Finding a Voice

This week's post is will be something like a guest editorial. I belong to The Word Guild, an association of Christian writers. Today's discussion digest (Yahoo) included a thread called "The blogosphere and intellectual freedom." Quite regularly, and especially recently, we consider such issues.

Leading the way this week is Denyse O'Leary, in a post on a community blog: "Christiancrat vs. independent Christian journalists!" Her screed is direct, confrontational, and clear. More than the article itself, what stood out to me most, was something she wrote in a comment, after posting the article:

in the new world of “hrcs” [Human Rights Commissions], there is no common sense.

So there is an opportunity for a profession class that is UNBOUNDED by our traditional liberties. We will be their serfs and dhimmis, desperately hoping they take pity on us.

If that’s not what’s happening, this is their chance to show it.

In the meantime, like Louise, I want a Royal Commission to scour the land and find the inarticulate people who may have been unjustly treated and even harmed.

As articulate people, we OWE them that. We can start to help ourselves, yes, but we MUSTN’T leave them behind!

This theme resonates deeply with me. The articulate must represent the inarticulate. Those with a voice (as in, eloquence, resources, power or access to it, etc.), must give a voice to the voiceless. In an email to members of The Word Guild, O'Leary exhorts us:

I would encourage Christian bloggers to talk about the hrc issues on all appropriate blogs.

Let's not forget Deb Gyapong's excellent posts on these issues! She is more on top of it than I am.

Key problem: Even if we are eloquent, there are not that many of us.

So our issues tend to become orphans unless we keep the pressure up. ...

If you write anything worth reading and are not rich and powerful, you have no reason for complacency.

I do not have time right now (nor the background, really) to research, write, and post a screed of my own. But I do have the interest to point you in the direction of my colleagues from The Word Guild ... and the commitment to provide a new post at least weekly, especially on Tuesday--and it's still "Tuesday" according to my waking hours.

Other voices from The Word Guild worth "listening" to (i.e., reading) on the topic of free speech:
Ray Wiseman
Deb Gyapong (also here)

Labels: blogging, calling, vocation, writing