I’ll be honest, free speech was not something I was really ever concerned about. And if someone I didn’t agree with got censored in some way, I honestly didn’t care. But as things have been unfolding in our nation, I realize that the loss of free speech is a really dangerous slippery slope. If someone loses their right to speak freely then they can lose their right to anything. Sure, we all have the choice to listen to who we want to listen to. We have the choice to change the radio station, the television channel, unfollow on social media or walk away if we must. But for someone to lose a platform because people disagree with them, is that right? The Cancel Culture thing seems fitting until it’s someone you like or even worse, until you lose your right to speak. How far is too far? If someone at the top can get canceled, doesn’t that mean those of us at the bottom can get canceled as well? Think about it. How would you feel if someone removed a platform for you to speak just because they disagreed with you?
When I look at this from a biblical perspective, it’s a dangerous and rather an immature thing to cancel voices that question or challenge us. And if we stay on that road of canceling people in our lives because we disagree with them, we will find ourselves more isolated and alone. The book of Proverbs in the Bible is full of wisdom. In Proverbs 18:1-2 it says,” Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks all sound judgement. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” What if we took the word “isolates” and filled it in with “cancels others out?” Then we can see that we are breaking sound judgement and being foolish not to listen and only expressing our own opinions or allowing those that have our opinions to be heard. And at some point, even those you like and agree with now, you will eventually disagree with them. Will you cancel them out of your life as well? If we keep going down this path, what will it look like for our children? Is that what we want for our lives, our communities or our nation to look like? Our Founding Fathers of the Constitution and even more important our Heavenly Father who gave them those timeless and powerful words, knew that freedom of speech was everything. If a man can lose his right to freely speak, he can lose his right to anything. We don’t have to like what someone else says, or even agree with them, but we do need to respect their right to speak freely.