Any Jackass Can Burn Down a Barn

When I was in high school, our communications teacher attempted to introduce a film class.  It was the first time one had ever been offered in our school district and outside of NYC or LA there were very few in any public schools.  The result was a pretty free and open environment for us to create the class.  We watched and critiqued great films, learned about some filming techniques and, using the second hand VHS hand held camera the budget would allow, we made our own films.   

Compared to the footage available online of the now infamous film “The Innocence of Muslims,” our 7 minute zero-dollar budget high school production is “Citizen Kane” or Hitchcock’s “Rope.”  If the rest of the film is even close to as bad as the trailer footage, it ranks among the worst films ever made.  (Think Ed Wood makes the “10 Commandments.”)  Yet despite its lacking of any narrative or artistic merit, this little film has sparked a tragic string of circumstances.

On Tuesday, protestors fueled by anger and lacking any sense of moral restraint, attacked the United States embassy in Cairo breaching the walls and desecrating the American flag.  In a related event, attacks on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Lybia left the US Ambassador and two other embassy staff dead and several others injured.  These attacks certainly did not materialize simply because the trailer for this film was released, but there is little question that the film was one precipitating issue.

As someone who makes his living getting up in front of a room (partially) full of people and who leans heavily on both an ethic of professional freedom and the benefit of political freedom, I have an acute appreciation and love for our nearly absolute freedom of speech.  I like that I can get in the pulpit and condemn my government without fear of reprisal and praise it without fear of becoming its puppet.  The freedom of expression we enjoy as nation is perhaps our greatest blessing and the greatest gift to the world that American constitutional democracy has given.

With that great freedom, however, comes even greater responsibility.  As a pastor, I am also acutely aware that just because I may say something does not always mean that I should say it or that it is wise to say it.  That is a lesson lost on too many in our culture today.

The makers of this movie have every right to make a bad film.  A right they have availed themselves of spectacularly.  I for one make no claim that what they have done should somehow be outlawed or banned.   Free speech that is wise and helpful depends on the freedom of speech that is insipid and stupid.  Still, I think the filmmakers deserve a heavy dose of criticism for choosing to make a film that has the obvious purpose of making fun of and inciting anger from a group they do not like.  The only reason the film has not been more roundly condemned is that its subject matter involves a politically and socially unpopular group- the Islamic community.  A similar film that made fun of African-Americans, women, Christians or Jews would not be tolerated.  So taking advantage of the political environment, the filmmakers offer their warped perspective on 1/5 of the world’s population.

The problem with this film is not that it is bad.  It is not that it was not their right to make it.  The problem is that the film represents one of the most reprehensible and craven characteristics of our contemporary culture-“no one matters but me.” 

According to this radical individualism and radical libertarianism, my right to say whatever the hell I want trumps any consequence of my words.

• My vitriol and bigotry leads a classmate to take his or her own life?  Tough, free speech.

• My political rhetoric demeans a whole group of people and incites others to do violence to them?  Tough, free speech.

• My film defames and ridicules another’s religion and risks reprisals in the midst of a tense and polarized global political culture?  Tough, free speech.

Free speech is a blessing and a right of every person who lives in this nation and, God willing, will one day be a basic human right enjoyed by every one of God’s children.  That right is diminished and demeaned when it is used by fools in their folly and when speech is not accompanied by wisdom and humanity.  But wisdom and humanity take work. 

Any jackass can burn down a barn.  And the world never has a shortage of jackasses willing to do just that.  It takes wisdom to build up rather than tear down.  As with so many things, the role the church has to play in this whole political mess is the enduring word of love and universal human dignity.  Central to the gospel of Jesus Christ is the dignity of all people.  Not Christian people.  Not American people.  Not people I like or approve of but ALL people.  ALL of God's children. 

Free speech falls rapidly from blessing to curse when it is used to diminish rather than celebrate the place of a brother or sister as a child of God. 

There is no excuse for the violence in Cairo or Benghazi.  There is also no excuse for the abuse and misuse of a blessed right like the freedom to speak.  Hopefully, “The Innocence of Muslims” will fade rapidly from our collective memory.  With any luck, the lessons we learn from its narcissistic misuse of a cherished right and its foolish attempt to dehumanize a whole religion will not.