Satire and sacrilege

Dear Sir,

The article ‘Satire and Sacrilege’ in the March issue of en seems to miss the point of free speech. The right to free speech means nothing without the right to offend. Both Evangelicals and secularists teamed up in the Reform Section 5 campaign a few years ago and your February edition included a link to Jay Smith explaining why the Charlie Hebdo should have the right to publish material that offended him.

Offence is subjective and has been the basis of police action against several open-air preachers in recent years. If there is no right to offend, such police intervention is not only acceptable but entirely appropriate. If there is no right to ‘intentionally offend’, the very preaching of the gospel itself is verboten (cf. Romans 9.33; 1 Corinthians. 1.23; 1 Peter 2.8) knowing, as we do, the likelihood of it causing grave offence.