“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” – President Obama, speaking to the United Nations, 2012.

I disagree.

“The future must not belong to those who kill in the name of the prophet of Islam.”

The magazine Charlie Hebdo is offensive, rude, even blasphemous. It’s cartoons are provocatively cutting, repulsive and reprehensible to many. When the subject is someone’s religion, politics, or personal sacred cow, the satirical sketches make peoples’ blood boil and inspire a visceral impulse to somehow strike back. Yesterday’s attack on the magazine and the murders of it’s cartoonists and editors is a perfect example.

And that is precisely why it’s important to stand with Charlie Hebdo.

“If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn’t really a liberal civilization any more.”

That’s how Ross Douthat puts it in today’s New York Times.

He continues:

“…liberalism doesn’t depend on everyone offending everyone else all the time, and it’s okay to prefer a society where offense for its own sake is limited rather than pervasive. But when offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.”

Even deeper than that, the freedom of speech – even speech that is offensive and blasphemous – is the lynchpin of seeking truth. It irresistibly draws us into both individual and collective dialogue, forcing us to consider whether what offends us possesses a grain of truth we would not otherwise see.

Jesus offended many.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. ” (Matthew 19:24)

It is said that Tony Campolo likes to quote this verse at the start of sermons he preaches to wealthy American congregations. Then (according to the legend) he says, “So let’s get this straight right off the bat. According to Jesus, most of you are going to hell. You’re too rich to even have a chance. But listen carefully today, just in case you hear something that might save you.”

A friend of mine who pastored a church where Campolo is said to have started a sermon this way says the people got mad – infuriated! Come Monday morning the office phone started ringing off the hook with irate parishioners letting the pastor know just how pissed off they were.

But the very next year the congregation invited Tony back.

Why do you suppose that is? Could it be that what he said made people think about whether it was true – in whole or in part – and they needed to hear more – and maybe change?

The words, ideas and images that offend us reveal things that we otherwise would not see let alone consider. Even what the status quo calls “blasphemy” pushes us to consider the truth about ourselves.

That’s why it is so important to stand with Charlie Hebdo and defend the freedom of speech – even speech that offends.

Christians might want to consider the thought that without freedom of speech there can be no religious freedom.

And without religious freedom, would we even BE Christians today?

So stand with Charlie Hebdo.

Defend freedom of speech.

Take up your pen.

Open your mouth.

And above all, listen!

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