The Right to Free Speech and the Right to Remain Silent

The best way for us to celebrate our freedom as Americans is often through silence instead of speaking.

Nothing defines America more than our right to free speech. We have an ingrained sense of entitlement when it comes to speech. This is one of the most beautiful things about our country. Certainly there are limits (hate speech, defamation, perjury) to our freedom, but for most of us, we never have to actually bump up against those legal limits. The only limits we face are the ones imposed on us by societal norms, jobs, and our own self discipline. This is where free speech gets us into trouble, however.

The Bible is really clear about the dangers of the tongue. The book of James not only warns teachers about the power of the tongue but talks about it as a rudder steering a ship and a spark that starts a fire. Certainly we have seen great evidence of these comparisons in the last week. First there was Congressman Joe Wilson and his outburst during the Presidents speech. Then there was Serena Williams threatening to shove her racket down a line judges throat and losing a match because of it. Then there was the absolutely bizarre Kayne West outburst at the MTV awards the other night.

All of these instances remind us that we have another great right as Americans, the right to remain silent. We think about this right normally when someone is being arrested, but the right and the ability to remain silent are seriously undervalued in our country. We would be better off heeding some Biblical wisdom about the power of our tongues and learning to control our desire to blurt out whatever we are thinking at any given moment.

As Christians, especially, we should be leading the way in speech in our country. We should be the utmost example of controlled tongues. Not that we shouldn’t speak up or express ourselves, but that we should always speak the truth in love. The love part is what will set us apart. In a country where we hold dear the right to blurt out whatever we wish, wouldn’t it be nice if we were renowned as the one group in our country that pauses before we speak, considers our words, and speaks them with love.

Maybe then we could redefine the beauty of free speech. The beauty being not that anyone can say anything they want, but that in a land of free speech we have learned to speak well, not just often.