And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.
Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.
But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.
Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.
Helaman 13:25-28
One of the keys to navigating between truth and error involves examining the principles that undergird the particular ideologies we come across.
Here is a test. Think about where we hear anything similar to the following today:
- Promotion of anger against certain ideas
- Efforts to censor, silence, or deplatform ideas
- Personal attacks because of ideas
- Do this, it isn’t immoral or sinful
- Do that, you won’t suffer
- Walk after the pride of your hearts
- Walk after the pride of your eyes
- Do whatever you heart desires
Free speech is a principle that must be protected. I believe in the importance of sharing ideas even when I disagree with those of the majority. We cannot be free without the ability to peacefully allow our ideas to compete.
My point is this: Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives as an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God.
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
Thomas Paine
When you tear out man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.
George R. R. Martin
