Free speech is

Freedom is our natural condition.

There is no creature in Creation for which (or who) this is not true. Even animals designed for domestication, service or consumption must be captured or trained. That is not immoral because they are not Image bearers of their Creator. Human beings are made in the Image of God, and our God-given freedoms may only be changed by God.

It is therefore He and He alone Who can explain their expanses and boundaries, and only sincere, humble enquiry can measure them. Might does not make right, and so the human ability to regulate and legislate freedom is an awesome responsibility, but not in itself moral authority.

Let me be clearer – the power or popularity to make laws diminishing human freedom does not automatically make all such laws right.

The modern philosophy called legal positivism conceitedly contends with God, falsely teaching that valid laws do not in fact depend on objective morality or natural law, but social facts such as popularity, legislation or precedent. The theory is that law is not natural, but a social construct without relevance to morality.

It’s a pretentious way of saying might makes right.

Yet no matter how much I may want one plus one to equal a blue cow, it does not. Every time you add one to one the result will be two. “Your truth” doesn’t matter. I’ll illustrate with a less abstract if extreme example all can agree with:

No matter how many laws or precedents are created or how popular it may get one day to torture children for fun, it will always be an invalid law that tolerates it.

Now consider novel laws or policies established in this or recent generations which were previously out of the question before becoming debated and controversial, then normalised. Any example that comes to your mind will do. Such laws are not valid simply because they were legislated, or ruled by a judge or even democratically supported.

The example you have in your mind may in fact be a valid law, but the measure of its validity is the extent to which it humbly harmonises with natural law, not social facts.

Governments are encouraged to become tyrannical when citizens are brainwashed into accepting legal positivism, which is a cousin of moral relativism.

The difference between a justice system and a legal system is that the former is concerned with justice, morality and truth more than precedents and technicalities. Justice does not acquit moral monsters on technicalities, but legal positivism does, claiming morality is irrelevant and there is no Truth other than that which you can prove using the established, human system.

And so politicians and bureaucrats build bigger and bigger systems of power through legislation and legal traditions by which they presume to improve society and people. These systems are the natural enemies of justice and even freedom, demanding indentured service of people.

In the name of the law, governments vainly make laws to protect us and make us safe, but which in effect immorally reduce our freedoms. That which was intended to protect from harm becomes the chief cause of harm. That which was designed to make safe becomes the chief danger.

Perhaps the most important of all freedoms is one almost completely unheard of: the freedom to pursue Truth. It is one of our highest purposes and beyond the ability of any animal to contemplate the question:

“What is Truth?”

Man alone can gaze at the stars and wonder how we came to be here, why we came to be here, and where we will go from here.

Animals alone are incapable of questions of objective morality, sexual ethics or personal purpose beyond survival & reproduction, and so the behaviour of (literal) animals cannot reasonably be condemned.

The pursuit of Truth must be treasured and protected as a natural freedom by people and parliaments, for it is the end goal and purpose of many debated freedoms, such as free speech.

The audacity of a government to presume to have the authority to regulate Truth is an outrage that no nation of people should be forced to suffer. Yet that is exactly what is happening when governments immorally pass laws restricting unapproved opinions, as if they can ever be trusted as arbiters of what is true and good. Such powers will devolve to enforcement and protection of majority opinions and punishment of dissent and debate.

There would have been no scientific advances without freedom of Truth, and indeed many scientists were persecuted and prosecuted for daring to question the “scientific consensus”. Science is a method of pursuing Truth through natural observations and testing ideas against measurable facts. Of course, without morality and in particular the importance of Truth and absence of corruption, claims made in the name of science become unreliable and worthless.

Legal positivism is as useful as science without morality: inherently corrupt.

I intended to write this article about what free speech is not, but will have to make that a sequel, for it is absolutely necessary to expansively familiarise the reader with the arena in which we must wrestle for free speech with understanding of its purpose and limits.

No one but God gets to define what speech should be free, and no legislation, court or democratic majority can make valid laws changing that natural freedom. Free speech is a tool in service of the noble, human pursuit of Truth. It is not granted to animals without morality or a mind to wonder at what might be true.

People are not meant to be turned into pets or farmed like animals, yet governments which presume to regulate our natural freedoms of speech and religion betray fundamental human rights and treat us like animals to be trained or imprisoned.

All politicians who neglect to energetically defend free speech and religious liberty must be punished at the polls and replaced with representatives who are not moral cowards. They are nothing more than traitors to their constituents’ freedom to pursue Truth and utter failures in their public duty.

Free speech is our natural condition, and is inextricable from freedoms of press, religion, assembly and petition. It doesn’t take a law or bill of rights to make this true, and it is nothing short of completely true even in the complete absence of any law agreeing. Every law which erodes or erases natural freedom is invalid, immoral and must be disobeyed and resisted until changed.

My next article, “Free speech is not”, will explain how we, the possessors and users of freedom, must understand the natural limits and conditions of our free speech, through understanding its purpose.

Dave Pellowe is a Christian political educator & writer who gives priority of philosophy to God’s Word. He founded Church And State ministries in 2016, which has grown to include annual teaching conferences in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and regional Australia by invitation.

Specialising in what God says about complex ethical and social issues, Dave Pellowe is a sought after guest speaker at churches, Christian schools, TV, radio and podcast interviews and other secular and Christian forums where love of Truth and nonpartisan thinking are valued. [more]

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