Censorship of conservative voices.  Your voice has no merit and we will censor your voice  – that happens more and more  in university settings and other public settings  –including  churches.
Don’t like someone’s opinion? Â Make more speech. Â That’s the essence of freedom to speak.
Administration at U.C. Berkeley  recently spent  $60o K to protect free speech when Ben Shapiro, a conservative writer,  spoke at U.C. Berkeley. As of 9/23/2017,  is not clear whether the Free Speech Week sponsored by Berkeley Patriot student group  will go forward.
What about  churches?
Are ‘conservative’ voices treated  equally — and  respectfully —  as ‘liberal’ voices in your church?
If some church member raises concerns about an issue  are they  greeted respectfully  with  ‘let’s talk about that…” or are they treated indirectly  with derision, ignoring the person and quick  hostile comments followed by walking away.
An example that happened recently: The church volunteer person  who sends out email regarding events of interest to the  parishioners was asked  more than once  to put a link to a specific  post concerning  an  event.  Response in person was ‘our parishioners are older and don’t do links…’  Oh?  The following week the email sent out by that volunteer contained a link to a newly created church related  blog.  Is that censorship? I think so.
How do churches handle conflict? With listening and prayer we hope. Â And respect for the other person’s opinion. Â And supportive of freedom to speak. Â That takes active steps since the elections in November, 2016.
Increasingly, churches start their church board  meetings with a Covenant  how people will talk to each other.
How might respectful discourse be encouraged in all church related meetings?  At coffee hour?  When two or three church Members gather to make decisions  planning future  events?
Weigh in. Â Express your views on this topic and other topics.
Monterey Bay Forum is exactly that  — a Forum  for the expression of different views.  Some people write under a pen name.   One high school youth publishes on Birds.  One ex-policeman now an  R.N. writes about his career changes.  There are many voices expressed on the Forum.  Licensed Psychologist  Cameron Jackson writes under her own name — on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and through other avenues.
Your voice is welcome.
Many of the  most popular posts (most read over time)  on Monterey Bay Forum relate to Freedom.  Wonder why?   Probably because the domain name  is  www.freedomok.net   That’s probably why we see readers  popping up from all over the world and all over the U.S.A.
written by Cameron Jackson   DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
