The past few months I’ve experienced something I’d never experienced before. The absence of Freedom of Speech.
Even though I live in America, when I talk to Megan in China, I can’t talk about God or Prayer – or anything religious – because it could jeopardize the work she’s doing over there. In fact, that’s why she doesn’t have comments on her Xanga – so others don’t accidentally say those taboo religious words.
I never realized, before, how difficult it is to refrain from using religious terminology. “I’ll be praying for you …” Or “I’m sure God will direct you …” Or something about “God’s will …” Or “at church last week …” etc., etc. Those are just a few of the phrases I take for granted living in the States.
On several occasions, either talking with or e-mailing Megan, I’ve messed up pretty badly. This results in either awkward silence or a reply e-mail asking me to re-send what I wrote without “certain words” because the first e-mail was “quickly deleted.” One e-mail I wrote, expressing my thoughts on decision-making, was especially bad. After I sent it, I realized what I had done. It made me angry and it also made me feel like giving up on communicating with Megan altogether!
When you can’t even speak your heart, and be honest and open in your communication, why bother?
It really infuriates me that a government can ban people from speaking their heart.
It also makes me tremendously grateful for the freedoms I have here at home.
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3 comments:
Wow. That's a real eye-opener. Thanks for sharing ...even your frusterations! It made me VERY thankful also.
Likewise, we invited a non-Christian to dinner to join a bunch of us from church for the evening. I've never noticed "church people" conversation until we started including this non-Christian in our get-togethers. Your ears suddenly go on high alert whenever you hear "Church" "God" "Jesus", etc. It's something we live with and is normal (thank you, God, for that!) but suddenly becomes so foreign in certain situations.
Pretty amazing.
Amy, I've experienced the same frustration when talking to Megan since she's been in China. I didn't realize how much apart of my moment to moment conversation is salted with God-centered vocabulary. It's made me think twice about how what we say does matter, the words we choose mean something in light of eternity, and how grateful I am to have Freedom of Speech. Makes me want to fight for it all the more.
Amy, I can very much relate. I have a lot of friends that have gone over to China in the last few months. The lack of ease in communication has made me very grateful for living in America, even though at times I feel like there is the "awkward silence" here too.
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