Freedom to Differ

September 22, 2009

This last Sunday I spoke at one of the local Unitarian congregations.  I confess I went there somewhat nervous.  In the first place the forum was called Coffee, Conversation & Controversy and I was the first speaker for the year.  Clearly I was viewed as potentially controversial.

But the second reason I was a little nervous was because the last time I spoke at a Unitarian congregation I was asked to give the sermon.  While giving the sermon, a man in the back of the sanctuary keep shouting out “LIAR!”

Made me sympathetic to Obama’s experience.

You would think, of course, that if you are invited to speak, that the people who invited you would not be rude to you.  That, unfortunately, is not always the case.  Look at the Columbian University President who introduced Ahmadinejad with a long diatribe against him including:  “Let’s, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.”  If you feel that strongly, why would you invite him?  Couldn’t those comments come at a meeting before or after the speech?  Or if you wanted to disagree with him, couldn’t you have brought the issues up in a discussion at the end of the talk rather than resort in name calling in the introduction?

It is not that I expect no one to disagree with me when I speak.  In fact, it is a rare talk for me in which no one disagrees.  Sunday was no different.  Several people disagreed—one of whom fundamentally disagreed with me about the value of war.  But they all took their turns and were polite in explaining where they thought I was wrong or naïve.  I responded with why I thought I was right or where the flaw was in their argument.

I have no problem with that.  If we cannot disagree with each other there is really no point in having freedom of speech.   As Justice Robert H. Jackson said, “Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.”

But it is the current practice of shouting down, throwing things and being generally vicious in our disagreement with which I have a problem—whether it is the journalist who threw a shoe at President Bush or the Congressional Member who shouted out during President Obama’s speech.

What we are talking about is too important to get lost in heated words.  We need to take the time to make sure our controversies are discussed in a conversation rather than getting lost in a shouting match.

That is the real beauty of freedom of speech.

J.E. McNeil
Executive Director