The Death of Free Speech
Unguarded, This is the Death of Civilization
There is a war raging against one of the most foundational elements of human dignity—freedom of speech. Across the world, and increasingly even in the United States, free speech is under attack. But let’s be clear: when free speech dies, civilization dies. This is not rhetoric. This is historical reality, theological truth, and moral urgency.
In his recent article, British Attacks on Free Speech Prove the Value of the First Amendment, journalist Steven Greenhut exposes how the United Kingdom has transitioned from speech policing to speech tyranny. What began as a regulatory effort to monitor so-called “hate speech” has evolved into a legal system that now criminalizes private thoughts and silent prayers.
We are no longer talking about protests or riots. We are talking about praying silently near an abortion clinic becoming grounds for arrest. In the UK today, if a woman quietly stands near an abortion facility—saying nothing aloud—but is suspected of praying internally, she may be confronted by police, interrogated, and arrested under “Public Space Protection Orders.” This is not dystopian fiction. This is happening now.
Watch the footage. A woman, calmly and respectfully present near an abortion clinic, is asked:
“Are you praying?”
“I might be praying in my head,” she replies.
“Then you’re under arrest.”
This is the criminalization of thought—a modern version of Orwell’s “thoughtcrime.” In the absence of codified First Amendment-style protections, UK law allows the government to persecute citizens for internal convictions that run contrary to the political norms of the day.
Thank God for the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” Without this constitutional safeguard, it is only a matter of time before the American government could do precisely what the UK is now doing. As someone who grew up under regimes without such freedoms, let me be blunt: the things I say publicly in the United States today would have landed me in prison in Malaysia indefinitely, with no outside contact, and without due process!
Freedom Rooted in the Image of God
What is the Catholic response? The Church teaches that freedom is not license, but the power rooted in reason and will to choose the good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
“Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act… Human freedom attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1731
For any society to protect this ordered freedom, it must safeguard the right of persons to speak, to think, to worship, and to bear witness—even in opposition to the ruling ideology. Without freedom of speech, the pursuit of truth becomes impossible, and a society collapses under the weight of its own tyranny.
“There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just.”
— Catechism, §1733
Without this freedom, the human person becomes a subject to the state, not a sovereign individual made in the image of God.
Natural Law and the Right to Speak
The Church’s understanding of freedom finds resonance in the best of classical philosophy. Cicero, in his De Legibus, declared:
“Law is the highest reason, implanted in nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite.”
If that is true, then what happens when governments reject the natural law? Law loses its moral legitimacy. Without free speech, law becomes the tool of tyranny, not the guardian of justice. The people have no right to question, no ability to resist, no hope of reform.
This is why John Stuart Mill, despite his secularism, was right to warn:
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is robbing the human race… If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth.”
— On Liberty, Ch. II
Mill, of course, operated within a liberal philosophical framework, but the warning holds: truth must be free to be heard, or error becomes the state religion.
Tyranny Always Begins with Censorship
History is unambiguous. Every authoritarian regime begins by silencing dissent. The Soviet Union criminalized religious speech. Nazi Germany banned opposition parties. Mao’s China purged educators and writers. Wherever totalitarianism rises, free expression is the first casualty.
And we are seeing early signs of this same suppression in the West today. The United Kingdom, once a champion of liberty, now arrests its citizens for praying silently. Elderly Christians are being prosecuted for holding signs near abortion clinics. Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights supposedly protects freedom of expression—but its enforcement is now arbitrary, governed by ideological convenience.
And here’s the devastating truth: this isn’t limited to the UK. Canada has arrested pastors. Australian states have criminalized prayer counseling. In America, too, voices are being censored—shadowbanned, deplatformed, silenced.
We must ask: What kind of civilization are we building if speech is a punishable offense?
Without Free Speech, There Is No Accountability
Freedom of speech is not just a political right—it is a moral safeguard. It is the citizen’s last defense against corruption and abuse of power.
When speech is restricted, power consolidates. When power consolidates, abuse becomes inevitable. Lord Acton was prophetic:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The result is always the same: the collapse of civilization. We are watching this unfold in real time. The UK, once the intellectual and spiritual heart of Christendom, has abandoned its Judeo-Christian foundation. Secularism paved the way for relativism. And now, Islam is rising in the cultural vacuum.
This is not an alarmist warning—it is a demographic and political fact. A society that no longer believes in truth, beauty, and moral order will always fall to the ideology that asserts itself most aggressively.
The Catholic Mandate: Speak the Truth Boldly
The Church calls us not merely to defend our rights, but to proclaim the truth in love. Free speech is a human right because truth must be proclaimed for souls to be saved.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
— Matthew 28:19–20
Evangelization is impossible without speech. And when governments criminalize truth, they attack not only rights but the mission of the Gospel itself.
This is why we must fight. Not with violence. Not with hatred. But with conviction, clarity, and courage.
We must fight for the right to speak, to preach, to think, to disagree—because a civilization without freedom is no civilization at all. If we do not defend free speech now, we will watch our moral, intellectual, and spiritual heritage collapse.
Let us make this our resolution:
We will speak the truth. We will live the truth. We will defend the truth.
For where there is truth, there is Christ. And where Christ reigns, there is freedom.
“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
— John 8:32