collected the 100,000 required signatures for a petition to the American president for compensation from Communist China for the spread of the coronavirus. This was recognized by Solomon Yue, head of Republicans Abroad and a member of the US Republican Party National Committee, who said: “I remember that you offered and sponsored the White House’s “We the People” petition for holding CCP accountable. This is a very important petition and you succeeded. For two reasons. One: free people working together to hold CCP fascists accountable. Two: that gives us an opportunity to push for reparations for the Wuhan virus damages to our nation, to our people.”
Pastor Pawel Chojecki’s free-wheeling, anti-communist activities have been recognized by the world’s largest anti-communist organization, the John Birch Society. In 2018, Pastor Chojecki gave two lectures at the 60th anniversary of JBS on the history of Poland and the modern struggle against communism and the incredible success of Against the Tide Television.
As is not hard to guess, the activities of Pastor Chojecki and Against the Tide were also noticed by the Chinese Communists. In September 2019, in the center of Warsaw, the Chinese attacked representatives of Against the Tide Television who were protesting outside the CCP embassy, where the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China was being celebrated.
A year earlier, in 2018, following the “Say Yes to Taiwan” media campaign launched by the Against the Tide community, the Chinese Communist Party’s press organ, Global Times, demanded an explanation from the Polish Embassy in Beijing concerned that Poland might be supporting Taiwan’s independence. In response to pressure from the Chinese Communists, the Polish Embassy issued a statement that read:
We would like to kindly inform you that due to the appearance of articles and comments in the Chinese media space on 30/10/2018 regarding the YouTube channel “Against the Tide TV” – The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing issued a statement to the concerned media with the following content:
Poland was one of the first countries in the world to recognize the PRC in October 1949, and has consistently followed the “One China” principle in its policy since then.
The Polish Embassy does not comment on the activities of YouTube users, as Poland is bound by the constitutional principle of freedom of expression.
Pastor Chojecki’s trial
For several years, there was much pseudo-dirt collected against him. Every minute of the live programs he participated in, including his sermons in his congregation, was vetted. A few sentences were taken out of context, and in December 2020 the Prosecutor’s Office accused him of offending the religious sensibilities of Catholics, insulting objects of Catholic religious worship, praising the initiation of a war of aggression against communist North Korea (sic!), and insulting the Polish nation and President of the Republic of Poland.
The trial was a farce, the haters, who attack and insult Protestant Christians, were presented in court as wronged Catholics. The basis of the first-instance court’s verdict was the opinion of an expert witness – Ph.D. Elżbieta Przybył-Sadowska of the Institute of Religious Studies at Jagiellonian University. The expert admitted that Pastor Chojecki’s statements fell within the standards of Protestant-Catholic religious dispute, however, she found offense in the form and style of the sermons. The problem is that in this area Ph.D. Przybyl-Sadowska is not an expert. As a religious scholar, she specializes in the history of the Orthodox churches…
On the other hand, the opinions of experts appointed by the Pastor’s attorney, Andrzej Turczyn, including three professors (Prof. Tadeusz Bartoś – former Dominican priest, philosopher, theologian, Prof. Krzystof Kilian – philosopher , Prof. Kazimierz Jodkowski – philosopher of science), were rejected.
On June 10, 2021, the District Court in Lublin sentenced Pastor Pawel Chojecki to 8 months of restriction of liberty in the form of community service in the amount of 20 hours per month, as well as reimbursement of the cost of the trial – more than 20 thousand zlotys (~ 5450 $ as of that day).
In response to the court’s verdict, four appeals were filed: three in defense of Pastor Pawel Chojecki and one filed by the Prosecutor’s Office, which seeks a suspended prison sentence. According to it, only a sentence of imprisonment and a fine will allow the proper realization of preventive and educational goals against Pastor Paweł Chojecki “and will take due account of the needs for shaping the legal consciousness of society.”
After a year and a half of the verdict of the District Court in Lublin, an appeal has been set – for November 22, 2022.
A well-known columnist, Eliza Michalik, a journalist for “Onet”, stated that “the case of Pastor Pawel Chojecki is an exceptionally shocking case and a litmus test of democracy!”
Joe Losiak, an American missionary of Polish descent, co-founder of the success of the Oasis Movement and associate of Father Franciszek Blachnicki, wrote:
“Pastor Pawel Chojecki is facing five years in prison in Poland for his historic criticism of the Roman Catholic Church in his sermons. If this attempt to silence and censor the pastor’s sermons is successful, it will greatly damage the cause of Christ and continue to keep millions in the dark. The first critic of the churches in the world was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 7:21-23 and the first three chapters of Revelation. You must also silence the apostles Peter, Paul, James, John and Jude in the New Testament. [Jan] Hus was burned by the city council. Luther also insulted politicians and priests. Jesus insulted religious and government authorities. I am raised in America and it is different here. God and nation are not one and the same. Jesus was crucified because he offended the religious feelings of the Jews who had the truth but disagreed with Jesus.”
Pastor Paweł Chojecki asks for prayer, not for a just verdict, which he does not hope for in Catholic-socialist Poland, but for this shameful case to help spread the Gospel of free salvation in Jesus and to lift millions of Poles out of darkness and superstition.
Who really is pastor Paweł Chojecki?
Dorota “Doda” Rabczewska has won her case against the Polish state at the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg-based court ruled that Poland violated the European Convention on Human Rights, convicting Doda of offending religious feelings when she described the authors of the Bible in a 2009 interview as “drunk with wine and smoking some herbs.” It obliged Poland to pay her 10,000 euros.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is rejecting Polish demands to pay reparations for World War II. We spoke with Dr. Mateusz Piatkowski, a lawyer and employee of the Department of International Law and International Relations at the University of Lodz, about whether Poland has a real chance to obtain war reparations from Germany. He asserted the validity of Polish claims and pointed out that Poland has a solid legal basis to demand reparations from Russia as well.
We also touched on the issue of war reparations with Arkadiusz Mularczyk, chairman of the Council of the Jan Karski Institute for War Losses and Law and Justice MP. We asked why Law and Justice is demanding war reparations from Germany at a time when Russia is waging war against Ukraine, and whether the reparations issue is relevant to the upcoming elections. We also assessed the report on the war losses Poland suffered during the 1939-1945 German occupation, as well as the government’s international and media activities on the reparations issue.
Our team visited the “Granary” (Spichlerz) in Katowice – a social store where products are sold below market prices. This initiative is aimed at people who, for financial reasons, cannot always afford to shop in a regular store.
We talked to Krzysztof Skiba, leader of the band “Big Cyc,” satirist and publicist. We covered the topics of his trial with Polish public television and his relationship with its head, Jacek Kurski, as well as the moral state of Polish Catholicism, and Skiba’s political involvement.
We spoke with its chairman, Prof. Blazej Kmieciak, about the difficulties in the work of the State Commission on Pedophilia. According to the Commission’s report from this year, the largest number of pedophiles is among Roman Catholic clergy. We asked our guest about how reliable the report’s data are and what the problem of pedophilia is among other denominations, as well as what the Commission’s cooperation with the Catholic Church is like. We also spoke about the project to eliminate the statute of limitations in pedophilia cases and touched on the Vatican’s instruction to bishops.
Price increases in Poland are the highest in 24 years. Studies show that more than 40% of Poles experience a deterioration in their physical or mental health due to the rise in inflation. We invited Dariusz Duma, philosopher and entrepreneur, Andrzej Domanski, economist and financial markets analyst, and Marcin Duma, president of IBRiS, to discuss the impact of high prices on our mental health. We asked our guests about how to live in a country where costs exceed earnings, and where to get hope and positive information from.
In July, in Poland and the Czech Republic, a concert tour of a Christian gospel band Celebrant Singers took place. The band started its activity in 1977. Its founder is Jon Stemkoski, with whom we talked about serving God through singing. We also talked about the challenges that the band currently faces.
A Polish political party United Poland wants to push through changes in the Criminal Code – it wants to tighten penalties for mocking dogmas, rites, and church services by up to two years in prison. We discussed the bill with Tadeusz Cymański, a member of United Poland, Andrzej Turczyn, an attorney, judge Piotr Gąciarek and pastor Paweł Chojecki. We talked about what these changes in the law might mean for the citizens and whether this is how the defense of Christianity should look like.
Our guest was editor Aleksandra Pawlicka from “Newsweek”. We talked about her latest article, in which she proved the close acquaintance of Cardinal Dziwisz with the pedophile priest Jan Wodniak. On our TV, Mrs. Pawlicka assessed that the end of the inviolability of Cardinal Dziwisz, who had so far protected himself with the authority of John Paul II, was coming.
MPs Tadeusz Aziewicz from the Civic Platform and Andrzej Sośnierz from the parliamentary circle Polish Affairs negatively assessed the merger project of major Polish fuel companies – Orlen and Lotos.
Professor Magdalena Środa, a philosopher specializing in ethics and a publicist, spoke on the impact of RE on the young generation. We also talked about the destructive influence of the clergy and catechists on young people.
Together with our correspondent in Taiwan Hanna Shen, we organized a screening of the film “Formosa Betrayed”, which tells the story of an FBI agent during the times of the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan in the 80s. The story is based on real events. After the movie, we held a discussion in our studio with Hanna Shen.