Freedom of speaking
I want to introduce you to someone for the purposes of prayer. This individual, Marine Le Pen, is entirely secular in her political views and comes from a Catholic background. She is a member of the European Parliament, outspoken, brilliant, controversial, and stands in a large arena of influence. And her outspokenness has landed her in hot water, threatening her freedom in her native France.
She spoke to a crowd in France in December of 2010 about the growing population of immigrants illegally entering that nation. She warned against the surge of these masses into the nation and likened the current obstruction of public streets and squares all over France on a weekly basis for Muslim prayers to the WWII Nazi occupation of parts of French territory. At the time, the media and political class decried her comparison as racism, but she found increasing popularity among the French people.
In fact, her impact had grown to the extent that she was named on the 2011 TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world, landing her somewhere on the list between President and Mrs. Obama.
And now, earlier this month, it was reported that her immunity from prosecution as a member of the European Parliament has been removed, opening the door for her to face criminal charges of inciting racism due to her December 2010 comments.
Why should we care about the fate of secular figures in France or anywhere else in the world, for that matter? One reason is that many of us on American soil have at least a portion of our roots in Europe, and our culture is linked by blood and history to all parts of Europe and the world. And central to our American civilization and that of the western Europe we’ve visited on business, vacation, and mission trips in our lifetime, is the right (purchased with both American and European blood) of men and women from every race, religion, and walk of life to live freely and to speak and debate openly. My thought is that the outcome of any decision concerning Ms. Le Pen’s freedom of speech will profoundly influence, one way or another, the longevity of the right to speak freely for the rest of western civilization.
I feel strongly about freedom of speech. I was raised in a family in which fundamental Christianity was scorned, but I watched as the lone voice on behalf of Christ—my grandma—refused to bow her knee to the prevailing viewpoint or back down in silence.
I also discovered something very enlightening in my personal Bible study a few years ago.
I was reading Hebrews 10:35-36, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”
As I dug into the various words in that verse, I stumbled upon something amazingly liberating about the word “confidence”. It is the Greek word parrēsia, and means primarily “freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech” [Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for parrēsia (Strong’s 3954)“. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2013. 24 Jun 2013.]
In other words, believers are commanded not to throw away or discard as valueless their “freedom in speaking and unreservedness in speech”.
This is why freedom of speech is so important. It is bound intrinsically with our confidence level—especially in Christ!
Therefore, I urge you, when you think of it, to pray bold prayers for Ms. Le Pen, likely to face criminal charges for her right to speak freely in her native France. Pray for her focus to turn toward the God who can deliver her, and pray for others to rise up powerfully on her behalf—in the legal realm, in the arena of public opinion, and in prayer. And pray that God has His way in revealing once again to the nations the precious right He’s given us to boldly, confidently speak freely.
“Therefore, Culture, do not throw away your confident right to speak boldly and freely, discarding it as a worthless thing. Instead, endure in the face of twisted, trumped up charges against you or your faith and stand resolutely, doing the will of God with unshakable faith. And when you have done the will of God with endurance, you shall receive the promised reward—freedom preserved, not only for yourself, but also for generations to come” (my very loose paraphrase of Hebrews 10:35-36).
Hold fast your confidence!
Dorothy