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does free speech include the right to offend?

[Nov. 7th, 2009|10:18 pm]

gsa_lj
[bdouville]

[

Tags

christianity, college, free speech, libertarian, religion

]

Recently, "Campus For Christ" (a conservative evangelical club on our university campus) announced that they would be holding a prayer vigil for "the homosexuality community." The announcement on their website and e-mail list-server read: "Let us pray in love for those who seek freedom from this bondage that they may find Jesus and turn away from temptation. Let us earnestly, get on our knees and fight a battle in prayer for their victory." (Bondage? Getting on our knees? Uh...no comment.) Somehow, this e-mail was forwarded to other groups, and the response from the campus queer community (and queer-positive organizations) was immediate and angry.

I am involved in one of those queer-positive campus left groups (which, incidentally, is a Christian club, but very different from Campus for Christ). The leader of our club saw the announcement as "hate speech," and felt that such a prayer service should not be tolerated. He decided to launch a formal complaint to the campus's Centre for Human Rights. I agreed with him that our club should respond to this event in some public way, but when it comes to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, I'm a libertarian. This includes the freedom to offend, and the freedom to perceive queers or non-Christians as sinners in need of salvation. Obviously, I felt that Campus for Christ was in error, but I didn't see it as "hate speech" (I mean, these folks are not Fred Phelps groupies), nor did I see it remotely as a human rights issue. (If anything, I think that the freedom to assemble and pray as one sees fit is a human right that trumps my freedom from having my feelings hurt.) Nonetheless, I helped the group leader to draft a formal complaint, which was sent to the Centre for Human Rights. In retrospect, I felt very conflicted about this. As I said, I wanted to make a public statement, but had no desire to censure another group. At least I was able to be a moderating influence, and keep some of the more loaded, intolerant rhetoric out of the letter. Still, I have regrets about signing the letter.

The following day, Campus for Christ issued an apology, which seemed pretty genuine to me. I see this as a golden opportunity to open up dialogue with more conservative Christian groups, and expose them to a "queer and Christian" position. I hope that we're able to open up channels of communication. Logic tells me that there are queer people in Campus for Christ who haven't come to terms with it. They need to hear that it IS possible to be queer and Christian without contradiction. They need somebody to provide a way out of the maze of guilt and self-condemnation. I know this because I was there once, and the "hope" that the evangelicals offer (i.e., reparative therapy ex-gay conversion) would just add to their guilt, self-doubt and self-condemnation.

I ended up talking with a handful of campus left folks about this issue, and I was very uncomfortable with their intolerance. I.e., "Sure we acknowledge the right of conservative evangelical clubs to believe whatever they want, but they shouldn't state it so publicly." (Is posting something on your campus club's website really considered to be 'public'?) This bugs me for several reasons. First of all, it's counter-productive. If you try and censure an evangelical, you'll only validate his/her sense of righteousness, because conservative Christians thrive on persecution (or on the perception of themselves as a persecuted minority). And if you force them to retract, you'll only make them more subtle about their homophobia, or their misogyny, or whatever. They'll learn to talk in code. Sorry, but I'd rather deal with open, direct ignorance than cloaked, evasive ignorance. The only way to dialogue with these people is to allow for freedom of speech. And there is a deeper issue here too: protecting your right to say that "two plus two is five" will protect my right to say that "two plus two is four."

There ARE reasonable limits to freedom of speech or freedom of assembly in a university. For example, if there is genuine hate speech -- inciting violence towards a particular minority -- then it should not be tolerated. But the limits on free speech should only be those that are necessary and reasonable within a democratic society. And those boundaries, in my libertarian views, are VERY broad. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Your thoughts?

Cheers,

Bruce

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