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ENGLAND: Free Speech Threat
By Andrew Carey
Church of England Newspaper
April 19, 2012
Increasingly the importance of free speech as an absolute value in a democratic society is going by the board.
Equalities and hate speech legislation have created a monster that seeks to shut down legitimate debate. The police can be knocking at your door if you say something that another person might find offensive. While we can all agree that freedom of speech is limited by incitement to violence and the dangerous effects of shouting 'fire' in a crowded theatre, are we really so sensitive that we have to limit speech on the basis of whether it causes offence?
We have two examples in the past week of attempts to silence dissonant voices. Firstly, there was the clamour over Dr Glyn Harrison's place on the Crown Nominations Commission.
A story in The Guardian ('Archbishop panel member believes gay people can "change" sexual desire', 8 April 2012) reveals that so-called 'liberal' Anglicans are claiming that it is inappropriate for him to play a part in selecting the next Archbishop of Canterbury because he believes, quite reasonably, that some gay people can be helped by counselling if they are experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction.
Colin Coward, Director of the pro-gay group, Changing Attitude, said somewhat ludicrously that "the church is trying to give equal weight to those against homosexuality as those who are for it". He added that this was "insane" and claimed that the "presence of somebody like Glynn Harrison on the Commission really is unacceptable."
What is really insane is the idea that pro-gay views, which are a recent unproven innovation, have earned the same status as traditional and orthodox views of homosexuality in any forum within the Church of England.
Worse still, in last week's Church Times, Giles Fraser hints at a campaign to get at Dr Harrison another way through the professional body, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, of which he is a Fellow. Fraser suggests that Harrison's views represent only that of a minority in the Church of England and suggests they are at variance with his professional codes. I have no doubt at all that liberal Anglicans have or are writing to the Royal College to instigate an investigation into his views. They'll try and get their man by fair means or foul.
The second chilling example is the banning of 'ex-gay' bus adverts in London, by Mayor Boris Johnson. The adverts sponsored by Core Issues Trust and Anglican Mainstream stated: "Not gay. Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it?" Whether they were wise or effective is another matter, but they were merely seeking to address Stonewall's recent gay marriage campaign 'Some people are gay. Get over it.'.
Boris Johnson ironically argued that modern British society was intolerant of intolerance and describe the adverts as 'offensive'.
The facts are plain. Free speech is an increasingly limited value in modern Britain. Yet it is astonishing that there is so little outcry over the limitations to free speech that have been introduced in recent years. Are modern Britons really so happy in being told what to do and say by Big Brother?
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