Freedom and the Future

Freedom is an essential aspect of our current ability to be passive Christians. What I am calling passive Christians are those that claim a belief in Christianity without having to make hard decisions or sacrifices. This is not necessarily an insult and I am not speaking to their piety or holiness. One can be pious and holy but still be a passive Christian.

What I am concerned about for the future is this very freedom, religious freedom, we take for granted now. In most first world countries there is the concept of religious freedom. This is a good concept as it fulfills the "golden rule," to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I would not like to be forced to convert religions or forced to hide my religion, and so I should not want to do that to others. This is different than missioning and teaching about Jesus to those that do not know Him. I do not want my government to dictate my religion, either overtly or covertly.

What is occurring currently in America, a public and caustic debate about religion and science, morals and laws, I see as bringing the end to the freedom of religion. Freedom of expression and freedom of religion very much go together. You cannot have the second without the first. The end of freedom of religion will be because of the limitation of the freedom of expression being put into place in our current society.

Hate speech is the first step in this war against freedom of expression. What is hate speech? Wikipedia defines hate speech as "Hate speech is a controversial term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on his/her race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. The term covers written as well as oral communication."

The concept of hate speech is directly in opposition to freedom of expression. Promoting Christianity could be considered hate speech. Expressing Christian values and morals is considered hate speech by those that like to practice values in opposition to Christianity.

People hate me because of what I believe (of course before they get to know me!). I do not expect, nor want, my government to "protect" me from them hating me or hearing their hatred for my beliefs. If their hatred causes them to want to kill me, then yes, I would prefer that my government attempt to protect me from getting killed. However, I want this regardless of that person's opinion of me and my beliefs. Hate is specifically against Christian teaching. I am not promoting the idea that hate is OK, but isn't hate in the realm of thought, and if we ban hate, we are creating a new kind of crime, a thoughtcrime (see Orwell's novel 1984).

We are living in a time when the Supreme Court of the USA ruled in a closely split (5-4) case about the ability of a private organization, the Boy Scouts of America, to deny entry into this organization to anyone it wants. Expand this idea to churches. If the BSofA had lost this case? It is not too much of a leap to imagine the government forcing a church to accept a person it did not want to accept. Freedom of association, or what was called expressive association, was at stake here, and this freedom is not lesser than freedom of religion.

We are living in a time when over 30% of high school students believe that there should be more limitations set on the press. (c.f. USA Today, also a simple Google search). Freedom of the press is a specific implementation of freedom of expression and it is under attack. Freedom of speech in general is under attack. What does that mean for Christians, especially Orthodox Christians which presumably don't bend as easily to prevailing culture?

Soon Christians will no longer be able to be passive. We will soon have to decide whether we will promote Christianity in the face of criminalized speech and thought. Will we end up like Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Steven the Protomartyr because of our speech? Will we set up secret churches to overcome the ban on religious ideology? Whatever we will do, in the future, it will no longer be easy.