{"id":33733,"date":"2013-05-13T23:15:14","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T05:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/13\/shades-of-gray-close-to-home.html"},"modified":"2013-05-14T09:32:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T15:32:45","slug":"shades-of-gray-close-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/13\/shades-of-gray-close-to-home.html","title":{"rendered":"Shades of Gray, Close to Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
So … this is a tough one.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, I tend to be a major First Amendment supporter. \u00a0Restricting the freedom to express one's opinion in public space is per se<\/i> bad for society and dire slippery slope.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this was going on at my\u00a0local Episcopal cathedral, on Palm Sunday (which usually starts outside the church to reflect the procession into Jerusalem, and thus is subject to outside disruption).<\/p>\n

On the first hand, as is suggested here, restricting the freedom of speech because it might upset people is, generally speaking, a stupid reason to restrict it. \u00a0In theory, meaningful political speech is going to upset people.<\/p>\n

On the second hand, the people being upset (it is claimed) are children, for whom we often make special accommodation \/ restriction.<\/p>\n

On the first hand again, there's a tremendous slippery slope in public speech if we allow "think of the children" to restrict what can be said.<\/p>\n

On the second hand, I'm not particularly sympathetic to the speaker's political opinion.<\/p>\n

On the first hand, I'm aware enough to realize that's a piss-poor reason to restrict speech.<\/p>\n

So … I dunno. My sense is that this behavior by the protester was rude, but not unlawful, socially counter-productive, but not something that should be legally restricted. \u00a0But …<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

Church Suit Says Abortion Protest Upset Children – NYTimes.com<\/a>
\n A Denver church is suing a man whose demonstration included showing pictures of fetuses, which the church says were too graphic.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So … this is a tough one. On the one hand, I tend to be a major First Amendment supporter. \u00a0Restricting the freedom to express one's opinion in public space is per se bad for society and dire slippery slope. On the other hand, this was going on at my\u00a0local Episcopal cathedral, on Palm Sunday … Continue reading “Shades of Gray, Close to Home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,133,350,64,110,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-religion-episcopal-church","category-religious-zanies","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129503,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/15\/more-on-the-anglican-communion-episcopal-church-kerfuffle.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":0},"title":"More on the Anglican Communion \/ Episcopal Church kerfuffle","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jan-16 7:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So, for any of those who take this seriously, here's an update on the Grave Communique issued by the Primates at the Anglican Communion Primates Meeting in England yesterday, in which they (more in sorrow than in anger, though, really, kind of peeved) said the Episcopal Church wasn't working and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ens_011516_primates5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ens_011516_primates5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ens_011516_primates5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128156,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/25\/when-liberty-becomes-libertine.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":1},"title":"When Liberty Becomes Libertine","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Sep-15 4:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In recent years we've seen \"religious freedom\" as the basis for court claims about people wanting to, in fact, discriminate and use their religious beliefs to hurt other people. \"If you stop me from doing something that my religion tells me I should do, then you're harshing my religious liberty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11192,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/20\/throwing_down_the_ecclesi.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":2},"title":"Throwing down the ecclesiastical gauntlet","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Mar-07 10:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Episcopal Church meeting of the House of Bishops, the general response to the communique\/ultimatum of the Primates from the Tanzania meeting is \"The Episcopal Church declines ......","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episc-shield.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":129489,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/14\/the-anglican-communion-finally-unifies-by-suspending-the-episcopal-church.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":3},"title":"The Anglican Communion finally unifies … by suspending the Episcopal Church","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Jan-16 4:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been some concern that conservative Anglican archbishops from Africa would boycott the primates meeting in England; instead, they all showed up and drove through a resolution (though it's not clear under what authority) suspending the Episcopal Church for three years from voting within the Communion, representing Anglicans in ecumenical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/31\/as_long_as_they.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":4},"title":"As long as they don’t rename my parish, I’m cool with it","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 31-Jul-06 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So when I started getting into the Episcopal Church thang, there was this undercurrent of distress amongst some of the assembled viz the \"proper\" shortname or acronym for the church....","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15200,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/14\/episcopalians-take-a-step-forward.html","url_meta":{"origin":33733,"position":5},"title":"Episcopalians take a step forward","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Jul-09 7:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"While it all sounds like a bunch of legislative hoo-hah at a boring church synod, the actions yesterday by the Episcopal Church (TEC) are a big leap forward for it, and perhaps for Christianity as a whole if we serve as an example. The House of Deputies of the Episcopal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33739,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33733\/revisions\/33739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}