qualified by the assumption that the Divine gave us these gifts to be used in the
service of what is good and true and useful. The same God who gives us the
power of speech also tells us “thou shalt not bear false witness.”
To use our faculty of free speech to insult the very One who gave it to us
is ungracious, to say the least. To call this a “right” is to degrade the whole
concept of rights.
And it is harmful spiritually to those who indulge in it, and to a society
that encourages it. Whether someone believes in God or not this still holds
true; we all, believers and non-believers alike, receive life and our human
abilities from God. Non-believers are not immune to the spiritual callousness
and corrosive effect of their own blasphemies.
In addition to our responsibility to our Creator, we also owe society a
certain amount of consideration in the way we choose to exercise our right of
free speech, since it is the civil order society maintains that protects us from
those who would prevent us from speaking freely. Engaging in speech that
harms the very society that protects your right of free speech is “biting the
hand that feeds you.”
Blasphemy and obscene expressions of contempt for religious faith do
harm society because the civil order of human life depends upon a constant
influx of the spiritual order, formed by Divine love and wisdom, that emanates
from the Divine into heaven, and through heaven into the world. Again, this is
true whether anyone believes it or not.
The freedom to question, argue against, reject, and use satire to expose
flaws in religious belief and practice should be protected; but vile depictions
of a religious leader millions of people revere as holy is unworthy of the label
“satire.” I am not a Catholic and reject various aspects of that faith, but I would
never depict the pope in the obscene way that some cartoonists have for years.
It goes without saying that violence and murder are inexcusable. For many
years Christians and Jews in Europe have endured such verbal and artistic
assaults without resorting to violence. But words can hurt, and not everyone
is so forgiving or wishy-washy in what they believe as to be indifferent when
contempt is heaped upon their religion. Not everyone is “nuanced” enough to
understand that what appears to be vicious slander against all he holds sacred
is really just witty “satire.”
There is truth in the old saying, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” which
means it should be wielded as carefully and judiciously as other weapons are.
“Everyone knows that man has the freedom to think and will just as he
pleases, but not the freedom to say whatever he thinks, or to do whatever he
wills; therefore the freedom that is here meant is spiritual freedom, and not
natural freedom, except when the two make one.” (Divine Providence 71)
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