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The First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech protects us from the government, but not from each other. Can we have the spiritual maturity to speak the truth in love? (Shutterstock Photo)
Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference | Oct. 14, 2025
“Free speech” is one of those phrases everyone claims to defend, but few actually practice. On both the left and the right, the principle is often invoked as a shield for our side and a weapon against the other. What gets lost is the maturity it takes to live in true freedom.
First, a basic reminder: the First Amendment protects us from the government, not from each other. Twitter, YouTube, or a university can moderate speech — even badly — without violating the Constitution. The true constitutional danger arises when government leans on private companies to silence voices, or when officials threaten critics directly.
Consider the recent case of late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. When politicians threatened to pull their broadcast licenses because of jokes at their expense, that wasn’t free speech in action. It was intimidation. That’s what actual censorship looks like: government power used to muzzle dissent.
But the danger doesn’t just come from the state. It also comes from a culture eager to police one another. J.K. Rowling is a prime example. You don’t have to agree with her views on gender to see the larger problem: overnight, calls to ban her books, conferences disinviting her, publishers pressured to cut ties. Instead of debate, she faced erasure. That kind of mob pressure doesn’t create safety; it creates fear. And fear suffocates dialogue.
Then there’s the far right, where voices like Charlie Kirk loudly wave the free speech flag, but what they practice is often cruelty disguised as boldness. Bullying, mocking, and belittling others is framed as “just telling it like it is.” That isn’t courageous truth-telling. It’s speech wielded as a weapon.
Whether it’s government intimidation, cancel culture, or cruelty masquerading as candor, these distortions all reveal the same thing: immaturity.
The Cost of Immaturity
The statistics are sobering. A third of college students now say violence can be justified to stop a speaker. Seven in ten believe it’s acceptable to shout down someone they disagree with. Nine in ten professors admit they self-censor. We are raising a generation that confuses disagreement with danger and equates debate with harm.
The left, once the champion of free speech, increasingly polices it in the name of safety—think Rowling. The right, once the defender of free speech, now bans books, punishes boycotts, and threatens comedians with government power. Both sides weaponize speech. Both sides reach for control.
A Different Way
Christians should recognize this pattern. Scripture consistently ties freedom to responsibility. Paul wrote: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13).
- Freedom without responsibility becomes cruelty. We see this in the voices who justify bullying as honesty.
- Responsibility without freedom becomes tyranny. We see this in cancel mobs and government intimidation alike.
Real maturity means holding both together: the courage to risk offense, and the humility to honor human dignity.
Jesus himself modeled this paradox. He spoke truth that offended both the religious establishment and the political authorities. But he also treated every person—enemy or friend—with dignity. For Christians, that’s the bar.
The Christian Test of Maturity
The real question for us isn’t whose speech we want to suppress. The question is whether we are growing into people who can hear one another—even when it hurts.
James wrote, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). That isn’t weakness; it’s wisdom. It’s the maturity our public life is starving for.
Can we defend the speech we dislike while building communities where truth and care live side by side? Can we resist cruelty disguised as freedom and coercion disguised as compassion? Can we, as the Apostle Paul urged, “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) in a culture addicted to outrage?
That’s the test. And it’s not just a test of our politics. It’s a test of our discipleship.