Free Speech and Counter-Terrorism

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Free Speech and Counter-Terrorism
Tuesday 20th April, 2021

The purpose of this weekly ‘Gospel and Culture’ blog is to assist pastors and Christian leaders to quickly understand ‘key’ issues of the day and how they might intersect with the Gospel, Church and with Christianity generally. It is essentially a ‘curated’ blog that raises between one and three current issues and directs you the reader to a reliable article, podcast and/or a website for further reading. It is my contribution to help us ‘think Christianly’ and to develop a Christian world-view. Jesus prayed for us in John 17, “I’m not asking you, Father, to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one………make them holy by your truth”.

Free Speech, Cancel Culture and Preaching

POV. There’s no doubt that free speech as we have known it for most of the last 60 years or so is under threat in New Zealand and much of the Western World. And I am not talking about a wee push back here and a bit of disagreement there. No I am talking about a sustained and relentless attack on what we as citizens in the free world have regarded as our ‘right’. But let’s be clear with all rights come responsibilities. And besides I would contend that absolute freedom of speech is not a moral right and neither is it a social good necessarily.

Yet freedom of belief and freedom of expression of those beliefs are incredibly important if we are to discover the truth. And ‘The Truth’ really matters to us as Christians. Actually it matters to most people. That’s why people with opposing views to Christians are sometimes so adamant and even obstinate in expressing their views, because they too care about the truth. But Christian truth telling could one day (if it hasn’t already) become hate speech as per the new legislation being proposed in NZ. And that will bring some new challenges for us……that is for sure.

The challenge I think we face right now in our ‘brave new world’ is learning to speak our truth as Christians in a way that is helpful, grace-filled and winsome. And even when we achieve that we may still face all kinds of resistance, de-platforming and even the cancel culture. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised that we may see a few Christians apprehended for speaking out ‘our truth’ in the near future. For example I have long ago decided that I will speak up and write for marriage between one man and one women and I will speak up for the biological fact, created by God himself, that gender is binary and that you are either male or female. But I will always seek to speak in ways that are winsome and with empathy toward those who don’t buy it. I will speak with love and not judgement, God being my helper.

Here is a helpful article (10 mins) entitled, ‘A Theology of Free Speech’ by Brad Littlejohn and published by The Gospel Coalition.

Counter-Terrorism

The New Zealand Government is currently amending its Counter-Terrorism legislation after the recommendations of The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack. Here is a quick read from The Conversation to help focus some thinking around this issue.