Scott Kamps
The greatest threat to your free speech today isn’t some Big Brother regime; it’s yourself.
Self-censorship is when you refrain from expressing thoughts or beliefs that others regard as objectionable.
Societal pressure to self-censor is pervasive. Think about how you’d argue against racism, specifically white supremacy; now consider how you’d address the sin of homosexuality.
Some readers are thinking they wouldn’t argue against homosexuality because they don’t think it’s sinful. That illustrates how strong the pressure is. Many people – even some professing Christians – have caved to this spirit of the age.
Even Joe Biden voted for DOMA in 1996, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. He remained opposed to same-sex marriage in 2008, until he supported it in 2012.
Many others, believing homosexuality (along with adultery, shacking up and any sex outside of God-ordained marriage) is subversive and immoral, would argue against homosexuality much differently than racism. The inclination for most biblical Christians would be to express more empathy for homosexuals than racists, to argue in less judgmental ways; and to denunciate any supposed violent enemies of LGBTQ+ proponents, while not doing the same for racists.
Flannery O’Connor captured the spirit of biblical Christianity well: “Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you;” and the LGBTQ+ agenda is pushing ferociously. Why do Christians tend to be soft – even silent – here? It’s fear: fear of being canceled, of being ostracized, of losing friends/family, of losing jobs, of being labeled bigots, and/or fear of the online mob.
The cultural elites have been effective in deceiving our society into following the logic of hate speech legislation: any speech that even implies a negative moral judgment on the LGBTQ+ community is supposedly bigoted, hateful and leads to violence.
A liberal friend of mine jokes that “I hate gays,” because I believe marriage is defined by God and can only be between a man and woman. I’ve had others subtly suggest that I should be unemployed because I advocate the Bible’s teachings on sexuality. I know these pressures are real and not just perceived.
Additionally, the left’s hypocrisy shines clearly here. They desire to limit biblical Christians’ free speech on marriage/family because of the “violence” and “trauma” it could cause, while ignoring supporters of genocidal Hamas terrorists on college campuses that “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” I thought “silence was violence.” Why are those who are supporting those who rape, behead and pillage primarily non-combatants being upheld as courageous, and not bigots?
Maybe cancel culture is really just a front to advance the progressive agenda.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.