Andrew Walker: The importance of the First Amendment

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. WORLD Opinions Managing Editor Andrew Walker now on why Christians should care about free speech.

ANDREW WALKER: For the last 15 years, challenges to religious freedom have been unceasing. Too many controversies—and Supreme Court cases—could be listed to make this point. In response, advocacy for religious liberty has been an urgent priority for Christians.

Religious freedom is inextricably linked, though, with freedom of speech. In fact, as someone who studies religious freedom academically, I believe religious liberty grounds freedom of speech, since the need to speak freely stems ultimately from an encounter with religious truth. Of course, non-religious speech has freedoms as well. The moral and organizing logic of the First Amendment connects religious freedom with free speech.

And yet, while nothing less than bold advocacy for religious freedom must continue, Christians must make anti-censorship a priority, too. Attacks on freedom of speech are accelerating to the point that it is hard not to conclude that powerful forces within the government and government-backed media are working overtime to suppress it.

In the last few weeks, we have learned of the government’s pressure on Facebook to censor views deviating from government orthodoxy on COVID-19. French authorities arrested the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, for letting illicit material roam free. Rather than go after the creators who used Telegram illegally, authorities are going after the owner of the service. Durov has since been released, though the charges remain. Meanwhile, a Brazilian judge has banned X within that nation, thereby cutting its citizens off from the world’s largest public square. And in the United Kingdom, the government warns its citizens to “Think before you post,” while in Ireland, a teacher was arrested for refusing to honor a student’s pronouns.

None of this is to suggest that freedom of speech is absolute. There are limits, usually called “time, place, manner” restrictions. For example, you cannot incite violence with your speech or defame. However, the sheer volume of attacks on free speech makes it unlikely that this is all a mere coincidence. Governments seeking to “crack down” on viewpoints challenging official narratives will always put those viewpoint holders in their crosshairs.

So what makes the defense of free speech a worthwhile cause for Christians? In my understanding of the Bible’s portrayal of human nature and government authority, a public theology of free speech is grounded in two realities.

First, speech is fundamental to our self-constitution. Truth-seeking and truth-speaking require freedom and, therefore, political rights for each natural right to be secured. When we defend freedom of speech, we are not defending the inherent good of misusing one’s speech (for example, profanity, or misinformation). No, we are defending the right of someone to search after the truth and then speak in defense of it should they conclude they have come to experience the truth. The exercises of citizenship and capacities of human nature that free speech reflects are valuable not simply because we are citizens in a democracy. They are valuable because we are rational creatures made in God’s image who is Himself the ground for truth.

Second, all humans and human institutions are fallible and need to be reminded of their fallibility. Otherwise, unchecked infallibility turns into authoritarianism. There is a place for government to prohibit some forms of expression, like pornography. But we should constantly force the government to make its case about why it has the right to censor speech. The burden should not be on citizens to prove their right to free speech. The burden should be on the government to prove under what conditions it ever could censor speech.

Famed writer Walter Kirn—not a conservative—recently said this on X: “The last few days have seen an almost symphonic surge of attacks on our most fundamental rights, by officials, newspapers, politicians, celebrities, & academics. It’s not rhetoric anymore, it’s an organized massing of institutional forces prior to big moves which seem imminent.”

This seems self-evidently true. Be on the lookout for busybodies in the government and media who think restricting access to speech and information is for your good. It is not.

I’m Andrew Walker.

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