Day: October 4, 2007

I seem to be on a free speech kick here (how better than to be true to one’s own beliefs?) when I see that the American Episcopalians have somehow met the demands of their Anglican counterparts to not ordain any more gay bishops and not to bless same-sex unions. At least from this article, it seems the Anglicans in England and Africa have succeeded in controling those Anglicans (Episcopals) in the US. Amazing the role religion still plays in the world outside of radical Islam. This demand by a group of conservative religious across the world to tell how the American church how to believe and act seems more and more like the same criticisms against Catholicism.

I thought that was why the Anglican Church was formed in the first place–to confront being told what to do by a corrupt group of wealthy men from far away? Perhaps history does repeat itself?

I feel I just lamented how Columbia handled the free speech issue when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke there last week, when I read about Ayaan Hirisi Ali in today’s NY Times. She was a former member of the Dutch Parliament who left there and fled the Netherlands due to the credible death threats she received from Islamic extremists when she became critical of Islam. Hmm, this seems so unfortunate given the credibility the president of Iraq has been trying to gain by speaking at Ivy League USA about how the West has his country and people all wrong.

Granted, I do not know if their is a connection between Ayaan’s threats and Iran, but it seems to me that free speech should be done from and on both perspectives as a promotion of credibility. Then again, credibility seems somewhat subjective, doesn’t it?