The following is an article from fellow online apologetics and discernment ministry Herescope contributor Sarah Leslie. Sarah brings to light an attempt to censor free speech by some in the Christian community. For instance, Laura Turner of the “Her.meneutics” blog over at Christianity Today has labeled spiritual discernment “theology policing.” In a piece she wrote, Turner went after two Christian writers that she deems theology police, Tim Challies and Warren B. Smith, for criticizing Sarah Young’s best-selling book, Jesus Calling. Challies and Smith share the view that Jesus Calling is decidedly unbiblical and have given numerous reasons for saying that it’s not a book Christian should be reading. So they’re under attack for telling the truth.
With all this in mind, we hope you’ll listen to Sarah Leslie express her concerns over some of the frightening things that are going on in the Christian community:
Peggy Noonan wrote in her weekly Wall Street Journal column this past December 4th her concerns that
The censorship movement is radical. It is starting to make everyone in the country feel harassed and anxious. It is odd to see candidates miss a rising issue that is giving pause to so many Americans.
I pray someone will address it. Literally, I just did.
This Herescope post is an answer to her prayers. It may be an unexpected answer and a politically incorrect answer, but nevertheless it is a response. It represents an exercise in the right of free speech and freedom of religion.
Noonan, a former speechwriter to President Reagan with conservative credentials, titled her article “The First Amendment Needs Your Prayers.” She was upset about social media reactions during the San Bernardino massacre, “even while it is happening,” especially from a U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (CT) who sent out a message stating, “Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing—again.” According to Noonan this heavy-handed ridiculing of people who were praying during the massacre “immediately won a name: ‘prayer shaming.’” Noonan then expressed more concerns:
…Americans are growing weary of being told what they can and cannot publicly say, proclaim and think. We all know what’s going on at the colleges, with the mad little Marats and Robespierres who are telling students and administrators what they are and are not allowed to say or do. This is not just kids acting up at this point, it’s a real censorship movement backed by an ideology that is hostile to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is led by students who, though they managed to get into the greatest universities in the country, seem never to have been taught to love the little amendment that guarantees free speech and free religious observance, the two pillars without which America collapses. And too bad, because when you don’t love something you lose it.
It is my impression that what is happening on the campuses is starting to break through as a real threat to what used to be called normal Americans.