When I was in college, a college thespian group was putting on a play called Corpus Christi, which portrayed Jesus and his disciples as gay. Many fundamentalist Christians came and protested the play. The fundamentalists weren't well-received by the university community, and were accused in the student papers as promoters of "hate speech." But the play didn't just offend the founder of their religion, it offended who Christians and the Bible claim as God himself. But one thing the fundamentalists didn't do? They didn't blow anybody up. The same cannot be said of fundamentalist Muslims, who regularly threaten violence so that the West will self-censor in cowardice. The economist quips:
Protecting free expression will often require hurting the feelings of individuals or groups; equally the use of free speech should be tempered by a sense of responsibility. But that sense should not serve as a disguise for allowing extremists of any stripe to define what views can or cannot be aired.
(On a side-note, self-censorship isn't just a temptation in relation to radical Islam, apparently Russia has a tough time not killing courageous journalists.)
I know it's trendy for some "enlightened evangelicals" to rip on fundamentalist Christianity, and it's also trendy to rip on America for its many social evils. But if for the 1st Amendment alone, we are a more moral country than any contemporary who doesn't have a similar law in its constitution. Case in point: our fundamentalist Christians don't blow people up, they use the spoken or written word to disagree (there's also some inherent ethical issues of why our religions are different, but I don't have time to discuss that right now).
In sum, self-censorship is done at the peril of free speech. It isn't laudable to be tolerant- accepting of all viewpoints. It's laudable to stand for truth. As long as free speech is restricted or self-censored, truth will suffer. And here's a truth to end on: it's wrong to unsoliticously kill people.
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4 comments:
Great post. Given the scenario I also see a sort of hierarchy in place with who is allowed to protest, proclaim, and, umm, pounce. Okay I just wanted three P's there. :)
In America particularly, fundamentalists are ridiculed for protesting, yet it's okay for other groups like gay activisits or anti-war liberals to protest. Proclaim: same thing, it's okay for far left groups to proclaim truth claims, but not for the right or religious groups. And pounce: underhandedly, people don't like that Muslims blow up stuff but it's almost becoming not as scandalous as when one extreme Christian kills an abortion doctor. Huh?
Perhaps that our country is growing more and more secular progressive where groups who are not under that umbrella are ostricized. If people who profess first amendment rights really understood the first amendment then things would be far better off. As Moreland discusses in Kingdom Triangle, at the root of Christianity is actually a large birth of tolerance towards others to have opinions on the table of discussion. It's ironic that some want Christians to be more tolerant, yet they indeed have a narrow understanding of what tolerance is.
Daniel,
I could not have said it better myself. That was quite articulate.
To the point, indeed.
The early history of Christianity is often told from the minority point of view, and true tolerance - including free speech- was often gained with difficutly.
Through the middle ages, with the church in the majority and in power in Europe, free speech was allowed only as long as it supported the king and church. This is what many countries in Asia and Africa are going through today. Freedom in Christ to proclaim Him is not found in many Muslim and the few communist countries in our world.
If we are to engage the world in the great conversation of a loving God, then we must listen to them first who have no real freedom of speech.
With a few exceptions here in Knoxville recently... Like the fundamentalist "Christian" man who went on a shooting spree at the Unitarian church and another who shot a middle Eastern man and then himself at East Town Mall a few months ago.
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