{"id":13285,"date":"2015-05-06T03:03:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=13285"},"modified":"2015-05-06T03:03:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:03:55","slug":"the-limits-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of Free Speech?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Salman<\/a>
Salman Rushdie (Kyle Cassidy via Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The moment you limit free speech it\u2019s not free speech<\/em>. ~Salman Rushdie<\/p>\n

In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored by the American Defense Freedom Initiative self-appointed pundits have begun to talk about the\u00a0\u201climits of free speech,\u201d asking questions such as: is some speech so provocative that it should be limited? \u00a0So have respectable news outlets. \u00a0McClatchy, a news source whose reporting I appreciate, recently posed the question this way: \u201cIf free speech is provocative, should there be limits?<\/a>\u201d \u00a0Today, Diane Rehm\u2013one of the best interviewers in radio\u2013will broadcast a\u00a0show entitled, \u201cAn Attack Thwarted in Texas, Claims of Responsibility by ISIS, and The Limits of Free Speech<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although we all understand that even in free society there are limits on speech, in America, those limitations have generally been applied to specific public situations, e.g. \u201cshouting fire in a crowded theater,\u201d and not specific sorts of speech, e.g. anti-religious rhetoric. \u00a0Anti-religious rhetoric\u2013be it in the form of Sam Harris<\/a>\u2018 caustic New Atheism<\/a>, Jack Chick\u2019s anti-Catholic Tracts<\/a>, or provocative cartoons\u00a0of Muhammad\u2013is the sort of annoying, insulting, and yes, even blasphemous speech that religious groups in American have come to accept as the price of living in a society that affords them free exercise.<\/p>\n

After the ratification of The Bill of Rights<\/em>, the legal protections enshrined\u00a0in\u00a0First Amendment shaped the development of religion (and religions) in the United States of America. \u00a0Unlike in the state-church societies\u00a0of eighteenth-century Europe, in the newly formed republic religious groups had to compete for adherents in an emerging religious marketplace. \u00a0In this religious marketplace, which grew as the nation expanded westward and the New England states disestablished their state churches, groups used rhetoric and suasion to bolster their numbers. \u00a0At times, this rhetoric included virulent bombast and slanderous claims about other religious groups. \u00a0Although frustrating to those groups at whom it was directed, in principle (if not always in practice) the legal protection afforded such speech meant that the disparaged groups had a right to retaliate. \u00a0In short, I tolerated your bombastic blasphemy because you were compelled to tolerate mine.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/a>
President Johnson Signs the 1965 Immigration Act (By Yoichi R. Okamoto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>In the nineteenth century, denominationalism became the shape of religion in America <\/a>as the various groups learned to work together for specific causes\u00a0while maintaining their distinctive beliefs. \u00a0Baptists and Methodist cooperated to publish gospel tracts even as they harangued each other over baptism. \u00a0In the frontier states, the denominations engaged in a war of words through sermons, speeches, and denominational\u00a0papers. \u00a0Occasionally fistfights would break out, but rarely were one\u2019s religious opponents killed. \u00a0By the late twentieth century, that model of mutual toleration, and at times, respect, expanded to included non-Christian groups as Asian immigration opened after 1965<\/a>. \u00a0It remains to be seen whether or not such an arrangement can survive globalization and an America where security is beginning to trump freedom. \u00a0The near attack in Garland, and perhaps more importantly, the reactions of Americans to it, tests the limits of that arrangement of mutual toleration-mutual free speech.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, it is easy to defend the free speech of groups one finds tolerable. It is much more difficult\u2013but also much more necessary\u2013to defend the free speech of groups that one finds despicable. \u00a0And yet liberty depends on just that, for freedom erodes from the margins towards the center. \u00a0Thus, we must defend anti-religious rhetoric as free speech, even when it is provocative because our freedoms depend upon it. \u00a0The oft-cited quote mistakenly credited to Voltaire applies: \u201cI disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.\u201d \u00a0Without a doubt, evangelicals ought to denounce the ADFI and its provocative tactics as unworthy of the name of Christ, even as we defend the American principle of free speech. \u00a0Once one form of speech is labelled as \u201ctoo provocative,\u201d any form can become a target for that label, a situation that bodes well for no one, whether Muslim, Christian, or anti-religious rhetorician. \u00a0On this, it seems, a whole host of Americans ought to agree.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The moment you limit free speech it\u2019s not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored by the American Defense Freedom Initiative self-appointed pundits have begun to talk about the\u00a0\u201climits of free speech,\u201d asking questions such as: is some speech so provocative that it should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[415,29,304,1],"tags":[2369,2135,2366,333,2368],"class_list":["post-13285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miles-mullin","category-religious-freedom","category-religious-pluralism","category-uncategorized","tag-american-defense-freedom-initiative","tag-anti-religious-propaganda","tag-free-speech","tag-religious-liberty","tag-salman-rushdie"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Limits of Free Speech?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Limits of Free Speech?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Anxious Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/files\/2015\/05\/Salman_Rushdie-194x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Miles Mullin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miles Mullin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/\",\"name\":\"The Limits of Free Speech?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/921acc1b27183d7b6f368e09c23285b8\"},\"description\":\"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Limits of Free Speech?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/\",\"name\":\"Anxious Bench\",\"description\":\"The Relevance of Religious History for Today\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/921acc1b27183d7b6f368e09c23285b8\",\"name\":\"Miles Mullin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f182a0cdf4aac1eeb94c03a94298ac89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f182a0cdf4aac1eeb94c03a94298ac89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Miles Mullin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/author\/mmullin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Limits of Free Speech?","description":"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Limits of Free Speech?","og_description":"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/","og_site_name":"Anxious Bench","article_published_time":"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/files\/2015\/05\/Salman_Rushdie-194x300.jpg"}],"author":"Miles Mullin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Miles Mullin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/","name":"The Limits of Free Speech?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-05-06T07:03:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/921acc1b27183d7b6f368e09c23285b8"},"description":"The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. ~Salman Rushdie In the wake of the recent near attacks on the satirical cartoon contest sponsored","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2015\/05\/the-limits-of-free-speech\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Limits of Free Speech?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/","name":"Anxious Bench","description":"The Relevance of Religious History for Today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/921acc1b27183d7b6f368e09c23285b8","name":"Miles Mullin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f182a0cdf4aac1eeb94c03a94298ac89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f182a0cdf4aac1eeb94c03a94298ac89?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Miles Mullin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/author\/mmullin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}