It was an interesting day in Canada yesterday. University of Ottawa’s decision to cancel conservative Ann Coulter’s appearance has renewed debate over freedom of expression on campus. It’s also opened the debate about the so called, ‘hate speech and its definition. More importantly, it’s a road we’re facing as American Christian radio professionals in a rapidly change world both politically, socially and religiously.
As I was watching the news last night I noticed protesters at the University toxic in their opposition to Ann Coulter. Watch this video:
The interesting part of this interview is at 1:01 into the report where the woman says, “We don’t believe the Ann Coulter is here to exercise her freedom of expression. We believe, indeed, that she’s exercising hate speech.” Is this woman now the thought police? How does she know Ann Coulter’s motives. And, how is it that she isn’t exercising hate speech against Ann Coulter or those they’re opposing in the crowd? These people weren’t being forced to attend. Conservatives invited her to come. She was their guest and these people felt it was their right to impose their ‘beliefs’ on other people.
That’s the problem with laws the prohibit free speech. How can you prove someone is saying something because they want to harm someone, or incites someone to hurt a person? A crime against someone is hate. You exercise hate when you violate someone’s the human rights. In my mind these very vocal protesters violated the rights of Canadian conservatives. Under THEIR law, they should be prosecuted, right?
Christian Radio in the United States has been free for a long time. We’ve been openly been able to talk about the abortion issue. We’ve openly talked about what the Bible says about homosexuality and other sexual sins. Christian radio has encouraged Christians to become involved in the political process. Organizations like Focus On the Family and American Family Association have helped Christians send a message to Washington as it relates to religious freedom and biblical morality in our nation. Will that soon be concerned hate speech based on someone’s ‘feeling’ or ‘belief.’
This type of legislation is so subjective that in the hands of the wrong people could propel our nation into a police state, similar to the likes of the former Soviet Union or an extreme example, North Korea.
Pray for our nation. More importantly, pray for revival in our churches. Christians need to be renewed.
I think the current definition of hate speech is anything that contradicts a humanist worldview . And increasingly, liberals are going to work to outlaw other forms of thought–especially Christian thought.
The reality is that we’ve been complicit in this. We’ve allowed them to overrun our education system, our courts, our media, even our churches…the current political climate is just the natural outflowing of that fact.