Randa Jarrar and free speech
- Dr. Harry Reeder: The sexual revolution an ‘all-out assault’ on our culture
- British government resignations signal problems
- What Alan Dershowitz’ shunning says about snowflake culture and intolerance for debate
- Why the Supreme Court’s labor union decision is a win for freedom and education
- Parents denied access to public school sex education materials is shocking government overreach
- Leadership crucial in the church, life
- Reflecting on Independence Day and its meaning
- Justice Kennedy’s retirement and what it could mean for the direction of the country
- How the church and strong families can help adolescents deal with depression
- Should sex offenders be able to adopt?
- What the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly prayer gets wrong
- Is it just? Farm Bill requires able-bodied on food stamps to work part-time or get job-training
- Is Alabama-founded PCA church encouraging gay people to identify by sin?
- Alabama pastor to the suicidal: ‘Banish the thought of destruction. It’s not the answer’, ‘Many’ of us want to help
- How to think about ‘human rights council’ and elitist concept of abortion as ‘human right’
- Alabama pastor’s analysis of immigrant parent-child border separation controversy
- James Comey echo of J. Edgar Hoover — amassing power, declaring himself moral authority in FBI
- Historic North Korea Summit explainer and backstory
- News Fatigue? How to think about abundance of 24-hr ‘news’
- Where do you turn when your church strays from your faith?
- Unreal — Medical how-to book for counseling ‘religious’ women that abortion is okay
- Remembering RFK
- It’s inexcusable Clinton didn’t personally apologize to Lewinsky
- Planned Parenthood ignores crime in singular pursuit of death culture
- Do we really want a society that says ANY sexual behavior is fine?
- Reflections from Israel — and how it has changed in the past 30 years
- How to think about ‘aging pastors’ and ‘scarcity’ of millennials in ministry
- What does Christian liberty mean?
- Oh boy … Americans don’t think they sin very often
- How ‘church growth at all costs’ mentality weakens worship
- Should Facebook be the ‘new church’ and ultimate hate speech judge?
- How to think about Memorial Day
- When did marriage, parenthood become about self-fulfillment?
- Government branches must hold each other accountable, not circumvent each other
- Why Christians should visit holy lands
- Making sense of Trump’s negotiations
- Why Trump was right to move embassy to Jerusalem
- Stay married through ‘hurricane’ years, struggles — it’s worth it
- Insanity: NYC mayor wants to enable drug use
- Why it’s crucial that parents examine college faculties
- Why Marxism is cool again — with people who don’t know of its horrors
- A pastor’s perspective on Alabama Attorney General’s ‘Faith Forum’ at Briarwood
- Does archaeology prove or disprove the Bible?
- Don’t get hung up on church numbers — focus on church health, not size
- In the U.K., you only have value if you are wanted
- Startling number of Christians are persecuted around the world
- What is North Korea’s motivation?
- PARENTS: Who is teaching your child, the iPad, the teacher you disagree with, or you?
- Alfie Evans and the ever-encroaching overreach of the state, diminishment of parental rights
- Randa Jarrar and free speech
- Proposed California law will lead to persecution of Christians, possible outlawing of Bible sales
- How should Christians think about Trump’s North Korea stance?
- Barbara Bush and the unique legacies First Ladies leave
- Paul Ryan is understandably ‘bone-tired’ — but I do wish he could stay
- Why the Syrian strike was justified
- Christian colleges: Will you fold under cultural pressures or actually BE what you say you are?
- Transgender chaos playing out as predicted
- Does Facebook smoosh conservative posts? YES. But regulation is not the answer
- What Toys ‘R Us, colleges, and social security have in common
- College class gets it terribly wrong. Christians aren’t privileged — Christianity produces privileges for everyone
- Gender chaos leads to societal chaos
- Cultural Marxism: Do you know what it is and how to fight it?
- How parents can combat Planned Parenthood’s shocking deviant sex education
- Sorry and all, but yes there is a Heaven and Hell
- When elected officials campaign on promises they don’t keep
- Does archeology prove the Bible is true?
- Are the millions of lives lost to abortion less important than lives lost to gun violence?
- We must not sacrifice consistent morality for political pragmatism
- Why do Christians call Christ’s death ‘Good Friday’?
- Single parenthood may be a heroic struggle, but it’s not ideal and shouldn’t be promoted
- Freedoms of speech, religion go hand in hand and are being threatened — even in Christian college classes
- States are trying to criminalize the free speech of those seeking to protect unborn life
- Christian movie revenue shocks Hollywood, blows past estimates — here’s why you need to see it
- Care about free speech? Keep your eyes on Supreme Court dealing with California abortion law
- Why pornography is far from ‘victimless’ and how to quit using it
- Cultural Marxists are using schools, courts to target Christianity
- No, Joy Behar, it’s not a ‘mental illness’ when the Lord speaks to us through his Word
- Despite what Washington Post writer says, Down Syndrome children are only undesirable to selfish, arrogant people
- Facebook’s ‘fact checker’ says the killing of unborn babies in abortion is a ‘disputed fact’
- Be sure your (Twitter) sins will find you out
- Reasons for pro-lifers to rejoice — and double-down — on abortion issues
- How to debate with decorum … and why profane, vulgar arguments reveal weak arguments & minds
- WAKE UP: Pornography is not victimless — it destroys lives and kills people
- Persecution, violence against Christians significantly increased world-wide in 2017
- 3 things contributing to the U.S. drop in life expectancy
- Gov’t attempted to silence this Christian who’s bringing Martin Luther King’s fight to modern times
- Iranian Christians fleeing persecution should get U.S. care and refuge
- What we can learn from the Alabama & Georgia quarterbacks’ post-game responses
- What does academic intolerance of real debate mean for free speech?
- Do you know the frivolous programs your tax dollars fund?
- Blaring Bannon coverage begs question: What’s happened to journalism?
- Call to Christians: Engage in politics & evangelism out of love for neighbor
- New York City votes to fine Biblical counselors for gender dysphoria therapy
- 10 campaign promises Donald Trump kept — or attempted to keep — in his first year
- Is it pointless to make New Year’s resolutions?
- The top 11 news, faith and culture headlines of 2017
- American attitudes about children contribute to our shrinking birth rate
- Here’s what Trump got right (and wrong) in his national security speech
- Tax reform explained: How it helps our culture, our families, our economics
- Advent and Christmas, ever wondered what’s the difference?
- Reformed Christians have lost one of their great theologians, pastors
- The 2 ungodly reactions to politics, current events that Christians must avoid
- Want our trust? The 7 things an elected official MUST do to gain it
- Christian voters faced 4 options in Senate race … only 1 is inexcusable, says Evangelical pastor
- Where the death culture leads: Lawsuits over disabled children who ‘should’ have been aborted
- What’s at stake in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court decision
- How to put Trump’s U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem in historical and biblical perspective
- Pastor Harry Reeder: There is hope and a way forward for the Matt Lauers in our lives
- Pastor Harry Reeder: If Supreme Court gets Colorado cake baker, same-sex marriage case wrong, it will be culture tipping point
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Liberal ‘Christianity’ is antithetical to Christianity
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Abortion industry ‘doulas’ try to normalize killing of unborn, but we know abortion is not normal
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Trump’s judicial nominee list shows his commitment to originalists and constitutionalists
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Some evangelicals disagree, but here’s why it’s good to emphasize church celebrations during Christmas
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Our military is weakening and here’s why we need it strong
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Why would we be surprised when culture lives out sexual sin it has promoted for years?
- Pastor Harry Reeder: Churches must stay on-mission as evangelists, not cultural acceptance-seekers
- Pastor Harry Reeder: The Museum of the Bible is a great idea…provided we don’t worship the Bible
- Harry Reeder on sexual reckoning: Our conscience tells us ‘something’s wrong here’ even while our culture promotes sin
- Reeder: We have to be honest despite history rewrites– Pilgrims gave thanks to God
- Reeder: It is ‘absolutely ludicrous’ to think a mother’s absence in crucial first 3 years has no effect
- Reeder: Australian same-sex marriage survey a ‘profile in cowardice’ not courage
- Reeder: Believers ‘speaking up’ made real difference in adoption tax credit provision
- Reeder: Secular culture wants more than ‘tolerance’, insists upon abortion and sexual anarchy ‘celebration’
- Reeder on Roy Moore chaos: ‘Do the next right thing’
- Reeder: Here’s what Christians should say when traditional marriage views are labeled ‘bigotry’
- Reeder on church leaders not meeting privately with the other sex: ‘I’ll take the criticism….I learned it from Billy Graham’
- Reeder on LGBTQ campus activists: ‘They don’t want to debate what a marriage actually is. They want to silence those they cannot answer.’
- Yes, it’s ridiculous there’s a new religion dedicated to AI….but here’s why it matters
- Feeling any Christmas guilt? Here’s the type you should ignore and the type you should face
- Reeder on Tuesday’s elections: ‘To see this as a referendum on Trump is overstating it’
- Two terminally-ill patients who refused assisted suicide to help others & show life’s sanctity
- Lots of older pastors, not many young ones — what’s going on?
- Commercial Surrogacy: The objectification of child-bearing
- Elitist ‘gender-isn’t-real’ culture has descended into sophisticated imbecility
- Chaplain who refused marriage retreat to same-sex couple is up against elite culture enforcers
- Sen. Booker’s grilling of Pompeo prime example of ‘religious test’ to exclude evangelical Christians from office
- GENDER ABSURDITY: A nation, led by pop culture, descends into chaos
- How culture rot happens: Unthinkable –> Laughable –> Thinkable –> Accepted
- How Christians should submit to the government’s law
- How to avoid going ‘wobbly’ on the truth
Listen to the 10 min audio
Read the transcript:
PROFESSOR MALIGNS BARBARA BUSH ON TWITTER WITH NO CONSEQUENCES
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, last week, we spent some time remembering Barbara Bush and her passing and the Bush family. When we were doing that program, you said that now was not the time to critique her life. We’ll leave that for the biographers later down the road. When we were doing that program, it was the time to remember her, embrace the family and pray for the family.
However, there was one individual out of Fresno State University, a professor who didn’t take your advice. She went to Twitter and she said some rather vile things that I’m not going to repeat here but I’m sure many of our listeners have heard about these in the news. But, as a professor of Fresno State University, not only did she say these vile things, but she also bragged about the fact that she had tenure at this university and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
“I’m making $100,000.00 a year,” she said, “I will never be fired. I will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say.”
DO EMPLOYERS HAVE RIGHT TO CURTAIL SPEECH?
DR. REEDER: And, of course, her president of the university said hey, this is a matter of free speech, and I affirm that, by the way. I think the president is right. Now, the president has the full authority to determine employment boundaries on speech and what is appropriate and that’s obvious because that’s why she immediately affirmed her tenure, saying, whatever your boundaries are, anything you create now cannot affect my employment because of my tenure. Now, boundaries previously established could — that’s getting in the weeds on tenure.
However, there’s a couple of things that come up from this and one is the freedom of speech does not mean we affirm their speech, but we affirm their freedom of speech but, secondly, we also affirm that employment can be conditioned on the content of your speech so it is absolutely appropriate, when you employ someone, to have standards of conduct, including speech that is acceptable and unacceptable.
Another side issue to this, this is why I don’t believe in tenure. In fact, every good teacher I’ve ever met is not a big supporter of tenure and the reason why is, one, they have a constitutional right to freedom of speech, but they also recognize that the university has a right to determine the extent of speech in their classroom and then, three, they know, I don’t need tenure. Good teachers are always desired. You don’t need tenure to keep your job; you just need to do a good job.
AS CHRISTIANS, HOW SHOULD WE TEMPER OUR SPEECH, BUT NOT OUR MESSAGE?
Tom, whenever I hear this kind of ugly and destructive discourse in public, I’m immediately challenged, first of all, as a Gospel minister and, secondly, as a Christian. I’m so grateful I have the freedom to share the Gospel in public arenas, but I also understand, when I’m on someone’s podium, they can determine what they want spoken on that podium or not — they have that freedom as well.
We know that this program is devoted to analyzing events from a Christian world and life view, propose this analysis to the listeners and then provide Gospel decisions to it. We know that people have the freedom to cut it off or ignore it or challenge it. That’s perfectly appropriate.
However, what about when we speak in public and how we speak in public? Well, for me as a Gospel minister, I’ve recently been challenged on this. There are many podiums I’ve gone to surrounded by people and symbols that I would not want to be identified with but, just like the apostle Paul was surrounded by all of those idols at Athens, he went to the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart and the only solution to the heart is the reconciling power of the Gospel but you have to determine how are you going to say it.
IS THE GOSPEL OFFENSIVE?
The Gospel is offensive to the natural mind, but does that mean we have to be offensive in the way we talk? The content of what I say may be offensive in the Gospel because nobody wants to be told they’re a sinner in need of repentance and reconciliation to God. Nobody wants to be told those things unless the Lord is working in their heart.
I love the picture of Jesus the sower — He’ll go all over the field to sow the seed. He is willing to be called names, not so veiled names, when He sits down to eat with prostitutes and tax gatherers. They’re making innuendo about why would He be sitting with prostitutes because he is seen sitting with prostitutes, which he has to do if He’s going to share the Gospel with prostitutes.
The apostle Paul, where he’ll actually use quotes from the philosophers he’s confronting at Mars Hill in order to bring them to repentance and he goes after the issue of their heart. I also noticed that, no matter what the case, that there is non-discriminating casting of the Gospel wherever they go. And you know the message is going to be offensive, but you also note that they don’t personally try to be offensive. The only time we see the stiffening of their language is when they challenge those who would condemn what they do when they go to people who need to hear the Gospel.
TREATING OTHERS WITH DIGNITY HELPS THE GOSPEL HAVE POWER
The question for me is never where will I speak — I will speak anywhere I have the opportunity — the question is really what do you speak and how do you speak? And I know the Gospel is scandalous but I try to tell myself, “Don’t be scandalous. Try to treat every person with dignity.”
Whether I am in an LGBTQ forum surrounded by their symbols or recently when I spoke to a historical event surrounded by symbols and others, I try to keep the main thing the main thing: identify sin, here’s the solution, the Savior, and here’s what the Savior will do in your heart and from your heart into your relationships in life so that the culture can be changed all around us. And know this, that every time you share the Gospel, you’re planting Gospel seeds that may not bear fruit then but may bear fruit later.
Secondly, always know this: When people do come to Christ through the proclamation of the Gospel, there’s a party in Heaven — angels rejoice — and it doesn’t matter whether the person that is saved was promoting and practicing sexual immorality, or whether they were racist or whatever because every time they’re saved, angels rejoice. It’s only the elder brothers of self-righteousness that question it.
CONVERSIONS BRING JOY IN HEAVEN AND HOLINESS TO SOCIETY
And also know this: that, while there’s rejoicing in Heaven, there is also the blessing of the landscape of culture that is gradually changed through the changing of people so that, as I’ve recently said, a culture of repentance and reconciliation can replace the culture of chaos and destruction.
Oh, I long for the new heavens and the new earth where we don’t have to deal with the consequences of sin any longer and where the victory over our sin will be in consummation and completion when Jesus comes again. So, I just end this program, come quickly, Jesus, but until You come, help us — unlike this example in Fresno State — help us to speak truth freely, courageously, but thoughtfully in the public square and please bear fruit for your glory and the salvation of others.
ALFIE EVANS: AN ALARMING EXAMPLE OF WHAT STATE OVERREACH IS TO COME?
TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, on tomorrow’s edition of Today in Perspective, I want to take you to Liverpool, England, where the parents of another toddler, this time Alfie Evans, are being told, “You cannot take your son to another hospital in another country for further treatment.”
DR. REEDER: So, Tom, just as we have had to address what is the right use of the right of free speech and how, as Christians, we need to take advantage of it, here is another right, natural right, that is foundational to a culture and that is the supremacy of the rights of parents to take care of their children, now superseded by the state. Are there times that this should happen? Yes. But is this the time that it should happen and is this time in England — and, by the way, perhaps in the United States as we see tomorrow — is this time revealing that, instead of a state in an extraordinary moment having to step in for the benefit of the child, is this an example of state overreach beyond the parent, not for the benefit of the child but for the benefit of the state and its financial resources?
Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.
This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News, who has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and whose work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.
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