Vice President JD Vance delivered an important address last Friday during the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany.
The vice president used his 19-minute-long address to speak to various internal threats that Europe faces to her identity. You can watch the opening of his speech below:
In particular, the vice president denounced many European countries’ criminalization of free speech in recent years, pointing out three examples:
In Brussels, EU commissioners warned citizens they will shut down “hateful content” on social media during times of civil unrest;
In Germany, police have conducted raids on citizens who have posted anti-feminist content online as a part of “combating misogyny on the internet”;
In Sweden, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings.
Furthermore, the vice president called out the British government’s “buffer zone” laws prohibiting silent prayer in the vicinity of abortion clinics. Vice President Vance specifically mentioned the case of 51-year-old army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, who was charged for silently praying for three minutes 50 meters away from an abortion clinic.
In November 2022, Smith-Connor was interrogated by police officers about “the nature of his prayers” while praying outside the clinic. Prior to becoming a Christian, he had paid for the abortion of his first son, Jacob, whom he conceived with an ex-girlfriend.
Smith-Connor now deeply regrets that decision, and silently prays for his son, and other preborn babies and their mothers and fathers. You can watch Smith-Connor’s interrogation by the police below:
In October 2024, the Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court sentenced Smith-Conner to a conditional discharge and ordered he pay prosecution costs of £9,000. He is currently appealing the conviction with the help Alliance Defending Freedom UK.
Smith-Connor released a statement thanking Vice President Vance for mentioning his case on the international stage:
Additionally, the vice president acknowledged that sometimes the strongest calls for censorship have come from within the United States, saying,
Since Vice President Vance’s address, various media outlets have seemingly rushed to prove his point.
Margaret Brennan, host of Face the Nation on CBS News, claimed without evidence over the weekend that free speech was used to cause the Holocaust. In commenting on Vance’s address, Brennan showed her ignorance about the role of free speech in German history:
And in a recent interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” German prosecutors admitted that it is a crime to insult someone in public, to insult someone online and to repost content that the government deems “not true.”
Vice President Vance’s address hopefully serve as a wakeup call to European citizens about their nations’ fast descent into intolerance and censorship. His remarks also serve as a reminder for American citizens; we must constantly protect and defend our right to free speech.
Thankfully, our Founding Fathers established the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment states,
In a lecture at Brown University in April 1991, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explained the importance of our Constitution’s structure in protecting our liberties. He compared our Constitution’s guarantee of free speech with that of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, which states:
As you can see, the Soviet constitution contained surprisingly strong free speech protections. But of course, those guarantees were not worth the paper they were written on.
The difference, Justice Scalia explained, is found in the structure of government. A nation can have the greatest list of “rights” in the world, but it will mean nothing without a division of power – legislative, judicial and executive – among three branches of government.
Justice Scalia explained,
Vice President Vance’s address is reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s 1838 speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. In it, the future president warned about how the internal decay of Americans’ virtue threatens our liberty.
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?” Lincoln rhetorically asked.
As Europe is finding, nations can defeat tyrannical forces and dictators to protect their rights. But such battles will result in merely pyrrhic victories if a country’s citizens abandon their rights and liberties.
In his inaugural address as governor of California, former President Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”
Europe’s decent into censorship serves as a call for all Americans to celebrate, support, defend and exercise our right to free speech.
Related articles and resources:
JD Vance: ‘You Shouldn’t Have to Leave Your Faith at the Door’
Vice President Vance and a Call for Good Public Theology
VP Vance Addresses March for Life: ‘Every Child is a Gift From God’
J.D. and Usha Vance Parent on National Stage
Army Veteran Found Guilty for Praying Outside UK Abortion Facility
British Cops: ‘What is the Nature of Your Prayer?’ Man Fined for Praying for Aborted Son
Photo from Getty Images.
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