Posted on 02/18/2005 4:54:52 PM PST by freeholland
I've always considered myself something of a First Amendment absolutist.
By that I mean I am every bit as fervently supportive of freedom of speech and freedom of religion as our Founding Fathers were.
But there are many people in America today who are misrepresenting what freedom of speech and freedom of religion really mean. They are distorting the original intent of the First Amendment. They are selectively applying this American concept to some while denying it to others.
Once again, the Ward Churchill affair is illustrative of this problem.
You've heard his defenders. They say the tenured University of Colorado ethnic studies professor should keep his $94,000-a-year public teaching job, despite the following record:
Writing an essay insulting 9-11 victims and affirming the terrorist attackers who killed 3,000 Americans.
Securing a teaching job under apparently false pretenses – claiming he was an American Indian.
Plagiarizing the work of others.
Training self-styled American terrorists, members of the Weather Underground, to shoot and make bombs, skills the members used to kill police officers, attack the U.S. Capitol, rob banks and blow things up – including themselves.
Visiting Moammar Gadhafi in the 1980s when such trips to Libya were off-limits to Americans because of his sponsorship of international terrorism and helping establish "diplomatic relations."
Lying about his military service in Vietnam.
Defending convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Helping to establish "diplomatic relations" with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Churchill's defenders like to say they don't necessarily like what he says, but they will defend his right to say it.
It sounds noble.
But where are these idealists when it comes to the growing number of challenges to those targeted for practicing their religious faith and their free speech rights?
I'm thinking specifically of a disturbing, but little-noticed, story last week about the Rev. Randy Steele, senior pastor at the Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill.
On Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, he received a phone call from an agent of the FBI who requested to speak with him in person. An appointment was arranged for later that day.
"One of the agents opened a file and told me that the FBI wanted to question me about a sermon that I preached on Memorial Day, nearly six months before," he told the local paper. "At first I just laughed and said, 'You're kidding, right?' I could tell by the look on their faces that they weren't kidding."
The agents went on to ask about specific statements he made during a sermon about cultural issues including separation of church and state, homosexuality, gambling and abortion.
"It was a sermon about abortion and what the Bible says about the sanctity of life," he explained. "But it also dealt with how as Christians we need to love and reach out to people and teach them the message of truth about these types of issues."
Steele added: "I shared the number of people who have died in wars vs. the number who had died through legal abortion since 1973. There have been 1 million die in all the wars and more than 43 million abortions – that's a gripping contrast. I also tied it together by stating that we are in a different type of war that is being fought under the presupposition of freedom."
Steele can only guess that somebody in attendance that day was alarmed by his suggestion that we are in a "different type of war" and perceived it to be a call for an actual physical war against abortion clinics.
The pastor may not have been arrested. But when the FBI starts questioning ministers about their sermons on the basis of anonymous tips of this kind, does it not create a chilling effect on the First Amendment? When Christian clergy in other countries are being arrested on hate crimes charges for proclaiming the Gospel, should we not be alarmed at this kind of intimidation? Considering that, until yesterday, Christians in Philadelphia were facing 47 years in jail for quoting Scripture, why is there not more concern about federal police snooping into the life of the church?
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. He is also the founder of WND Books. In addition to his daily column in WND, he writes a nationally syndicated weekly column available to U.S. newspapers through Creators Syndicate.
He makes some good points. But the government (FBI) also keeps tabs on what Islamic clergy are saying to their congregations as well.
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