speech, freedom, and hearts

I'm working on a little micro-short story about a squirrel named Claudio. But I have something to say, and while I was reticent to put it on my blog at first (because I avoid political and religious discussions like I avoid the bubonic plague whenever I time-travel to medieval Europe), I realized that my blog is a place to say my somethings.

This is for my dear friends who also love God, especially those who have been caught up in the recent Chik-Fil-A kerfuffle, particularly in social media outlets, but this is not limited to that--there's just barely a scrim between politics and religious beliefs lately. It is just too easy to spread vitriol with the click of a "share" button these days.

You see, my dear, dear friends, some of your posts have made me cry.

They might have been angry, disrespectful, arrogant, and even hateful. Some of the "jokes" were particularly awful, guys. Very petty and even cruel. Others were not angry or hateful--there is nothing directly wrong with posting that you're going to eat chicken on a particular day.

But perhaps there is something inherently wrong with it.

This is why I humbly request that you guard the words you post. Be wise. James does a better job of explaining why this is so terribly important than I could ever hope to do.

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! (James 3:3-5)

Your words hurt, my dear friends. Even when they seem of no account.

Given the way Facebook works, hundreds of people will see those words and pictures--even those who are not your friends, in many cases. Hundreds of hundreds will get the message, and thousands if it's shared.

And every one of those hundreds of pairs of eyes has a heart, and hearts can be so, so fragile. Everyone who reads your 140 characters has a soul. A beautiful soul, I believe.

It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. (James 3:5-6)

You are hurting people, my dear friends. And that is wrong. Some of you are (perhaps accidentally) encouraging ideas of hate and misunderstanding in your culture. By our speech, we can ruin the world. And that is wrong. In championing various sides of a cause or defending various values, we risk damaging so much. We must remember that championing and defending are a bit different from loving and learning "the unforced rhythms of grace" (Matt. 11).

We must be cautious, my friends.

And yes, according to the Bill of Rights, you have the right to free speech. It is justly limited, because words have consequences. But you have that freedom under the law of the land.

However, you are a follower of God. You have made a choice to be obedient to God. Therefore--and I know this is very, very hard to read--your civic right to a freedom of speech must be curtailed by your own submission to the way of life that God laid out long ago.

This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on. (James 3:7-10)

I do not bring this up to be angry, to scold, or to judge. I avoid soapboxes. And I have no desire to be on one, ever. But you see, you are my friends. And true friends sometimes have to say hard things to each other. I need to learn this lesson myself.

You are my friends because we all are believers in a world I have often imagined--a great world, a beautiful world, a hopeful world. A heavenly world. A to-come world. A being-made-today world.

That world does not have a place for free speech, at least not in the sense of American free speech. It has a place for freedom--but of a more beautiful, magnificent freedom than an amendment could ever define. I dare you to try to limit that freedom to words, my friends. It is too glorious.

Shall we practice that freedom? Shall we share it? I should very much like to do that with you.

Do justice, my friends; do mercy. Do obedience, do right, and do good. Give respect, give dignity, and give honor. Be reasonable, be gentle. Be innocent. Be kind. Be wise.

Love God with reckless abandon. Love people in the same radical way.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom—it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. (13-18)

I would very much like to leave the politics in the dust and go adventuring. I would like to help bring about that world I have imagined. I hope you agree.

All scripture taken from James 3, MSG.