Another First Amendment violation story recently hit the news with little outcry from the public. As our personal freedoms become more eroded by the day, people remain passive on the issue and ignore it as if it means nothing.
Regardless of your social beliefs, you should find the treatment of David and Jason Benham by HGTV troubling. I understand that some disagree with their Christian beliefs but that is certainly not the point nor is it the issue. The issue is that they lost their show on HGTV not because of what they did but what they believed.
While rapists, wife beaters, cheaters and crooks run rife in many of the professional sports leagues (and in Congress), we don’t kick those players out or ban the sport from TV. Instead, we continue to watch the game despite the immorality which takes place in them.
So what is the media now saying? The only thing worse than being a rapist, wife beater, cheater and crook is being a Christian or having conservative beliefs? This is absurd.
We are now finding censorship going to a whole new level. Will conservative checks now be done for every profession? If you attended a mass in which the pastor or priest demonized abortion, could you be out of a job. Will going to church like in the early Christian Roman days get you arrested?
We are heading to this point. My great grandfather was the first Martino to come to the USA in the early 20th century. He left Italy after he and his other 3 brothers were arrested for attending a democratic rally. His 3 brothers died in jail, and he came here to start a better life—in a place where freedom of speech was guaranteed by law.
Where has that guarantee gone? Now, we must censor our private lives to conform to the public norms? Are we living in Nazi Germany or some new 21st century fascist country?
We are quickly headed down the slippery slope of demagogy. Let us not slip too far before we can no longer get up.
http://www.martinoauthor.com/hgtv-takes-away-brothers-first-amendment-rights/
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