Two Years in Jail for Offending Religous Sensibilities?
I know next to nothing about Polish civil law or the pop sensation Dorota Rabczewska, who apparently makes some pretty raunchy videos, but I nevertheless find it very wrong that the singer faces trial and possibly two years in prison for saying the Bible was written by “people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks.” Not a classy or intelligent thing to say, granted, and if her offensive remarks cost her sales in the Catholic-heavy country of Poland, so be it. Speech has consequences. Jail time, however, is a ludicrous consequence for offending religious sensibilities. In Poland, the Middle-east, or anywhere else. Stories like this make me glad to live in the U.S., which, for all its problems, has perhaps the best track record of protecting freedom of speech. Let’s keep that track record, please.
Hat tip: Thom at Ad Dominum
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This story led to quite a lively discussion over on my blog LOVE IN THE RUINS. The Polish Church may have issued a Fatwa against me by now.
While I have generally not been a fan of the jail them mentality, I do think arguments that prosecuting this sort of behavior will discourage religious freedom and respectful dialogue as fallacious. Likewise I see arguments that obscenity is a defense of the first amendment as fallacious. If the penalty is ultimately something like a $500 fine, would you still find it unacceptable?
“If the penalty is ultimately something like a $500 fine, would you still find it unacceptable?”
I would. The punishment doesn’t fit the offense. While it makes sense for government to place limits on free speech – speech that threatens harm on another, for example – I don’t think those limits ought to include speech one might find offensive or obscene. As a practical matter, judging speech as offensive or obscene is a very subjective affair. Threatening speech is usually more clear cut. Therefore, I find it imprudent and unacceptably risky to empower a governmental body to decide what constitutes obscene and offensive speech. I wouldn’t even trust myself with that kind of power, not because I’d seek from the start to abuse it, but because I have no solid way of arriving at an objective standard that most law-abiding people would find acceptable.
It is a poor use of prosecutorial, judicial and penal resources to persecute such.