{"id":20565,"date":"2015-01-13T05:44:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T10:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=20565"},"modified":"2015-01-12T19:45:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T00:45:17","slug":"when-offensive-speech-deserves-defending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/01\/when-offensive-speech-deserves-defending\/","title":{"rendered":"When offensive speech deserves defending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic, has an interesting and nuanced take on the Charlie Hebdo<\/em> attacks, how purposefully offensive speech is wrong\u2013and yet, if someone threatens to murder a person over it, that speech becomes something good, something that deserves defending.<\/p>\n

You need to read the whole column<\/a>, including Mr. Douthat\u2019s points about\u00a0 why we should NOT generally offend people, but here is a key paragraph:<\/p>\n

The kind of blasphemy that Charlie Hebdo engaged in had deadly consequences, as everyone knew it could \u2026 and that kind of blasphemy is precisely the kind that needs to be defended, because it\u2019s the kind that clearly serves a free society\u2019s greater good. If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it\u2019s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn\u2019t really a liberal civilization any more. Again, liberalism doesn\u2019t depend on everyone offending everyone else all the time, and it\u2019s okay to prefer a society where offense for its own sake is limited rather than pervasive. But when offenses are policed by murder, that\u2019s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nBy \u201cliberal,\u201d he is referring to its original meaning as having to do with \u201cfreedom.\u201d\n

This reminds me of the Reformation principle about adiaphora<\/em>, practices neither commanded nor forbidden.\u00a0 No one should make a big deal about practices we are free to use or not use, said the early Lutherans, UNLESS it becomes a matter of confession.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, it doesn\u2019t really matter whether or not a person kneels when receiving Holy Communion.\u00a0 But when kneeling is forbidden, as it was in certain Protestant jurisdictions because it implied Christ\u2019s true presence in the Sacraments, then Lutherans SHOULD kneel in defiance of that rule as a confession of the teaching the rule is trying to squelch.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic, has an interesting and nuanced take on the Charlie Hebdo attacks, how purposefully offensive speech is wrong\u2013and yet, if someone threatens to murder a person over it, that speech becomes something good, something that deserves defending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,46],"tags":[3545,3544,871],"class_list":["post-20565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-law","category-terrorism","tag-adiaphora","tag-charlie-hebdo-attack","tag-free-speech"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen offensive speech deserves defending<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic, has an interesting and nuanced take on the Charlie Hebdo attacks, how purposefully offensive speech is\" \/>\n<meta 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