4. Censorship

What is censorship?

the practice of suppressing and limiting access to materials considered obscene, offensive or a threat to security. People may be restricted in their speech by censorship laws

What are examples of censorship?

• censorship of ideas that challenge religious beliefs

• censorship of things which are considered blasphemous (offensive to the religion, speaking sacrilegiously about God)

• censorship of things which are considered to have a bad moral influence on ppl

• censorship of hate speech

• censorship of knowingly false information

What are religious teachings in support of censorship?

• “Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God” - So they believe that pornography should be restricted

• “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain” - For example. in January 2009, the organisation Christian Voice attempted to prosecute BBC director-general for blasphemy after a controversial production where they mocked Jesus Christ and the Christian religion in general

• The Catholic Church used to have a banned book list until 1966, but doesn’t anymore. For example, they banned Galileo because of his blasphemous teaching the Earth revolved around the sun.

• “Love your neighbour as yourself” - So hate speech should be censored

• “Do not bear false witness against your neighbour” - Knowingly false information should not shared, for example newspapers are not able to publish untrue statements

Why would Christians be against some forms of censorship?

• They go against restrictions about publicly speaking about religion because they want to evangelise due to the Great Commission, given to them by Jesus

• They may go against restrictions on hate speech as they feel as though the hate speech is endorsed by their religion (For example the Bible endorsing homophobia)