Freedom
The Battle Over Free Speech
I thought longingly about free speech last week when I found myself in a remote area of California but couldn’t get a signal to send out a blog.
No Internet meant the inability to speak freely.
The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris two weeks ago ignited a global discussion about free speech. Millions marching in the streets with pens raised in protest gave the impression that free speech will triumph over the murderous ways of the jihadists.
But what is free speech? Is it okay to bash the prophet and other religious leaders? Should it be legal to yell “FIRE” in a crowded movie theater? What about four letter profanities on the evening news?
There are three ways to look at freedom of speech, and only one of them produces true liberty.
A good resolution for most of us to make this year would be to learn to think more in terms of worldview.
I had never heard of this word until Francis Schaeffer introduced it to me via his writings in the mid seventies. Dr. Schaeffer taught that all human beings have certain presuppositions about life–things we assume or believe to be true, that is, a grid through which we view reality.
That’s our worldview. Every human being has one (whether we realize it or not).
My latest book which will be out in 2015 is a thorough discussion of the battling worldviews we face in the 21st century. The thesis is that there are only five concepts about reality–in other words, five views of God and their ramifications. And though there are five, I believe only three will battle for supremacy in the coming years.
Understanding these competing worldviews and their differences is crucial. Worldview affects everything you do, how you live and where you end up in eternity.
And worldviews have much to say about free speech. In fact, the three primary worldviews of the 21st century espouse very different views of freedom.
Let’s look at them one by one.
The Islamic View of Free Speech
Islam is unique to the three worldviews because it is both a comprehensive religious system containing concepts of God and how we get right with him, and a political structure that governs society.
As a religious ideology, Islam does not permit unkind words about its Deity or the Prophet Mohammed (this sin is called blasphemy). Politically, it forces submissive of all people and subjugation of women under the harsh dictates of sharia law.
Free speech in Islamic societies boils down to this: Submit, shut up, or die. You are not free to speak your own mind on many subjects and if you cross the line, the heavy hand of the law will come down upon your behavior and lop off your head or bring you forty lashes.
Freedom in Islam is forced submission of all words and behavior to the tenets of the Koran. You’re only free when you submit.
And the Koran is a book written during the Dark Ages, thirteen centuries ago, whose tenets were formed during a primitive and lawless time. Its teachings of sharia law have not been progressively updated or refined. Pre-medieval morality and austere views of human freedom still remain in place like moral dinosaurs.
Thus we understand why the Islamic terrorists in Paris savagely killed many people and did it in the name of Allah and Islam. Their worldview or religion tolerates little freedom of expression.
Over fifty nations on earth subscribe to the primitive and brutal nature of Islamic freedom.
The Secular View of Free Speech
The second worldview we saw in response to the Paris massacre was that of atheism or secularism. President Hollande of France who is a socialist, and most that marched with him, declared to the world that free speech is a glorious right and there are no exceptions to its rule.
The Charlie Hebdo people who lost their lives at the hands of the jihadists represent this side of the debate. I don’t know of their personal faith or worldview, but their cartoons and commentary mocking all things religious or political appears to state loudly that they believe in absolute freedom of expression.
The secular view of free speech is that anything goes.
In secularism, because there is no God, men become self-deities and this elevated status gives them the freedom to do whatever they desire. They can say what they want, do anything sexually that they want, and generally live hedonistic or narcissistic lives as long as they “do no harm.”
Of course, they are the ones that define “harm,” and the secularists have twisted that freedom to include aborting inside the womb at least one billion babies in the past century. Secular tyrants such at Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong killed hundreds of millions more outside the womb.
Secularism’s view of freedom is constantly evolving to include persecuting people of religious faith such as a Christian florist refusing to do flowers for a homosexual wedding. Admittedly, run-of-the-mill secularists don’t butcher people like Muslim terrorists do, but they like to restrict the freedoms of religious people.
But in sex and other areas there are no restrictions because there is no God (they think) to whom we are accountable.
Secular freedom declares that anything goes. Remember the waving pens in Paris.
The Biblical View of Free Speech
The two worldviews we’ve already mentioned, the Islamic and secular worldviews, are essentially opposites on the spectrum. On the one side, Islam believes in domination and control. Don’t mock the prophet or we will cut off your head. On the other extreme, the secularist worldview believes in unrestrained license. Do or say whatever you want.
The biblical worldview takes the wise middle ground–the balance between truth and grace. The Bible teaches us that freedom or liberty comes from doing what’s right through the power of God’s Spirit in the individual (Romans 8). Liberty is the fruit of righteousness. And when nations conform to God’s wise principles of behavior and justice, liberty is experienced in society as a whole.
But that liberty, or in this case, free speech, is not without limits.
Last week a Catholic leader appearing on a major news program said rightly that Bible-based free speech has many limits or allowances. They include:
- Protecting people’s lives–We are not “free” to yell FIRE in a crowded movie theater.
- Protecting the innocence of children–media outlets are not “free” to use four letter words or erotic sexual scenes in certain time frames or settings where they can hurt or influence children.
- Freedom to discuss or mock any idea or religion (concepts are fair game).
- Even a freedom to blaspheme God (use his Name in vain) because He is big enough to take care of His own reputation.
In ancient or primitive times, blasphemy was not permitted in Jewish culture because at the time God was concretely teaching His people basic concepts of right and wrong in the midst of dark and profuse idolatry. This was done through commandments that were necessary for the Old Testament era.
But we live in the period of the New Testament where old forms of learning have been replaced by the abstract motives of love and grace. There is greater freedom now because of increased understanding.
Thus the development of biblical virtue is the true religion of progress. The Old Covenant of law has been replaced with the truth, grace, and supernatural power of the New Covenant. Both Islam and secularism are not progressive in the true sense of the word.
Biblical faith is. The biblical worldview of free speech is this:
Liberty with loving self-restraint.
So don’t get carried away with either of the excesses of Muslim or secular concepts of free speech. One is ruthlessly controlling and the other is wildly unrestrained.
Build your life and nation on the time-tested revelation of freedom of speech that tolerates all opinions, lets God be the Judge, but wisely restrains itself because it loves Him and people.
Liberty is a beautifully balanced thing.
The Calm Before the Storm
As 2014 comes to an end, an interesting display of journalistic optimism is in the air. According to many sources, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
On a personal level, I agree that hope is vital to life. As followers of Christ, we should always be focusing on the “half full cup” of blessings that God has given us instead of the half empty mug of disappointments because “we can do all things through Christ” and “the future is as bright as the promises of God.”
Yes, from an eternal perspective, the blessing of knowing Jesus far outweighs the daily pains of human existence.
But I believe there is a reason for the current global giddiness, and, in truth, another reality lies ahead.
We are simply experiencing the calm before the storm.
A number of positive articles about the state of the world have gotten my attention recently. One was an article in USA Today that touted the “good times” that the nation is experiencing. USA Today is America’s most widely read newspaper.
On December 23, the New York Times got into the act with an article called, “Economic Vital Signs in 3rd Quarter Were Strongest in a Decade.” The Times seemed practically delirious with excitement about the future. I will italicize some of the hyperbole that gushes forth from their commentary:
“The American economy grew last quarter at its fastest rate in over a decade, providing the strongest evidence to date that the recovery is finally gaining sustained power more than five years after it began.”
“Bolstered by robust spending among consumers and businesses alike, economic output rose at an annual rate of 5 percent during the summer months, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, a sharp revision from its earlier estimate of 3.9 percent. The advance followed a second quarter where growth reached a rate of 4.6 percent after a decline last winter that was exacerbated by particularly harsh weather.”
“The revision was led by an upswing in investment by businesses, a powerful force for growth in most economic recoveries but one that has lagged in the latest rebound. Higher consumer spending, including increased outlays on health care, and a narrower trade balance also contributed to the summer improvement. The gain makes the third quarter the strongest since the summer of 2003.”
I think you get the idea. Economic Nirvana has finally returned.
Then three days later, the UK Telegraph ran an article by Fraser Nelson entitled “Goodbye to One of the Best Years in History.” Its subtitle read “It Might Not Feel Like It, But We are Safer, Richer, and Healthier Than at Any Time on Record.”
At any time on record? Are things really looking up?
Here is Fraser’s British analysis of global goodness as seen from the view across the pond:
“Judging the world through headlines is like judging a city by spending a night in A&E – you only see the worst problems. This may have felt like the year of Ebola and ISIL but in fact, objectively, 2014 has probably been the best year in history.”
“Take war, for example – our lives now are more peaceful than at any time known to the human species. Archaeologists believe that 15 per cent of early mankind met a violent death, a ratio not even matched by the last two world wars. Since they ended, wars have become rarer and less deadly…The ISIL barbarity in the Middle East is so shocking, perhaps, because it comes against a backdrop of unprecedented world peace.”
“We have recently been celebrating a quarter-century since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which kicked off a period of global calm. The Canadian academic Steven Pinker has called this era the “New Peace”, noting that conflicts of all kinds – genocide, autocracy and even terrorism – went on to decline sharply the world over.”
With peace comes trade and, ergo, prosperity. Global capitalism has transferred wealth faster than foreign aid ever could…Global life expectancy now stands at a new high of 71.5 years, up six years since 1990. In India, life expectancy is up seven years for men, and 10 for women. It’s rising faster in the impoverished east of Africa than anywhere else on the planet. In Rwanda and Ethiopia, life expectancy has risen by 15 years.”
The Ebola crisis has led to 7,000 deaths, each one a tragedy. But far more lives have been saved by the progress against malaria, HIV and diarrhea. The World Bank’s rate of extreme poverty (those living on less than $1.25 a day) has more than halved since 1990, mainly thanks to China – where economic growth and the assault on poverty are being unwittingly supported by any parent who put a plastic toy under the tree yesterday.”
“Prosperity is bringing benefits without trashing the planet. Since 1990, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are down, in spite of our economy being about 60 per cent larger – thanks to more efficient technology. Our roads are safer, as well as greener. Traffic deaths are down by two-thirds since 1990, and are lower now than when the Model T Ford was on the road.”
Nothing is irreversible. And there will be a great many people for whom life is tough, and looks set to remain so for some time. We still have a lamentably long list of problems to solve. But in the round, there’s no denying it: we are living in the Golden Era. There has never been a better reason for people the world over to wish each other a happy and prosperous new year.”
Greatest year in history. New Peace. Golden Era.
I think you get the idea, and I think I know, at least in America, why secular progressives are trumpeting this new message of happy times.
They are deliberately trying to set the stage for a Hillary Clinton presidency in 2016 to keep their hold on power.
Let’s set the record straight about what’s really happening in the world right now.
1. First of all, free enterprise and civic freedom in nations grows mostly through the biblical worldview and the liberty that is found in Jesus Christ. The growth of global capitalism, elevating people out of poverty, is primarily a result of the Christian faith. So is the progress of modern medicine, fueled by science that emerged out of Christian Europe. None of these good changes were produced by statism–my word of choice for secular progressivism or atheism. In fact, the intense regulations of Big Government worldwide are stifling creativity and freedom which could bless billions more people.
2. Does anybody really believe that world is more safe today? The orchestrated collapse of American influence around the globe has led to chaos in the Middle East and the rise of possibly the world’s most barbaric Islamic expression–ISIS. Tyranny is growing in many places including the United States, the social democracies of Europe, dictatorial Russia, Communist China, and fascist Islamic states. Nine nations have atomic bombs, and the world’s greatest exporter of terror–Iran–is about to become nuclear. Things are not “golden” in the world right now. They are downright scary. Exhibit one: The millions of Christians in Iraq and Syria being slaughtered and chased from the region of their birth. It might be one of the largest genocides in history.
3. Global debt–the product of a secular live-beyond-your-means mentality– is a potential time bomb that could reek as much havoc as nuclear fusion. Worldwide, global indebtedness stands at 55 trillion with hundreds of trillions of unfunded liabilities. In the United States, our national debt has passed 20 trillion dollars that must produce a day of reckoning in the not-so-distant future.
4. And here in America, poor leadership and race peddling for political gain have fueled weeks of rioting in major US cities including the death of two policemen in New York who were shot execution style. There is so much tension in USA’s largest city (New York) that the police have turned their backs to Mayor Bill de Blasio because he doesn’t have their back in maintaining order in the city. Many marches and protests are fueled by communist groups and anarchists. It seems like one little match could send American cities into a blaze of horrific violence.
The New York City killing of policeman Rafael Ramos really strikes home. Rafael was a distance-student of a seminary where I teach–Faith Evangelical College and Seminary in Tacoma, WA–and was only fifteen hours away from completing his degree. His goal was to do a Masters in chaplaincy and use his life to bless many others. (Faith Seminary will be awarding his degree posthumously.)
His future was halted by a cowardly bullet.
Here’s the truth about 2015: Major economic difficulties and collapse, maybe on a global scale, is more than likely in the next year or two. That will create distress, chaos and, possibly, a new world order might emerge out of the disruption of life as we know it.
Happy days are not here again. Don’t believe the secular Pied Pipers. It’s the calm before the storm–and this particular tsunami will not be pretty.
But God is in control. So prepare yourself. Get your money out of the fragile markets and into tangible investments and ministry. Watch and pray and serve the needs of those around you.
Tribulation is coming. So is Jesus Christ.
Fulfilling his commission and hastening his return are the best things we can do to to enter into the true golden era of His heavenly kingdom.
Why Our Government Isn’t Protecting Us From Ebola, ISIS, and Open Borders
Is it just me, or does it seem to you that a switch has been flipped in the past few years that the US government is no longer committed to protecting us?
I’ve assumed all my life, based on American history and biblical principles, that civil governments exist to protect peoples’ God-given rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
But now that Ebola has crossed our shores, ISIS is taking over city after city in Iraq and Syria, and the flood of illegals aliens is back page news but continuing to flood our nation, it appears that our leadership is abandoning its historic position as a protector.
Why are our current leaders not doing everything they can to protect us from these evils?
Three issues have really gotten my attention about the government’s failure to protect.
Illegal Immigration
Remember what a huge issue this was 6-12 months ago? Thousands of women, children, and who knows who else were pouring across the southern boundary into the United States. Among that spate of stories, we learned that the Obama administration had moved its security people away from the actual border, making it much easier for people to enter.
Instead of stopping and deporting illegals, they were changing diapers and running shelters for masses of humanity from Mexico and Central America.
Now months later, many towns and cities are struggling to cope with hundreds of kids who don’t speak English and need to assimilate into American society–while potential terrorists may still be coming across a border that is anything but safe and secure.
And President Obama seems intent during the looming lame-duck session to grant amnesty to millions more of them. Why in the world is this happening?
Back in the real world, I keep coming back to a simple analogy: I would never consider having open doors and windows on my house. If I did, my wife would kill me for not protecting our family. So how can our federal government keep rationalizing open, porous borders in a world rife with terrorism and WMDs?
Why is our government not sealing the border for safe and orderly immigration practices?
ISIS
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria–or whatever you want to call them–are the most zealous and brutal barbarians that the world has seen since the German Third Reich (Nazis). They have no conscience toward the sacredness of human life, but seem to revel (demoniacally) in kidnapping and raping women, crucifying, mutilating and beheading anyone who resists them, and are intent on setting up a religious theocracy based on murder and fear.
A case can be made that we never should have toppled Sadaam Hussein from power (Bush administration). An even better case can be made that the Obama administration made a tragic error in not achieving a Status of Forces of Agreement with Iraq (as we did in Germany, Japan, Korea etc.), leading to the vacuum that ISIS filled.
Everyone seems to know, except the present administration, that the air campaign is neither degrading not destroying ISIS–rather the new Nazis continue their march toward Baghdad and Kobani while the sixty nation coalition remains a farce (not a force).
In my lifetime, the cauldron of evil in the Middle East–centered in ISIS and Iran–has never been at such a high boil. And our leadership appears to either look away, wring their hands, or go back to the golf course–even as heads are chopped off in abject mockery of American impotence.
Why is the United States not willing to account for its mistake and use grounds troops and special forces to crush and remove ISIS?
Ebola
The disaster of the month is not a murderous army or an illegal invasion, but a deadly disease that stalks some West African nations that has now been imported to America.
In late September, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, a resident of Liberia, entered the United States with symptoms of Ebola and died of the disease on October 8 in a Dallas, Texas hospital. Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids by a filovirus.
Duncan potentially contaminated scores of people while in the US, and just this week, two of his nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, came down with the disease. Others may follow.
Why is our government not restricting all visas and travel from West Africa until the plague is checked?
In all three of these instances, I would have expected George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, even Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, even Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and Dwight Eisenhower (the presidents of my lifetime) to make a concerted effort to protect the American people from this deadly disease.
It’s called a quarantine. So why won’t the Obama administration do it?
I think there are a number of possible answers:
First, President Obama does not believe that the primary role of government is to protect its citizens. Yes, he wears the title of “Commander in Chief” and has read a copy of the US Constitution, but I believe he has accepted the premise that the primary purpose of government is to provide for the people–not protect them. Hence, his huge and undeterred efforts on building a vast and dependent welfare state where government regulations on health, education, welfare, worldview, and social mores is the preferred focus.
Barack Obama has set his heart on the “fundamental transformation of the United States” which includes the eroding of our Judeo-Christian heritage, work ethic, economic system, and military into a social/secular democracy like many European nations. He sees government primarily as a provider of human services, not a guardian of personal liberties.
Thus, it’s easy to understand why our president spent the first two years of his presidency focusing on taking government control of health care and gutting the military back to pre-World War II levels. The remainder of his six years have been spent championing secular values (e.g. the re-definition of marriage), building a massive bureaucracy of environmental and financial regulations, and doubling welfare dependency.
Barack Obama likes being Big Daddy–not Commander in Chief.
Second, President Obama’s strength lies in fund-raising and campaigning more than leading a nation. As Dick Morris points out in his new book Power Grab, the true priority of the Obama administration is building a permanent social-democratic majority in the US–not solving the nation’s problems. President Obama’s worldview actually determines that he can’t solve the problems we’re facing. Hence he stays in his comfort zone of raising money and giving speeches because he doesn’t know what to do.
Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States with the thinnest resume in history. When elected to the Oval Office due to his charisma and oratorical skills, he had served only as a community organizer, state senator, and undistinguished 2-year US Senator. He’d never served in the armed forces, been an executive, started or run a business, or even met a payroll.
America made a huge mistake when it twice chose an inexperienced and ideologically driven man to lead our nation. His election exposed our own ignorance, narcissistic tendencies, our propensity toward dependency, and our lack of courage in facing the great threats of our time.
We are Barack Obama–he is a reflection of our majority values. He isn’t protecting us because we, too, want things more than liberty.
I hope that during the elections of 2014 and 2016 we will take a look in the mirror, repent of our selfish ways, and again build the personal and national character that once made us great.
Third, Barack Obama and other leaders like him are committed to down-sizing America’s influence and presence internationally. They believe that America does more bad than good around the world—that, we, somehow, are the main reason for the suffering and anti-pathy everywhere.
They fail to understand, that despite America’s mistakes and failures, our nation has been the greatest source of inspiration, deliverance, and development for other countries than any other in history. We’ve also been the greatest exporter of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth–with over 120,000 missionaries currently serving in other lands.
America has blessed the world through winning two World Wars, bringing down the Soviet Union, supplying the economic engine for global growth and free markets, guarding the skies and shores of major continents, and leading the world in philanthropic and emergency aid.
That record should not be ignored or misunderstood. It should be built on and treasured.
Fourth, President Obama is either consciously, unconsciously, or, as a subject of Providence, helping to prepare the world for a new order of global government. Bible-based nations must be secularized in order for that to happen. The United Nations or some other entity must rise as the guardian of the peace. There must also be an economic calamity world-wide to cause a realignment of peoples and nations.
This may be a moment in history where the sins and ignorance of the American people paved the way for the ascendance of a leader who would complete the weakening of the last remaining faith-based superpower so that the entire planet could be changed.
I don’t blame Barack Obama for that. I blame we, the people, who have allowed it to happen. In the bigger scheme of things, God is sovereignly directing history toward its ultimate goal in the fulfilling of the Great Commission and the Return of Jesus Christ. The rise and fall of nations are a part of that equation.
To sum up, our government and its leaders are not protecting us because they are inept and have a different vision and agenda for America’s future.
We need to repent, pray with passion, go to the polls and vote for godly leaders, and trust our future to the only One who can revive nations as well as save souls.
When human leaders fail us, we can take comfort in this truth: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble” (Psalms 46:1).
As fellow believers in Iraq, North Korea, and other nations are now being forced to learn, we must find our ultimate safety in God and God alone.
He will protect us from evil.