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Very timely subject Pastor Jack,

I have been doing some research on “free speech” in America this past week. I especially have been reviewing the legal rulings regarding speech in the US and how the current laws govern which speech is legal and illegal.

I am not a lawyer and am willing to stand corrected if any who are reading my words find any errors. The last major law I can find defining what is acceptable as free speech was in 1969, known as the Brandenburg vs Ohio ruling. Brandenburg was unfortunately a KKK leader and advocated terrible things in our country. He was sentenced to jail for his speech but was later released based on the court challenge overturning his sentence.

Under this decision by the Supreme Court, it ruled that speech is unacceptable which was, “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action”. It also added the “intent” of the speaker. That is, if the speaker was talking passively about violence towards others but his intent was not to imminently cause violence, IOW, without malicious intent, it did not qualify as being illegal.

Anyway, that’s the law. The reason I was reading up on this was because of the recent shutting down of speakers in our country by the radical left political party. Not allowing opposing views is becoming quite the phenomenon that is racing across our country since the election. Whether one is a Democrat or a Republican or neither should not be the basis by which we allow public discourse. Some of my best friends are atheistic liberals, myself a conservative Christian, and we have great discussions in a friendly manner about politics and religion.

This new(er) phenomenon where the radical left shouts down, burns cars, breaks windows, etc., silencing through violence any opposing views is exactly what those individuals decry…fascism. They call me a fascist for being a Christian conservative while defining fascism through their actions. From Websters, “Fascism: a…movement…that stands for…severe…social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Yet none of these “protesters” were arrested during the inauguration or at the University of Berkeley as they destroyed property and attacked any in opposition.

We are losing our ability as Christians or non-Christians to voice our opinions in a public forum without intense malice and threat of violence. I am reading with increasing alarm the ideas of the far left. The leaders of these movements I have witnessed personally have voiced their views that any who would oppose their beliefs are to be shut down, wherever they are found(subways, street corners, office spaces, schools, etc.). If they cannot be removed through verbal attempts then they believe they should be removed forcibly, including with violence. I am not making this up.

I have been around many years and I have not witnessed anything like this even during the Vietnam protest years. Someone might cite the Watts riots during the mid 1960’s but those folks broke the law with their violence and they knew it. These “protesters” that I mention today actually believe they have a “right” protected by the Law to silence those with opposing views through violence, stating that we are the haters…the fascists, and that we must be stopped. “…and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God”(Jn 16:2).

We are quickly devolving into a new “group think” that resembles 1984 in an alarming fashion.

“Even so…come Lord Jesus”!(Rev 22:20″)

DocReits