Censorship, Coercion, and Losing the Argument
My parents were SBC missionaries. They took me to Brazil, where I grew up under a military dictatorship. The military wanted to be the morality police. They imposed all sorts of laws to that end, but it did not effect any real change. Thousands of people were “disappeared,” silenced, exiled, left the country, or used coded speech to get around censorship laws. With the fall of the dictatorship, what had been repressed exploded from the shadows. Censorship does not change minds. Censorship does not address who people are. Censorship is not the way of Jesus. Jesus did not deal with coercion. He allowed people to walk away. When we resort to coercion, we are giving up on Jesus. It is our stating the way of Jesus is not enough. It says we don't trust him. It is like Peter pulling out a sword only to have Jesus call him down, telling him to put it away. The way of Jesus is love. It is setting an example. It is demonstrating a better wa