I love this country. I really do. Love it. From a biblical perspective, I shouldn’t love it as much as I do.
You know why I love it? One of the reasons is because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive, and this country gives me the right to “preach Christ crucified.”
Yes, the Gospel is offensive. I mean, telling people they’re straight up sinners with unclean hearts, giving them a “heads up” about being under God’s wrath, and claiming the only way to God is through Jesus Christ? He even said so himself. Talk about bold. What audacity.
The Gospel offends people who don’t believe these things. It’s funny, though, that some who claim not to believe in hell are offended when told they’re going to hell. Never figured that out. Anyway, in America, we have the freedom to offend. There is no freedom to not be offended. Suck it up, as they say.
Christian apologist, debater, pastor, author, blogger, and webcaster James White, a man whose faithful witness and defense of the faith has helped me grow in faith and understanding (he commented on LBC the other day – down, fangirl!), frequently blogs about the suppression of the Gospel in Canada. See Canada Joins those Nations that Prohibit Free Speech and Gospel Preaching.
This morning I read a New York Times article about this topic: American Exception: Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech. An excerpt:
“In the United States, that debate has been settled. Under the First Amendment, newspapers and magazines can say what they like about minorities and religions — even false, provocative or hateful things — without legal consequence… ‘In much of the developed world, one uses racial epithets at one’s legal peril, one displays Nazi regalia and the other trappings of ethnic hatred at significant legal risk, and one urges discrimination against religious minorities under threat of fine or imprisonment…But in the United States, all such speech remains constitutionally protected.’”
For now. Even if someone’s expressed opinion “perpetuates and promotes prejudice toward Muslims and others,” the opinion, whether true or not, shouldn’t be suppressed. I think we all agree with that. I certainly wouldn’t want to silence Christian bashers. Truth is revealed, slowly sometimes, in the exchange. The free flow of ideas, even offensive ones, is vital.
Christians in America take this free flow for granted. Some folks thought I was crazy when I wrote in an opinion piece that hate crime laws are a “a slippery slope toward suppressing…the free exercise of religion,” and that one day very soon, preaching from certain passages of the Bible might fall under the definition of “hate speech.” It’s already happening in Canada. Why can’t it happen here? As I wrote in that column, if sharing the Gospel becomes a hate crime, just call me an outlaw.
Hey, if we don’t get a chance to talk again, have a cool weekend. Exercise your precious freedom of speech and start blogging!
