(Mark Lewis Taylor is Princeton Seminary’s Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Theology and Culture. Dr. Taylor provided the following essay off notes he used for a lecture this past week. Hopefully this essay provides for some good groundwork for us to have a meaningful conversation over the coming days – Grant Brooke)
Prophetic Critique and Free Speech in the Age of Obama
I understand that we are gathered here today to discuss the relationship between prophetic critique and freedom of speech, because the racist, sexist and generally demeaning pamphlet that appeared on our campus last Fall, The Foreskin, has been defended from alleged “prophetic” criticism by assertions, from some, of a right to free speech. Moreover, recent criticism of racist images linked to President Obama – especially the cartoon of the slain chimpanzee in the New York Post, but also the postcard photo of water-melon patches at today’s White House – have only heated up the issue on our campus. These images also have been defended as “free speech.”
Both of the terms before us, “prophetic word” and “free speech,” are important notions, but each often suggests a caricature that must be questioned. I want to probe below each caricature, and in so doing address the relation between them. Overall, I hope to show, first, that prophetic criticism should not be seen as an opposite to valuing freedom of speech, and, second, that “free speech” is not free from a prophetic criticism of its limits. Let me unfold this more slowly.
