The Pope Is Right about Freedom of Expression

Last updated on: January 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm by Kermit Zarley

The Pope Is Right about Freedom of Expression 2015-01-16T14:40:56-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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Roman Catholic Pope Francis sounded off yesterday about the Charlie Hebdo incident–Muslim terrorists assasinating 17 people in France because this French magazine published a cartoon satizing the Prophet Muhammed, which is considered “blasphemy” to Muslims. The pope was flying in an airplane with journalists to the Manila, Philippines. He denounced those killings and said freedom of expression is “a fundamental human right.” He added, “There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity … In freedom of expression there are limits.”

Standing next to Pope Francis was his firend, Alberto Gasparri, who organizes papal visits. The pope then said, “If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch.” In good humor, he then feigned a punch to his friend and continued, “It’s normal. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”

Good for the Pope. I’ve been waiting to see someone say that about this Charlie Hebdo incident. Milllions of people have been demonstrating, especially in France, in support of this magazine’s right to do, yet no one was addressing this issue of responsibility and civility along with the freedom of expression. See my similar remarks in my post on December 22, 2014, entitled “‘The Interview’ Was a Bad Idea.”

I have mixed feelings about France. If it wasn’t for the French, we wouldn’t be here. Yet, they can get some crazy ideas. A few years ago, I got so put out with France that for a while I was telling my friends, “I don’t eat French fries anymore. I eat fired potatoes.”

But I do have one disagreement with Pope Francis about these remarks. He said, “You don’t kill in God’s name.” Well, that is the ultimate issue that these Islamic terrorists around the world, but especially in the Middle East, are talking about. They kill people and at the same time exclaim, “Allahu akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is greater.” Thus, they kill in name of their God Allah. Allah is the Arabic word for “God.”

But for the Pope to say that raises a very difficult issue for Jews and Christians that many of us would not like to address. According to the Bible, when God delivered the Hebrew people from bondage in Egypt, forty years later he commanded them to invade the land of Canaan, kill the men who resisted and sometimes kill the women and children as they advanced to take their land and make it their own possession. This subject has become a hot topic lately among historians and theologians. I recently bought Paul Copan’s book about this subject entitled Is God a Moral Monster? Jews and Christians should not criticize Muslim terrorists for their atrocities without having a response to this issue.

I have resigned myself to the viewpoint that God was not a moral monster in sending the Hebrew people to do that because of the vile wickedness of the Canaanites and other tribal peoples who lived there. That is, God made this universe, earth, and us humans. He made humans superior to animals and told them to populate and subue to the earth. He also told them how to live moral lives. Early in the book of Genesis it tells what happened when people didn’t, which is as follows in the NIV:

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his hear was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth–men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the aire–for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

So, God brought the flood. What’s the difference if God has those wicked people killed by a flood or, later in history, the Canaanites by the Hebrews? Either way, people wind up dead. My take on this is that the universe and everything in it, including human beings, ultimately belong to God since he made them. Thus, he has a right to do with it whatever he decides. That’s why everyone should “fear God!” The Bible says repeatedly, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” But when God tells people to kill other people, they better be dang sure that God, the creator of this universe, is speaking to them.

Psalm 149 begins with singing and dancing and playing musical instruments, all done in praising God. Then it says (NRSV), “Let the high priases of God be in their throats, and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with chains of iron, to execute on them the judgment decreed. This is glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the LORD!”

What about this? Pope Francis said, “You don’t kill in God’s name.” Of course, he meant that in the context of this Islamic violence going on in the world. I think those lines in Psalm 149 are a prophecy about the last days and that they apply to Israel when it will be invaded by all the armies of the nations of the world, led by the Antichrist, to annihilate all Jews and wipe Israel of the map. This is predicted by several of the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 14.26; 29.7-8; 34.2-3; Joel 3.2, 12; Micah 4.11-12; Zephaniah 3.8; Zechariah 12.3, 9; 14.2). (All of this is in my book, Warrior from Heaven.) Then Jesus will return in glory, coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24.30; 26.64; Mark 13.26; 14.62; Acts 1.11; Revelation 19.11-16). And he will lead those surviving Jewish men in destroying their enemies as it says in Psalm 149.6-9. But in doing so, those Jewish men will be absolutely certain that the righteous and just God, the creator of the universe, is speaking to them through their Messiah-King–Jesus.

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