Freedom of speech. Freedom of thought. Freedom of religion. They're important. They're in the news. How do they relate to Christianity? Let's start thinking through it.

What does the Bible have to say about them?

Take John the Baptist as an example. He was the essential free speaker, the "voice of one, crying in the wilderness", preparing the way for God. He spoke freely, declaring a new, living religion. But then Herod stepped in, captured him, imprisoned him, and killed him. John (I have something I must speak freely about) is the good guy; Herod (I don't like your speech) is the bad guy.

In Daniel 6:7-23, there's the famous story of Daniel and the lions' den. Daniel was cast to the lions because he was speaking freely -- praying to Jehovah, not to King Darius -- against an edict of the government. Daniel's the good guy. Darius, until he repents, is the bad guy.

Perhaps the most powerful Biblical example is found throughout Jesus's ministry, which required freedom of speech -- the freedom to form, teach, and create a new religion. His free speech revolutionized the thoughts of his listeners. And, what did the powerful religious leaders of the day do? They accused him of blaspheming. They tried to trap him. To get him to recant. To be quiet. He knew that he couldn't do that; His mission was to bring new truths to a thirsty world.

There's a great "free speech" scene during Jesus's entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, in Luke 19:37-40:

"And when He was already near to the descent of the Mount of Olives, all the multitude of the disciples rejoicing began to praise God with a great voice for all the works of power that they had seen, saying, 'Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!' And some of the Pharisees from among the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Thy disciples.' And He answering told them, 'I say to you, If these should be silent, the stones would cry out.'

These are pretty clear examples. The Bible values freedom of speech.

Free speech and free thought are closely related. Deep communication is a big part of what makes us human. Humans developed the ability to have large scale cooperation through shared stories. If we can't speak freely, we lose the ability to communicate real thoughts, and we lose the ability to share new ideas, and our potential drops away.

Here are three excerpts from Swedenborg's works that relate to this:

"...when free speech and freedom of the press are curtailed, freedom of thought, that is, of examining matters in a full and complete way, suffers as well.... Our higher understanding, then, adapts itself to fit the amount of freedom there is to say and do what we are considering." (True Christian Religion 814).

"No one is reformed in a state of intellectual blindness, either. These individuals, too, are not aware of truths and do not know about life, because it is our discernment that must instruct us in these matters and our volition that must act them out. When our volition is doing what our discernment tells it to, then we have a life in accord with truths; but when our discernment is blind, our volition is blocked as well." (Divine Providence 144)

"No one is reformed in states where freedom and rationality are absent." (Divine Providence 38)

I was talking about this with a friend, and he reminded me that there are grey areas, where some freedom and discernment exist, but they are limited. I think he's right; we're mostly living in these grey areas. There are probably rare cases where freedom and rationality are at zero -- maybe when someone is in a coma. And I doubt if anyone has 100% freedom or discernment. In some ways, this makes free speech and free thought even more important. Life is not crystal clear, or free, and things that can help us as we seek understanding and freedom are really precious.

The example of Helen Keller bears on this. She called the day that Anne Sullivan arrived at her house "my soul's birthday". In her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903), Keller described the moment when she realized that the motion of Anne's fingers, spelling w-a-t-e-r into her hand symbolized the water that she was pouring over her hand:

"I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.... The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!"

Helen Keller also said, “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

Free speech and free thought need each other. And... what about religion?

Religion is a core set of thoughts. If you're not free to speak, your thinking is trammeled. If you're not free to think, how can you hope to get to the core ideas about why we exist, and what we are going to do -- how we are going to live? Religion is at the heart of it. Even if you reject religion altogether, you're still living by some sort of belief system, even if it's materialistic or nihilistic.

If you're told what you have to believe, it doesn't usually work out very well. There's a natural tendency to rebel. We need that freedom to figure things out for ourselves.

Albert Einstein said something that speaks to this:

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. Without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.” - Paul Schilpp, "Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949) ‘Autobiographical Notes’"

And... here's another excerpt from Swedenborg's work, Heaven and Hell:

In a word, anything that does not enter us in freedom does not stay with us, because it does not belong to our love or intentions; and anything that does not belong to our love or intentions does not belong to our spirit. The actual reality of our spirit is love or volition - using the phrase "love or volition" because whatever we love, we intend. This is why we cannot be reformed except in a state of freedom. (Heaven and Hell 598)

M. Scott Peck reinforces this idea:

There is no such thing as a good hand-me-down religion. To be vital, to be the best of which we are capable, our religion must be a wholly personal one, forged entirely through the fire of our questioning and doubting in the crucible of our own experience of reality. - M. Scott Peck - The Road Less Travelled

Finally, let's go back to see what the Bible says about it, in these two stories:

Saul of Tarsus was persecuting Christians -- trying to destroy their freedom of religion. He had a miraculous conversion experience that led him to be renamed Paul, the great Christian teacher and evangelist. (See Acts 9)

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were persecuted - thrown in a fiery furnace - for worshipping in their own way, denying the edicts of Nebuchadnezzar. They were saved by an angel, who kept them from being burned. (See Daniel 3)

Wrapping it up...

It's pretty clear that free speech, free thought, and free religion are part of the same fabric. They're very much part of being human. They're well supported in the Bible. They've been woven into the better governments of our time.

We need to take good care of them. They're necessary for us to be able to learn truth, and reject falsity -- and to "Cease to do evil, learn to do good." (Isaiah 1:16)

288. Verse 9. And when the animals gave glory and honor and thanksgiving, signifies Divine truth and Divine good and glorification. This is evident from the signification of "glory and honor," as being, in reference to the Lord, Divine truth and Divine good; "glory" being Divine truth, and "honor" Divine good (of which presently); and from the signification of "thanksgiving," as being glorification. Let it first be told what is here meant by glorification. Glorification, when it is from the Lord, is a perpetual influx with angels and men of Divine good with Divine truth; and glorification of the Lord among angels and men is reception and acknowledgment in heart that all good and all truth are from the Lord, and thence all intelligence, wisdom, and blessedness; this in the spiritual sense is what "giving thanks" signifies. Moreover, all glorification of the Lord by the angels of heaven and by the men of the church is not from themselves, but flows in from the Lord. Glorification that is from men and not from the Lord is not from the heart, but only from the activity of the memory, and thus from the mouth; and what goes forth from the memory and the mouth only, and not through them from the heart, is not heard in heaven, thus is not received by the Lord, but goes out into the world like any other sonorous words. This glorification is not an acknowledgment in heart that all good and all truth are from the Lord. It is said an acknowledgment in heart, which means from the life of the love; for "heart," in the Word, signifies love, and love is a life according to the Lord's precepts; when man is in this life, then there is glorification of the Lord, which is acknowledgment from the heart that all good and truth is from the Lord. This is meant by "being glorified," in John:

If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and that ye be My disciples (John 15:7-8).

[2] "The four animals," which were cherubim, "gave glory and honor and thanksgiving," because Divine truth and Divine good and glorification, which are signified by glory, honor, and thanksgiving, proceed and flow in from the Lord; for these cherubim signify the Lord in respect to providence and guard (See above, n. 277); and they were "in the midst of the throne, and around the throne" (as is manifest from verse 6), and the Lord was "upon the throne" (verse 2); from which it is clear that these things were from the Lord; but reception and acknowledgment in heart are meant by the words of the verse following, where it is said, that when these things had been heard, "the four and twenty elders fell down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and worshipped Him that liveth unto ages of ages, and cast their crowns before the throne."

[3] In the Word, "glory and honor" is a frequent expression, and "glory" everywhere signifies truth, and "honor" good. The two are mentioned together because in the particulars of the Word there is a heavenly marriage, which is the conjunction of truth and good. There is this marriage in the particulars of the Word, because the Divine that proceeds from the Lord is Divine truth united to Divine good; and because these together make heaven and also make the church, therefore this marriage is in the particulars of the Word; so also in the particulars of the Word is the Divine from the Lord, and the Lord Himself; this is why the Word is most holy. (That there is such a marriage in the particulars of the Word, see above, n. 238; and Arcana Coelestia, n. 2516, Arcana Coelestia 2712, 2712, 3004, 3005, 3009, 4138, 5138, 5194, 5502, 6343, 7022, 7945, 8339, 9263, 9314)

[4] That "glory" signifies Divine truth from the Lord, see above (n. 33); that "honor" signifies Divine good follows from what has been said concerning the heavenly marriage in the particulars of the Word; as can also be seen from the following passages. In David:

Jehovah made the heavens; glory and honor are before Him; strength and splendor are in His sanctuary (Psalms 96:5-6).

By "the heavens" the Divine that proceeds from the Lord is meant, since the heavens are from His Divine; and as the Divine that proceeds and makes the heavens is Divine truth and Divine good, it is said, "glory and honor are before Him;" "sanctuary" means the church; Divine good and Divine truth therein are meant by "strength and splendor." (That the Divine of the Lord makes the heavens, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 7-12; and that the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is Divine truth and Divine good, n. 7, 13, 133, 137, 139-140.)

[5] In the same:

O Jehovah God, Thou art very great; Thou hast put on glory and honor (Psalms 104:1).

"To put on glory and honor" signifies, in reference to Jehovah, His girding Himself with Divine truth and Divine good, for these proceed from Him, and thus gird Him, and make the heavens; therefore in the Word they are called "His vesture" and "His covering" (See above, n. 65, 271).

[6] In the same:

The works of Jehovah are great. Glory and honor are His work (Psalms 111:2-3

"The works of Jehovah" mean all things that proceed from Him and are done by Him; and as these are referable to Divine truth and Divine good, it is said, "His work is glory and honor."

[7] In the same:

Generation to generation shall praise Thy works, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. Upon the honor of the magnificence of Thy glory and the words of Thy wonders will I meditate. And I will make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glory of the honor of His kingdom (Psalms 145:4-5, 12).

"The honor of the magnificence of glory" means Divine good united to Divine truth; and "the glory of the honor" means Divine truth united to Divine good. This is so said because the unition is reciprocal; for Divine good proceeds from the Lord united to Divine truth; but by the angels in heaven and by the men of the church Divine truth is received and is united to Divine good; it is therefore said, "the glory of the honor of His kingdom," for "His kingdom" means heaven and the church.

[8] In the same:

Glory and honor wilt thou lay upon Him; for thou settest Him blessings forever (Psalms 21:5, 6).

These things were said of the Lord, and "glory and honor upon Him" means all Divine truth and Divine good.

[9] In the same:

Gird Thy sword upon the thigh, O mighty One in Thy glory and honor. And in Thy honor mount, ride upon the word of truth (Psalms 45:3, 4).

This also is said of the Lord; "to gird the sword upon the thigh" signifies Divine truth combating from Divine good (that this is signified by "sword upon the thigh," see Arcana Coelestia 10488); and because the Lord from Divine truth subjugated the hells, and brought the heavens into order, He is said to be "mighty in glory and honor," and also "in honor mount and ride upon the word of truth;" this signifies to act from Divine good through Divine truth.

[10] In the same:

Thou hast made Him to be a little less than the angels, but thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor (Psalms 8:5). This also is said of the Lord; His state of humiliation is described by "thou hast made Him to be a little less than the angels," and His state of glorification by "thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor." "Glorifying" means uniting the Divine Itself to His Human, and also making His Human Divine.

[11] In Isaiah:

Rejoice, ye wilderness and dry place, and let the plain of the desert exult and blossom as the rose, in blossoming let it blossom and exalt; the glory of Lebanon has been given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the honor of our God (Isaiah 35:1, 2).

This treats of the enlightenment of the Gentiles; that ignorance of truth and good is signified by "the wilderness and the dry place;" their joy in consequence of instruction in truths and enlightenment is signified by "rejoicing, exulting, and blossoming;" "the glory of Lebanon given to them" signifies Divine truth; and "the honor of Carmel and Sharon" signifies Divine good which they receive; this is why it is also said "they shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the honor of our God."

[12] In Revelation:

The nations that have been saved shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor to it. And the glory and honor of the nations shall be brought into it (Revelation 21:24, 26).

This is said of the New Jerusalem, by which a new church in the heavens and on earth is signified; "nations" there signify all who are in good; and the "kings of the earth" all who are in truths from good; it is said of both that "they shall bring their glory and honor into it," which means worship from the good of love to the Lord and from the truths of faith which are from the good of charity towards the neighbor.