Jimmie Kimmel, who has since been reinstated, was suspended for making false and disparaging remarks about Charlie Kirk after his assassination, Kimmel falsely claimed that the "Maga gang" was "desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and of trying to "score political points from it." He also said that Trump’s grief at Kirk’s death is “how a four year old mourns a goldfish.”
Many on the left came to his defense declaring that it was a matter of “free speech” protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Does, however, the First Amendment protect such malicious, false, egregious speech? Is it possible that the Constitution is being morally dumbed down to accommodate a morally degenerate culture and the worst in our society?
The Founders Assumed Moral Parameters
That the Founders assumed moral parameters for “free
speech” is obvious from their words and actions. Take George Washington, for
example. When he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Colonial Army, one of
his first acts was to put parameters on the speech of the troops.
He issued an order forbidding profanity and swearing
and ordered each day to begin with prayer led by the commander of each unit. He
explained that they could not expect the blessing of Heaven on their fight for
liberty if they insulted Heaven with their speech.
He also forbade gambling and drunkenness and expressed
his desire that, “Every officer and man will endeavor so as to live and act as
becomes a Christian soldier” (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America,
114).
The Founders, without exception, believed
morality and religion to be the basis of freedom. Without a national morality
to guide the populace they knew that freedom would be turned into avarice and
anarchy, and this would destroy the free Republic they had formed.
Virtue and Freedom are
Twins
This is why John Dickinson, Founding
Father and chairman of the committee that produced the Articles of
Confederation, warned that “when states lose their liberty, this calamity is generally
owing to a decay of virtue.”
Virtue is defined as “moral excellence” and the Founders agreed that only a virtuous people could enjoy the liberties they were enshrining in the founding documents. Virtue (moral excellence) is glaringly missing in American culture. Jimmie Kimmel demonstrated that fact. Yet, the Founders insist that virtue is the "only foundation of a free Constitution."
Two weeks before he
signed the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his cousin, Zabdiel
Adams, and said,
Statesmen, my dear Sir, may
plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can
establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only
foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue (Hyatt, 1726: The Year thatDefined America, 164-65).
When the Founders speak of “religion” they are referring to Christianity as it was the only religion they knew. Without exception, they saw Christianity as offering the only moral and philosophical system that would undergird the nation they had formed.
This
was clearly spelled out by John Adams in a 1798 presidential address to the
officers of the Massachusetts Militia. Adams made clear his belief in a
national Christian morality as the only hope for the survival of the American
Republic. He declared,
We have no government armed with power capable of
contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious [Christian] people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 168).
In his Farewell Address after serving two
terms as the nation’s first president, George Washington made the same point by
exhorting the new nation to cling to “morality and religion” which he described
as “indispensable supports” for human happiness and national prosperity.
Thomas Jefferson made Washington’s
Farewell Address required reading at the University of Virginia, which he had
founded. He too believed that only a virtuous people could enjoy liberty and
made clear the source of such virtue, saying, “Of all the systems of morality
that have come under my observation none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.”
(Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 149-50).
Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician
and signer of the Declaration of Independence, made the same point as
Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, declaring,
The only foundation for a
Republic is to be laid in Religion [Christianity]. Without this there can be no
liberty, and liberty is the life and object of all republican governments
(Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 163).
The Conclusion of the
Matter
The Founders believed a vibrant
Christianity to be necessary for the ongoing success of the Republic they had
formed. They were right and this is why we must ask God to send another Great Awakening
across this land, for as the Catholic scholar, the late Dr. Michael Novak, said,
Far from having a hostility
toward religion, the founders counted on religion for the underlying philosophy
of the republic, its supporting ethic, and its reliable source of rejuvenation
(Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 171).
So, the Founders implemented the First Amendment guarantee of free speech for a virtuous society that was seeking after truth. They implemented it for "a moral and religious people." Kimmel's false and slanderous statements about Charlie Kirk and President Trump obviously do not meet those standards, so we are compelled to conclude that they are not protected speech.
This article was
derived from the book 1726: The Year that Defined America by Dr. Eddie
L. Hyatt who received a supernatural call from God to reconnect America to the
severed roots of her Christian origins in the First Great Awakening. His numerous
books are available from Amazon and his website at http://www.eddiehyatt.com.
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