By LAWRENCE P. GRAYSON
The recent atrocities against the staff of Charlie Hebdo created a worldwide outpouring of support for freedom of expression. Some one million people, including over 40 heads of state, marched in Paris to exhibit a commitment to a liberal, tolerant social order and against terrorist extremism attempting to impose censorship through fear.
The satire used in Charlie Hebdo is extreme and often obscene, with blasphemous depictions of Christianity, Judaism, and to a lesser extent Islam. The reaction of the Islamic jihadists has been violent, destructive, and murderous. As with many issues that evoke strong emotions, two opposing positions toward freedom of expression have crystallized. One holds sacred an unrestrained, libertine view of self-expression, even if it is rude, derogatory, insulting, hateful, sacrilegious, or provocative. The second is the notion that statements, whether in speech, writing, drawing or other means of presentation, that mock one’s religion or demean another’s core beliefs must be censored through brutality or even death.
Neither extreme is healthy for society. The tyranny of coercive violence can never be condoned. Similarly, offensive, vile expressiveness which continually tests the limits of civil discourse strains the mores that bind a society. The alternative to these extremes is a civil milieu in which everyone is free to express his views, even if tasteless and disagreeable to the majority, but without purposely demeaning or overtly attacking the beliefs and values of others.
There is a place for criticism and satire in a well-ordered society, to point out the absurdities, failings, and erroneous reasoning of people and institutions as a way to encourage thoughtful reflection.
True freedom of expression is not unrestricted license to say or do as one pleases, but the right to act as one ought. As Pope Francis recently said, there must be limits on freedom of expression, especially when it insults or ridicules a person’s faith. Although freedom of speech is a fundamental human right, it cannot be used to violently disrupt the social order — cause panic, incite riots, promote anarchy, or overthrow a just government. When free rein is given to one’s desires and passions, disharmony, disorder, and injustice result. Freedom must be ordered and limited by social standards, governmental law, and moral imperatives.
Freedom of expression is also threatened by nonviolent repressive actions. In America today, there is a soft tyranny in the form of political correctness. Colleges and universities, where inquiry, debate, and the pursuit of truth should be prized, are increasingly sanctioning speech. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released a report in December stating that 55 percent of the 437 universities studied have substantial limits on what can be said or presented. On too many campuses, anyone questioning feminist, homosexual, environmentalist, Islamist, or socialistic orthodoxy faces harassment and unequivocal silencing.
Institutions of higher education are not the only targets of coercion.
Legatus, an organization of Catholic business leaders, was recently targeted by “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” (LGBT) advocates. A speaker at its January 2015 summit meeting was Paul Darrow, a former international supermodel who left the homosexual life, converted to Catholicism, and now represents Courage, a Catholic support association for people with same-sex attraction who seek to live a chase life.
A group of LGBT activists, outraged at this challenge to their lifestyle, demanded that several prominent Catholic speakers withdraw from the conference – and three did. Actor Gary Sinise, acclaimed for his work with veterans, withdrew stating he did not want his mission of serving the troops to be disrupted by any controversy. Bret Baier, Fox News Channel’s chief political correspondent, who was to speak about his faith and his son’s congenital heart disease, and Pete Coors, chairman of Molson-Coors Brewing Company, also retreated after the LGBT-promoting Human Rights Campaign urged them to back out.
Brendan Eich, cofounder of Mozilla Corporation, faced similar retribution from the homosexual community. He was forced to resign as the company’s CEO in April 2014, only ten days after being promoted to the position. His sin was supporting California’s Proposition 8, which recognized marriage as only between one man and one woman.
Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who also is an African-American Baptist church deacon, was recently fired after he wrote a Bible study for men that briefly discussed the Christian definition of sexual purity. The New York Times, while noting that there is no evidence that Cochran discriminated against homosexuals, held that he should be fired because he had the temerity to publicly acknowledge his beliefs.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, commented: “The LGBT community wants us to be afraid of expressing our Christian beliefs. They want us to cower in the face of their threats to the livelihoods of believers. But we shouldn’t back down!”
When challenged by proponents of political correctness, too many people and organizations have been paralyzed by fear. The threat of violence is not required to have them exercise self-censorship. The soft tyranny of public denunciation, bad publicity, reduced profits, lost jobs, bad grades, and other sanctions for expressing moral beliefs is enough to keep most people and organizations in line.
None of us wants to confront the purveyors of libertine views or endure the resulting slurs that will be hurled at us. But when we are called to defend our faith and our core beliefs or speak the truth, we must boldly do so. We may be reviled and face the wrath of those who are obsessed with race, class, gender, sexuality, identity, and multiculturalism, but by remaining silent the freedoms which we prize are being eroded.
We hope we will never have to face the hard tyranny of persecution and violence. But we can learn from the Mexican martyrs of the 1920s and 1930s who, while facing firing squads for defending the faith, shouted: Viva Cristo Rey!
In the soft tyranny we do encounter, take heart, be not afraid: Our faith is our courage.
+ + +
(The author is a visiting scholar in The School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress