Date posted: 02-04-2023
Estimated Reading Time : 6:00
Free speech is under attack in America like never before.
All Americans, but most especially Christians, must stand united in defense of this sacred and unalienable right. Freedom of speech is a Christian concept rooted in biblical principles. America’s Founding Fathers recognized this and enshrined it in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, alongside the freedoms to worship and assemble.
Our Founders gave it first place for good reason. Freedom of speech is essential to the pursuit of happiness and self governance.
An Unalienable Right
Self-expression is by God’s design a fundamental aspect of who we are as people. Freedom to express oneself is essential to happiness and fulfillment. The Bible says mankind is made in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). God’s first act was to speak (Gen. 1:3). Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1-2). Just as Jesus is the perfect expression of the heart of God (John 14:9, Heb. 1:3), and is called, “The Word of God,” our words also express our hearts and minds, and therefore reflect who we are as people. As Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34).”
Free speech is also inextricably tied to the gospel and its promise of eternal life. According to Romans 10:9, whoever believes that God raised Jesus from the dead and confesses with their mouth that He is Lord, will be saved. Jesus Himself said those who profess Him before men, He would profess before His Father and His angels, and those who deny Him before men, He would deny before the Father (Matthew 10:32). As Christ’s followers, we are commanded to preach the gospel, teach all nations, and be His witnesses (Mark 16:15-17, Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). So the spread of the greatest news ever told (God’s gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ) depends on speech. We, above all people, must therefore stand firm in favor of free speech. As my friend Bill Federer says,
“The most important thing is to preach the gospel. The second most important thing is to preserve the freedom to do the most important thing.”
~William J. Federer
The ideal of freedom of speech has followed the spread of Christianity around the world. From Britain to North America and beyond, wherever the true Gospel was boldly preached, free governments that enshrined free speech as a fundamental right have followed. In contrast, where anti-Christian philosophies have prevailed (fascism, Islam and Marxism, for example), free speech has been restricted. In fact, as a general observation, it can be said that the more entrenched anti-Christian philosophy becomes in a culture, the more speech in the culture will be restricted.
In Our Own Country
In our own country, as anti-Christian dogma has gained increased influence, so too, censorship and persecution of Christians has steadily increased, even to alarming levels.
What is most troubling, however, is the erosion of free speech rights under an American government increasingly hostile to the Church. The radical leftist regime of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party have attacked a number of fundamental beliefs at the core of Christianity, including the sanctity of life and biblically defined marriage, along with free speech.
The Biden administration’s Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board” has rightfully come under attack as unconstitutional and chilling. According to Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, the Department of Homeland Security would use the board to “respond to matters the government unilaterally determines to be mis-, dis- or mal-information,” and plan “to coordinate efforts to leverage ties with social media platforms to enable the removal of user content.”
In other words, bureaucrats and woke corporations would work together to decide what information is appropriate for public consumption. It should be no surprise that the Disinformation Governance Board would be leveraged against critics of the regime in general and Christians in particular.
A Word for Christians
The Word of God is a danger to those who want to control speech and determine truth according to their own unbiblical ideologies. Christians who say life begins in the womb or sex should be reserved for marriage between a man and a woman are a threat to the demonic ideologies of the Left, such as allowing abortion up to birth (and murder afterward) and the anything-goes perversion of the LGBT movement.
Jesus spoke from the scriptures with authority and did not shy away from confronting error. The ruling forces of His time continually challenged His words (Mark 11:27-28). If the religious leaders could not counter His teaching directly, they sent surrogates to do so (Mark 12:13-17). When all their opinions and interpretations of God’s Law failed, they unsuccessfully attempted to arrest and silence Him (John 7:44-47). Ultimately, they suborned perjury to slander Jesus with the charge of blasphemy (Matthew 26:59-65)—declaring His teachings to be misinformation—and sentenced Him to a criminal’s death.
Jesus was attacked because He used truth to expose lies and righteousness to expose sin. He offered eternal life—a relationship with God—and freedom from condemnation. But those whose earthly power was threatened by the true King worked to eliminate the Truth (John 14:6) so they could continue manipulating the masses with untruth—condemning themselves. In John 3:19, Jesus said, “this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
Christians cannot be compelled to accept lies and have freedom of conscience to follow the Word of God rather than ungodly government policies that encourage sin. In Galatians 5:1, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Take a Closer Look
By looking closely at the organizations who support limiting free speech and are closely aligned with the Democrat Party—Antifa, Black Lives Matter, LGBT groups, abortion businesses, and others—a person will find that they also oppose other biblical ideals like the sanctity of life, the nuclear family, and equality.
These radical groups benefit from a cozy relationship between the Biden administration and Big Tech. On social media platforms, liberal activists spread their hatred of traditional values freely while conservatives are silenced. Even accounts like Libs of Tik Tok, which exposes the lunacy of leftists by simply sharing their unedited posts, are targeted for censorship by operatives within Twitter and receive death threats from violent extremists.
When the lies of the enemy lose their effectiveness, the only way to compete with truth is through censorship. The ruling powers of today are trying to overturn Americans’ constitutional rights, which are based on biblical principles.
Christians are free to speak God’s Word and expose the ungodliness in culture. It’s time for those who believe the Bible to stand for truth, support godly policies and legislation, and select candidates that will uphold biblical values before our Constitution is undermined and our speech silenced.
Learn More
Explore the Truth & Liberty website and visit our Research Center for practical resources to defend the right to life. Also learn how you can become a Truth & Liberty Coalition member and join us in standing for truth in the public square.