The Issue of Free Speech

I’ve received countless forwarded emails from well-meaning Christian friends and family, originating from various right-wing organizations, warning that the end of free speech is upon us. Between the return of the “Fairness Doctrine” and what they’re calling the “Durbin Censorship Doctrine,” they say we must rush to Washington with fresh petitions to protect the brave conservatives from being silenced by the crafty liberals.

My initial reaction is that I’m loath to jump to the defense of people who have taken legitimate conservative radio broadcasting and bastardized it into neatly packaged fearmongering, meant to be swallowed up just as gullibly as its liberal-media counterpart. But that’s a separate blog post for a different day.

But beyond that, I find myself wondering at what point did we, the Church, get this misconception that Freedom of Religious Speech is a right to which all Christians are automatically entitled?

In the sticky intertwining of the Western Church and American patriotism, the first-amendment freedom of speech, insofar as it involves speaking about religion or conservative politics, seems to have become almost as much a Christian value as observing the Lord’s Table.

Where did we ever get the idea that we should be legally and politically free to preach the Gospel without fear of retaliation, retribution or persecution?

Far from it, the early church exploded amidst a cultural backdrop in which those proclaiming the message of Christ were seen as dangerous heretics to be imprisoned or executed. Christ Himself warned his disciples that they would be hated, and Paul advised Timothy that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

And I would argue that, in our modern country where we enjoy “freedom of speech,” we have largely wasted the freedom we’ve been given. Maybe if we faced legitimate persecution, as did the early church and as do Christians in other parts of the world, we would take much more seriously our charge to preach the Gospel to all people.

I find it notable that Jesus, knowing that those who preached the Gospel would face difficulties for doing so, did not instruct His followers to fight for the freedom of speech to proclaim the Gospel freely. Jesus had no use for freedom of speech. He spoke what the Father commanded Him to speak, regardless of whose permission He did or did not have to do so. He seemed to expect nothing less from us.

So is it possible, particularly in modern-day America, that the threat of restrictions on our freedoms of speech is really yet another excuse to distract us from our calling to share the Gospel?

I suspect that perhaps there is a balance, and that it is not in the best interest of the Church to stand idly by and to allow free speech to be trampled underfoot. It would be a shame to wastefully surrender freedoms which others have fought to obtain. But we must be very careful of how much time and what kind of energy we are devoting to this, and be extremely careful to make sure it does not keep us from advancing the Gospel of Christ as we ought.

I hear the conservative organizations calling us to radical action, telling us to sign petitions, call Congressmen, and demand that our new government officials keep conservative media free of additional restrictions.

But we would do well to remember that they have a vested interest in this; they make their money from our gluttonous consumption of the media they spoon-feed us.

Our responsibility is not to them, nor to the message of conservative politics.

We are the Church, and our responsibility is to Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

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~ by The Apostate on March 19, 2009.