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A new poll shows that a majority of Americans think the First Amendment is outdated and should be revised.
The percentages are even higher among the Millennials---America's younger people.
This new poll indicates free speech is under even more threat than previously believed.
Be informed.
Amendment 1. The US Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress or grievances."
New polls show that a majority of Americans believe the First Amendment is outdated and should be revised.
The "Campaign for Free Speech" poll found that 51% of Americans say the First Amendment should be re-written and 48% say "hate speech" should be illegal.
Among millennials, 57% say the First Amendment should be rewritten to "reflect the cultural norms of today," and 54% say an appropriate punishment for "hate speech" could be jail time.
The poll also found that American people are generally uninformed.
Other results from the national poll:
- 78% of Americans do not understand what rights the First Amendment protects.
- 57% believe the government "should be able to take action against newspapers and TV stations that publish content that is biased, inflammatory, or false."
- 36% support the formation of a government agency to police speech in podcasts and other media.
Put this in the context of the battle over free speech and how it relates to religious freedom and these findings are even more troubling.
The Left, in their obsession for power and control, have co-opted, to a great extent, the freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment.
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey on January 6, 1816, said,
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be..."
Abridging the freedom of speech.
Before political correctness began to choke the First Amendment in America, we often used the term "freedom of speech," however, as political correctness was constructed as a silencer to freedom of that speech, everything America is about became vulnerable.
Charlton Heston often said in his speeches, "Political correctness is tyranny; just tyranny with manners."
The reason the Left hates free speech is because they don't know how to talk about the merits of their ideology, because it has none. Censorship then replaces reasonable dialog.
Now, political correctness has shed its manners.
How many stories have you read or heard of concerning conservatives being barred from speaking on college campuses? Sometimes in response to campus riots and demonstrations. That's a form of censorship.
Mark Twain said,
"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
Be informed.
Of all the platforms of free speech, social media involves more people, more often than any other communication channel--- and impacts free speech, or the lack of it, more than any other medium.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey just announced that his social network is banning all political advertising, except for encouraging voter turnout. Twitter, he says, "gives advertisers an unfair advantage to spread highly targeted, misleading messages."
Twitter will publish their full plan of censorship next week, on November 15.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that politicians have the right to free speech on his network and that Facebook "will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns."
Education is an indoctrination point for America's youth.
Noted above is that the younger millennials are more inclined to re-write the First Amendment than their parents are.
President Trump has signed an executive order, for the second time in office, that requires any school receiving federal funds to extend free speech protections to all men and women on its campus.
The University of Michigan blew up recently, when a lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of the school's "Bias Response Team."
"Bias response team?"
They are teams of students who judge whether or not another student has the right to say what he or she wants to say. They decide if statements made by their peers are discriminatory or harassment---or not.
Controlling words lead to controlling thoughts. And beliefs.
Former American University President Everett Piper told Fox News last week,
"What we have today is thought control rather than the premise for thoughtful debate. It's ideological fascism."
It has been said,
"Political correctness is a sinister device constructed by the Left to cause the negative outcomes of Leftist ideology to never be subject to criticism."
Religious freedom.
As we began 2019, National Review published an article warning religious people---particularly Christians--- to be prepared for tests and challenges to our religious freedoms.
They said:
"Think of a country where leading politicians question whether members of a long-established religious minority are fit for public office. Think of that country's press, which has deep ideological and financial affinities with the ruling class's prejudice, whipping up scare stories about that minority's schools. Maybe you were thing Hungary. But all these were recent examples of American secularism."
John Adams, our second President and father of our 6th President, John Quincy Adams, said,
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
As our founding Judeo-Christian values and principles are marginalized, silenced, and removed from our culture, our Constitution becomes less and less significant to those removing the values.
The Review notes that "Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris recently questioned whether a candidate for a federal judgeship was unfit because of his membership in the Catholic Knights of Columbus."
The media has expressed outrage that Christian schools actually have beliefs and policies that require teachers and students to uphold those beliefs.
We all remember the incident where the press discovered that Vice President Mike Pense's wife is a part-time art teacher in a Christian school where she also taught when her husband was in Congress.
The press and the progressives exploded. The Christian school actually believes in biblical marriage, proving they are bigots; they also believe in the sanctity of life, proving the school and people associated with the school are anti-women---and on and on it goes.
The cumulative effect of these various campaigns of legal and social harassment will be something akin to the English Penal Laws and Test Acts---these are the very laws that the American Founders wanted to escape in coming to the New World.
Those laws threatened employment and restricted the political action of those dissenters who could not endorse the anti-Christian sentiments.
This is a time of testing---testing of our Christian faith. Our biblical worldview. And most every founding principle of our great country.
Be strong in the Lord.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Courageous. Be Prayerful.