Online Censorship, Free Speech, the Metaverse, & the Gospel.

Tolerance is currently the highest value in Western society, and even questioning it is seen as being narrow-minded or discriminatory. But there’s a glaring hypocrisy in our obsession with tolerance…

This new kind of tolerance doesn’t mean simply respecting the rights of those who hold differing beliefs- it means affirming all beliefs as equally valid and correct. Therefore, there must be an intolerance against any teaching that disagrees with this assertation. Christian teaching and theology on human sexuality and the exclusivity of Christ in salvation disagrees with this new tolerance because its ideas stand in stark contrast to these progressive ideals.

Recently there have been incidents and reports of Christian leaders, pastors, and theologians having their teaching videos on Biblical sexuality blocked by YouTube as part of a violation of “content policies”. In the name of tolerance, certain Christian ideas can’t be tolerated. Freedoms of speech, religion, and the press are being revoked in the name of “safety” and censorship is targeting certain ideas that are being deemed as dangerous.

But does that mean that all censorship is wrong? What does the Bible say about censorship and freedom of speech? Should Christians be for freedom of speech? What’s the Christian response to the gospel being censored on online platforms? Speaking of which, what about the “Metaverse”? What will censorship/free speech look like there?