Freedom of Speech: It is Going, Going...Almost Gone

Freedom of expression is a right that is granted to each of us through the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.  We know it as the "freedom of speech."  This is one of those freedoms that we seemingly take for granted until it is threatened.  Now I must admit there are parameters around that freedom.  One parameter is that what I say should not be a direct threat to another person or to the property of someone else.  We have witnessed several Supreme Court rulings in the past year with regard to "hate speech."  But, for the most part, I have the right to speak my mind. 

I remember teaching a class on ethics in a high school several years ago.  During that time we delved into many controversial subjects seeking to better understand them through the lens of Scripture.  This past year I have co-taught a group of high school students from my church a class on a biblical worldview.  In both instances I have strongly urged my students to share openly their thoughts in class.  I want them to begin feeling comfortable that they can give expression to what is in their hearts and minds.  The ability to dialogue openly, honestly, and, even at times, vigorously has been a strength of our nation in its past. 

But, as I have shared in past blogs, that right of free expression of ideas is disappearing from the American landscape.  Allow me to share another example that was reported on the Breitbart website today.  It was written by Austin Ruse and is titled, "Jesuit University Moves to Fire Conservative Professor Over His Political Views."  The article begins, "Marquette University has moved to suspend and then fire Professor John McAdams for backing a student who tried to defend man-woman marriage when a leftist teaching assistant shut the student down.

"In the fall of 2014, Junior faculty member Cheryl Abbate told a student, who secretly recorded the exchange, that his defense of man-woman marriage was an unacceptable topic in her ethics class and compared his views to racism.  She said, "You can have whatever opinions you want but I can tell you right now, in this class homophobic comments, racist comments, and sexist comments will not be tolerated."  And then she told the student he should drop the class.

"On his very popular blog, Professor McAdams outed the incident and charged the teaching assistant with 'using a tactic typical among liberals now.  Opinions with which they disagree are not merely wrong, and are not to be argued against on their merits, but are deemed "offensive" and need to be shut up.'

"It was announced this week that a 'diverse' faculty committee recommended to the university president that McAdams be suspended without pay from April 1 through the fall of 2016 and that he lose his job unless he admits 'guilt' and apologized 'within the next two weeks.'  Specifically, the demand is 'You acknowledgement that your November 9, 2014, blog post was reckless and incompatible with the mission and values of Marquette University and you express deep regret for the harm suffered by our former graduate student and instructor, Ms. Abbate."  And here is what is interesting, the University is not requiring Ms. Abbate to make an apology that her comments demeaned the opinions of another student while he was attending the University.  I believe we call this "having a double standard."  But, then again, that seems to be accepted in our culturally-confused world. 

Here is another case of "you are free to speak your mind as long as what you say does not contradict what I say and think."  In other words, the operative principle today when it comes to "freedom of speech" is: What I say is right; what you say, if you disagree with what I say, is wrong - end of story.  With such a principle in place, how can there be a healthy exchange of ideas?  It is through the exchange of ideas that people are stretched in their own thinking.  Such narrow constraints on "freedom of speech" were operative during the dark days of the Inquisition.  Then, if you did not accept and agree with the normative thinking of the times, often your life was forfeited.  Many a person was burned as a heretic - his/her only crime being of "different thinking."  I believe that if such ideology continues to prevail, we may soon see another Inquisition. 

Jesus told His disciples that it was the truth that would set them free.  Truth is achieved through the process of dialogue and conversations.  Debates can often be the tools for such dialogues.  I have read the transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.  What a wealth of ideas that were shared.  Those debates really helped change the course of American history.  Today's debates are mostly verbal free-for-alls and not a clear exchange of ideas, but they fit well in our sound-byte world.

I will continue admonishing my students and those within my congregational family to share ideas and opinions.  But I also share with them that those ideas and opinions might cause them to experience a form of persecution because those ideas and opinions might not be acceptable to the prevailing culture of today.