God told His people “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3) For Christians this means guarding against having any other “idol” in our lives. An idol is anything that displaces God as the primary focus and passion of our lives. With this in mind imagine being a Christian and being asked to write about an “idol” in your life.
When a 10-year-old girl in Tennessee was asked to write about an idol in her life for a school project she decided to write about God. As a Christian it only makes sense to place God as the Supreme person of our affections and writing about God as her idol was a proper way to complete the assignment. She wrote:
“I love [God] and Jesus, and Jesus is His earthly son. I also love Jesus. God is my idol, I will never hate him. He will always be the number one person I look up to.”
This is an excellent completion of the assignment by any reasonable standards. But reason was not involved when a teacher told the girl she could not write about God, had to redo the assignment, and had to take her original completed assignment home because it could not remain on school property.
The school has since clarified the situation stating that the teacher was wrong in telling the girl she could not write about God. The school district clarified that though it has a policy prohibiting teachers from promoting religion, that there is no policy prohibiting students from expressing their religious views.
After the incident occurred, another report says the teacher and the principal of the school both apologized to the mother and her daughter for the occurrence. It appears, according to the teacher, that she was unsure of how to handle the situation.
It’s unsettling that this teacher didn’t know how to handle the situation. The premise of free speech would dictate that this little girl had every right to write about God being her idol. Yet confusion and uncertainty seems to be a tactic employed by the liberal left as they work to remove not just God, but free speech from schools across America.
The reality is that free speech and religious freedom are intricately linked. Separating them is the end of both. If we are not free to speak, to share our ideals, convictions, and thoughts, we can be certain our religious freedom will soon die as religious speech is viewed as discriminatory, or abusive. Conversely, if our religious freedom is taken there is no doubt our right to free speech is dead, or dying.
A broader look at what is taking place in society shows that both free speech and religious freedom are under incredible attack. If you don’t believe your faith, your Christian faith is under attack, tell your co-workers you don’t support homosexuality. Not only will you be immediately reprimanded, you could even be disciplined or fired, simply for speaking (free speech) your religious convictions (religious freedom).
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about – and it comes from an unlikely source. Rock legend Gene Simmons recently blasted the media for their relentless attacks on athlete Tim Tebow. Simmons, quite correctly I believe, says the only reason the media hounds Tebow is because he is so outspoken about his faith. Simmons said:
“He’s got a religious passion, as well he should, we’re in America…He’s proud to be a Christian, what’s wrong with that? And yet, with sports media and pop culture media, they make fun of his religion. Really? In America? If he was wearing a burqa, they wouldn’t dare say anything. But if you’re a Christian, you get to be picked on? What the hell?…The guy’s got family values. I never saw the media picking on Michael Vick for torturing dogs. Or this other football player, who’s alleged to have killed, committed murder. That’s ‘cool.’ But a guy who’s religious and has got family values isn’t ‘cool?’ He’s cool to me.”
Simmons makes two very good points. He says first that Tebow is hounded just for being a Christian, which is an absurd reason to attack anyone. But Simmons goes on to state the very ignored fact that if Tebow was a Muslim no one would dare say a word about his religion. That kind of hypocrisy in the media and in society in general is dangerous. Explain to me exactly why it is acceptable to ridicule a Christian but not a Musilm? Or why anyone feels the need to ridicule another person for his or her religious choice.
An excellent example of this can be seen in the case of an employee that criticized Islam on his personal Facebook page. When his boss learned of his comments the man was reprimanded and his boss said if he had the authority he would fire the man. I wonder if this same boss would reprimand or consider firing an employee for criticizing Christianity? I believe the answer is no.
What becomes obvious here is that there is a loss of religious freedom that is inextricably linked to a loss of free speech. Some in our society don’t want Christians to share their faith; they don’t want you to oppose certain political agendas based on your deeply held religious convictions. Religious expression is increasingly being viewed as offensive, discriminatory, and entirely politically incorrect.
Whether it’s a 10 year old girl in a classroom, an employee in a cubicle, or an athlete in the end zone, there is a concerted effort to remove religious expression (and consequently free speech) from the public sector. By causing confusion about what is and is not allowed opponents of free speech and religion intimidate people into silence. The only way to combat this tactic is to know our constitutionally protected rights of free speech and religious freedom and how to assert them properly. And then to do so with all the vigor and enthusiasm of our opponents.
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About Nathan Cherry
Nathan Cherry is the chief editor and blogger for the Engage Family Minute blog, the official blog of the FPCWV. He serves also as the Regional Development Coordinator as a liaison to the pastor's of West Virginia. He is a pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-religious freedom conservative. He is also a husband, father, pastor, author, musician, and follower of Jesus Christ.
