About Jesus  -  Steve Sweetman

Free Speech Or Irresponsible Speech

Is our western world culture taking free speech to an unhealthy, even ridiculous extreme?  Social media has provided the platform for us to spew all sorts of pathetic thoughtlessness from our depraved thinking.  From the person on the street to the president in the White House, our fallen nature splatters depravity across the pages of Twitter and Facebook, on TV and radio, and in whatever print media that still exists.  TV news channels have swapped the news for senseless verbal sparing matches where opponents yell and scream in rude and outrageous debates.  It's a shameless and sensational form of entertainment.  As we thrive on this addiction to shame, advertisers take advantage of our carnal cravings.  Hedonistic narcissism, or what I call the religion of self, is nullifying the Biblical restraints by which we were once influenced.  It's a product of our Cultural Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the Bible has something to say about it.   

The Apostle Peter quoted Psalm 34:12 to 16.  "Whosoever loves life and sees good days will keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech ... the face of the Lord is against those who do (or speak) evil" (1 Peter 3:9 - 12).  Peter omits the phrase from this Psalm that says God "will blot out their (speakers of evil) names from the earth."  The Apostle James said the tongue is a restless evil, a deadly poison, a fire that sets the course of life ablaze (James 3:5 - 8).  I say it's setting the course of our culture on fire. 

Does free speech mean irresponsible speech?  Does irresponsible speech come with a cost?  It certainly does.  Our Cultural Narcissistic Personality Disorder with its unruly tongue is a restless evil, a deadly poison that is causing our culture to crumble in a blaze of fire.