This week, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling that threatens to destroy free speech throughout Europe and possibly the world, as some of our Supreme Court Justices look towards foreign courts in rendering their opinions for US cases.
The case, E.S. v. Austria, involved an incident where E.S. was giving a lecture and commented that the Prophet Muhammad had married a six year old and consummated the marriage when the girl was 9 years old. She likened Muhammad to a pedophile. The Court ruled that E.S.’s comments showed an impermissible intolerance to the Islamic religion, could lead to violence, and was therefore not protected free speech.
This decision is shameful and a threat to free speech everywhere. Unfortunately, I have even seen a news commentator on one of out major news stations advocate to muzzle free speech online because it can lead to violence. There exists no right to not be offended. There has never been at any time a right to not be offended. If there ever were a right not to be offended, progress would never be made because every act someone does will always offend someone else.
The right to free speech is there specifically to permit speech that offends. Government cannot and should not control speech, even if that speech could lead to violence by those who are disrespectful to the rights of others. If someone hates members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of which I am a member, they are, and should be, free to call me every dirty word they can think of. They should be free to try to convince me and everyone else why my beliefs are wrong. And I am free to try to convince them and all around why my beliefs are correct.
It is through free and open discussions that progress is made. I have had many discussions with others where I have expressed my views on a topic and they have provided theirs. Sometimes these exchanges have unfortunately become very hot and contested. However, due to the free exchange of ideas, I have realized facts that I had not previously considered and changed my course of action for the better.
During the free exchange of ideas, we must always remember not to be offended when no offense was intended and not to resort to violence because someone disagrees with or offends us. Only a fool takes offense when none was intended. And we must respect others even if we disagree with their viewpoints.
For example, let’s take the homosexual cake cases. Someone who has strong, conservative Christian viewpoint may strongly oppose homosexuality. Should such a person be obligated in their personally owned business to make a cake that celebrates homosexuality? Absolutely not. That violates their freedom of speech by forcing them to participate in speech with which they disagree. Should they be forced to create a cake celebrating a man’s adulterous affair with his mistress? No! However, there is nothing that would prevent that same person from making a cake for a homosexual person or an adulterer that does nothing to celebrate homosexuality or adultery.
In the same way, a person should not force someone to do something that opposes their firmly held beliefs. I would never ask a homosexual baker to make a cake that says, “Homosexuality is a Sin”. (I would never make a cake that says that anyway. This is just an example).
Although there will be times when what we say will offend others, we should still use our best efforts to be respectful of others with differing and even offending viewpoints. For example, I am not Muslim. I do not agree with many of their doctrines and they do not agree with many of the doctrines of my faith. However, while I was deployed to Iraq, we had an area where our Muslim allies could go to pray during the day. When near that area, I would remain silent and reverent to respect their prayer time. If a Muslim or Jew or Catholic wanted to pray in my workplace, I would do my best to find them an acceptable place to pray uninterrupted.
All people need to be free to speak their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, even if their speech is offensive to others. But we must ensure that even when offended, we do not resort to force or violence. We can use our free speech to show the errors and weaknesses of their arguments. It is the free exchange if ideas that comes through even offensive speech, that we can progress and become better as a people.
