Sunday, January 18, 2015

Looking under my summer thinking-cap . . .

It’s a great summer here in the Southern hemisphere . . .

Had my thinking- cap on, not to guard against the sun . . . but to ruminate on some aspects in news, letters to editors, and those “user-friendly articles” that proliferate in the holiday reading season . . .

Ruminating on “the Right of Free Speech”
  • “Free speech is a great principle, but it sure helps if you’ve got something worth saying.” 
Ruminating on “letters to the editor”
  • “Its one thing to have an opinion, another to give it; but its really helpful if those its given to can actually get it.”
Ruminating over article on “tips for disciplining children”
  • “Discipline is not a synonym for punishment; it’s the systematic and supported practice of formation.  It’s an open-ended and ongoing practice. Too often punishment is a stopping-point, whereas discipline’s an ongoing starting-point.” 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Great insights John. There is too much free speech that is not well thought out or well supported. Christians should have little to fear from well thought out free speech and healthy dialogue. Sam Hey.

Unknown said...

I'm in total agreement with Sam Hey. While (with a fee exceptions) free speech has been considered a right in Christian countries throughout the world for many years, we're fast running out of true Christian countries. Secularism has meant that we have to respect the other's opinions even if we don't necessarily agree with that opinion. Perhaps we now need some sort of restriction on free speech to match the so called "freedom" of secularism.

Anonymous said...

It's freedom to express a thought or idea that requires the responsibility that one has actually spent a bit of time thinking about what they have to say. The constant barrage of strong opinions does not require my agreement unless I'm given the freedom to think it through for myself.