Dear friends, there’s a lot of talk these days about “cancel culture” and the repression of free speech, and much of it seems to be of genuine concern. Television networks trying to get other networks, their competitors, banned; the removal of books and products of websites that don’t toe the line of that particular company’s political beliefs; pulling people off of social media platforms because of perceived false, misleading, or problematic statements, even while allowing others to stand; and the absolutely horrible practice of labeling people with one pejorative after another simply because they disagree with you. It’s becoming a real issue, and one that could affect Orthodoxy from a political point of view, but more on that in a bit.

Right now, I don’t want to talk about free speech as a political topic, but rather as a religious one. That sounds odd. What, if anything, does the Church have to say about this? Outside of general platitudes about the freedom of the individual and humankind being self-determinate and all of that, does the very notion of free speech have anything to do with Orthodoxy? Well, actually, quite a lot. We don’t normally think of this topic in this manner, excepting the nominally political association with the concept to begin with. But if we back off for a moment and consider not free speech but just speech to begin with, things start to get interesting.

Let’s go way back, back to the book of Exodus. Remember those things we call the Ten Commandments? Pretty foundational to all Orthodox moral ethics and the acquisition of virtue, even though many of them are expressed negatively. But it’s hard to get around this one: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Even from the beginning of the covenant with Moses, the Lord was concerned with the falsity of speech, so much so that he had it inscribed in stone tablets. Here we see that words have enormous power, and when used to bolster one’s claims against another in a devious manner, one crossed the threshold from annoyance to a grievous sin against the eternal God.

But let’s drift back even further. The tower of Babel itself was something based on the pride of mankind. How working together for a common goal and to usurp the proper place of God would demonstrate that the people of the time were something special, something so wonderful that even the eyes of God would be amazed. Yet we know what happened. Pride got its comeuppance, and the unifying aspects of mankind’s speech became a symbol of disunity. Perhaps this is something we could learn from today, as our unity of speech is having the opposite effect. Still infused with pride and demanding that the chaos springing from this disunity be satisfied with the approbation of man, not God. The Lord is allowing us to demonstrate today that confusion of speech can still exist even when the same language is spoken.

And even further back than this, perhaps a return to the garden of Eden will prove illuminating, because the Lord, because of his respect for our freedom, allowed temptation in that arena of bliss, we see that hearing false speech can even lead to calamitous results when we are determined to act upon what we hear. If there was ever fake news, this is where it all started: the serpent in the garden acting as the Twitter of the time and Eve, followed by a gullible Adam, believes what is said and causes all of humanity a world of hurt. Speaking and hearing are simply the flipsides of one very dangerous coin.

It’s not that speech in general is something to be avoided. After all, the book of Proverbs tells us, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth: judge righteously; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Defending those who can’t speak is surely a righteous act, but only when the defense used is genuine and true. Ecclesiastes tells us, “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.” The sermon of speech is vital in all cases, and the accusatory tone of this passage indicates that those who complain about things being said are probably guilty of hurling falsehoods themselves at some point or another.

And as if to put an exclamation point on the serious nature of all speech, Proverbs again tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Adam and Eve are certain to agree with that statement, but one thing is for certain: speech, being a gift of God, is one of the most powerful gifts he gives, and, as in all things, much discernment is needed to properly make use of it. And equally, we need a lot of perspicacity to absorb the many variants of speech that are thrown our way.

When we begin to delve into the idea of free speech, we need to consider exactly what this means, and we might be a little surprised at how many in the Church have handled this over the centuries. As Christians, the apostles were quite cognizant of speech. After all, the Lord whom they knew, loved, and served was and is the Word of God. Being persecuted wherever they went, few understood the power of words to elevate or destroy, and careless words to lead to some very dire circumstances. St. Peter tells us in his first epistle, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” This hearkens to the Lord’s own directions concerning the turning of the other cheek, to take the insults and not engage in diatribes or remonstrations. Of course, Peter’s words could easily be transferred outside of the realm of being persecuted for the Lord’s sake and into the everyday world. If you are insulted, period, and glory in the opportunity to grow in self-denial, the grace of Christ still touches you.

The Fathers of the Church are much taken with the idea of speech, and the modern concept of free speech would most likely have mystified them. Though they lived in an era where the type of “say what you want, when you want” verbiage was certainly forbidden and could get you into a lot of trouble for misusing their mouth, their experience and education led them to counsel Christians to control what they said and especially how they said it. There can be little doubt that they whole-heartedly endorsed St. Paul’s instructions in Colossians and Ephesians to firstly “let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer each person,” and then to “let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Now there’s a word that’s not often heard in the context of free speech: grace.

While we might love to indulge ourselves in a rapture of bloviating blissfulness, particularly when engaging others, often in a non-descript generality, little thought or consideration is usually given to the quality of our words, let alone the richness of our speech. Grace, as in the Apostle’s mention, is not first on the list as something we need to communicate. When we delve into the world of social media, certainly one, if not the, most destructive forms for any kind of conversation, a veritable cesspool of passionate and unreasoned disputation, even less consideration is appointed to the quality of our words.

So we face a truly profound conundrum. In the political realm—and I told you we’d get back to politics—our modern consensus, as has been the same for hundreds of years, is that we should have, as a birthright, an uninhibited and unchecked ability to talk as freely as we like and about any and all topics, agendas, diatribes, and apologias. This was seen by the founding fathers of this country who had finally had enough of being told what they could and could not say as a safeguard of all forms of tyranny. It is doubtful that they envisioned a time when this freedom would be under attack by those who believe that by suppressing speech, they are actually protecting truth, which is how almost if not all tyrannies appear in the first place.

And of course, from a churchly point of view, this freedom we enjoy is something that enables us to proclaim what we as Orthodox Christians know to be the truth. The problem is that others with competing visions of the world believe the same thing, and in such a system all must be allowed equal access or there is none for all. It’s one of the many items we deal with as fallen human beings and in our present circumstances it’s better to allow everyone everything in order that we might be able to bring many desperately seeking souls to salvation.

From this vantage point, the ideas and ideals of free speech are imperative for us Orthodox and certainly worth defending by any legitimate and non-compromising or sinful means necessary. And it must be equally balanced, with no concern for the political implications of the left or the right, lest we be deemed the hypocrites we see already trying to make speech a one-sided affair. Yet the problem does remain. In a non-contemporary society like our Fathers and Mothers of the faith lived in in ages past, when modern ideas of the rights and privileges of mankind were not at the forefront of philosophical discourse, free speech and speech in general were regarded as necessities only in relation to defense of the Orthodox faith, and also seen as a hindrance to that faith when used unwisely or intemperately.

The quotes I gave earlier are but a small sample of the many scriptural warnings about speech. There is no doubt that the literature of the Fathers and great ascetics and wonderworkers of Orthodoxy are unanimous about the need to reduce speech to a minimum if at all, and only when absolutely needed. They would have us be cautious with our words, and when we speak, to speak wisely with love and charity toward all, to the encouragement of those in need, and keep our content modest and respectful. They would not agree with the open season on and in speech and review our unhinged ability to completely unbridle our tongues so often without any consideration as to how it affects others as nothing but a temptation to pride, anger, and all sorts of soul-destroying passions.

May God keep our society free and fertile for the spreading of his Gospel. May we all find the royal road that enables our speech to be timely, evangelical, and grace-filled. And may God bless each and every one of you.