When is Free Speech not Free Speech?
Our society really tests my patience on a variety of issues and a unique circumstance is about to surface that will test the mettle of those who are supposedly charged with making our airwaves free. This situation involves the Super Bowl too!
Tim Tebow and his mother have shot an advertisement that will be funded by Focus on the Family. This advertisement,a 30 second spot, will examine that circumstances around the birth of Tim in 1987. During her pregnancy, Tim’s mother was quite sick and had been advised by her doctors to abort the pregnancy. What a tragedy it would have been if she had accepted that advice?
A consortium of Women’s Groups, led by the Women’s Media Center, are encouraging CBS to not carry this advertisement because they find it “divisive”. That is code for anything that does not agree with their viewpoint. In the order of fairness I went to the Women’s Media Center site to see just who this group is and to see who supports them.
I was not surprised when I read the names on their board of directors, which included acknowledged Pro-choice, abortion advocates such as Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda.
I find it interesting and troubling when I see groups in our country who try to talk out of both sides of their mouth at the same time. In this instance, the WMC would argue to their final breath to plead their right to advocate their position, but they will do everything they can to prevent those who disagree, especially someone with the integrity of Tim Tebow and his family from presenting their’s.
I look forward to seeing more about this situation as it plays out. Stand up for your rights! Freedom isn’t free and the freedom to live is being encroached upon every day by those who do not honor life.
The only freedom that Christians should fight for is the freedom of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to evangelize the lost and disciple the found. No other mandate is given to Christians in the New Testament, so any other agenda is not the agenda of Jesus Christ, and as such is not the Lord’s battle. The early church suffered under cruel oppression of the Roman Empire, and many Christians today are suffering under similar situations in communist, Muslim and Hindu regimes. While they are being persecuted at times to the death for the testimony of Jesus Christ, in America we fight battles to send political messages that never have saved anyone and never will.
Job
January 26, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I don’t disagree and this situation is a classic example of two believers who want to spread that word. It amazes me how the secular world will work to keep the Good News and those who spread it from being recognized.
That_DanRyan
January 26, 2010 at 3:49 pm
There are many ways to speak the gospel and I would prefer to have someone who is a believer do so, even if he has to use a secular issue to convey the message.
We are told to be “in the world, not of the world”. How can we communicate the language of the Gospel if we do not deal with those who are non-believers? Must we not convey to them in their own vernacular the error in their ways?
That_DanRyan
January 26, 2010 at 8:50 pm
The liberal view of free speech has been adopted by too many, including conservatives. What “speech” is has become broad beyond the intent of Jefferson. The original purpose was protection from prosecution by the government when speaking against the government.
The First Amendment addresses several things separate from freedom of speech against government that have become mashed together and spoken of as a single concept.
That single concept is nonsense. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can say what you want and everyone has to broadcast it, read it, or hear it. It means you are allowed to say it, write it, and print it in whatever market will hear it and without fear of prosecution by the goverment when speaking against the government.
Can you find a publisher for your speech? Your problem.
Do people want to pay for or hear what you have to say? Maybe. Maybe not. But, you have the right to say it without fear of prosecution by the government.
The Tebows have said their piece. The liberal market simply doesn’t want it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that in a free market society. And already, alternative markets have picked up the product (e.g. this blog.)
Does that mean CBS is good or correct? Not at all. Don’t like what CBS did? Boycott CBS. They’re a bad organization in my opinion.
Does it mean that the Tebows right of free speech has been violated? Of course it doesn’t, because their right hasn’t been violated. They spoke. The market they or their representatives chose didn’t want the product. Maybe it will hurt the market, maybe it won’t. But the Tebows remain free from prosecution by the government – per intent of the amendment.
Let’s keep our efforts focused on the right things of speech and maybe everyone else will come around, too.
David Stewart
January 30, 2010 at 3:37 am
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Myspace Unblock
February 25, 2010 at 5:49 am