It’s true that my respect for J. D. Vance took a bit hit after he recently threw scurrilous false accusations against the U. S. Catholic bishops on the matter of immigration. But I have to give credit where credit is due, and Vance surely deserves respect for the recent speech he gave before the Munich Security Conference ruffled a lot of feathers among European leaders – feathers that needed to be ruffled. The fact is, free speech in Europe is under threat, if not already a thing of the past. Vance, and everyone who knows anything about democracy, knows that this is a great threat to democracy and to a free people remaining free. If the government can control what we say, and even suppress free elections, then we are in serious trouble in the West.

Vance’s initial salvo was that “the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values—values shared with the United States of America.” He then began offering examples of how Europe is retreating from its “fundamental values.”

Vance expressed shock that former European Commissioner Thierry Breton expressed delight that the Romanian Constitutional Court had annulled the December presidential election in Romania and that, if Germany elected the far-right Alternatives for Germany party then the same thing might happen in Germany. Such statements, Vance said, “are shoking to American ears.” Vance spoke of the Cold War and challenged the European leaders present to recall “the side that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not…” Vance insisted that the Soviet Union and their Cold War allies lost because “they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty, the freedom to surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build,” and that it was isn’t so clear today “what happened to the Cold War winners.”

Regarding the annullment of Romania’s election, Vance considered that the Constitutional Court had received evidence that Russia attempted to influence the election. However, Vance said (and I think this is a good point): “if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.” Certainly, overturning an election is not going to strengthen any country’s democracy.  

Vance then proceeded to list a number of what he regarded, and any sane person, would regard as attacks on free speech:

1. European Union commissars in Brussels threatening citizens that they would shut down social media during times of civil unrest if their messages represented “hateful content.”
2. Police in Germany carrying out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments
3. The Swedish government convicting a Christian activist for burning a copy of the Quran which resulted in his friend’s murder, where the judge stated that free speech protections do not offer, “a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.” So, offending people is apparently illegal in Sweden!
4. A British man being arrested and fined for praying too close to an abortion clinic. Vance did not mention, but there were at least two others in England who were arrested and charged with violating the country’s safe access laws, including a Catholic priest (charges against these two were eventually dropped).
5. The Scottish government had sending letters out to citizens warning them that even prayer in their own homes could be an offense against the safe access laws if a person’s home lies within the 200 meter perimeter of an abortion clinic. Vance’s claim was dismissed as false by some Scottish parliamentarians but, according to DW website, “the law does stipulate that even activities that can be seen or heard within the zone and are ‘done intentionally or recklessly’ in a private place within the area (like a house) between the protected premises and the boundary of a zone could be an offense.”
6. Even at the Munich Security Conference, certain political parties on the left and on the right were not invited to participate in the Conference.

Vance pointed out that it wasn’t only Europe that was struggling with free speech, as the Biden administration had pressured social media platforms to censor those who claimed, and it seems now correctly claimed, that the COVID virus had leaked from a lab in China. Democracy, Vance said, is based on respecting the voice of the people. “You cannot win a democratic mandate” he reminded European leaders, “by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail—whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. Nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society.”

Vance then went into a critique of uncheckered immigration. Too many times, he said, have immigrants disrespected the laws of their host countries by committing violent acts against others. People did not vote for uncheckered immigration. They want their countries to be safe places to live. It is imperative that free countries in a security pact appreciate, not only what they are protecting their societies from, but what they are protecting them for. “I believe,” Vance shared, “that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or, worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections, or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy.”

Free countries cannot fear their own people. Vance cited Pope St. John Paul II, though out of context: “As Pope John Paul II—in my view, one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other—once said, ‘Do not be afraid.’ We shouldn’t be afraid of our people, even when they express views that disagree with their leadership.” 

I have to hand it to Vance, that was one extraordinary speech. It took a lot of hutzpah to deliver it to a group of European leaders who were likely not in the mood to receive it. European leaders, and the media, were in an uproar over Vance’s speech. To be blunt, they didn’t like it. But they deserved it. Vance was criticized for meeting with the leader of the Alternatives for Germany party, which has been labeled extreme by more centrist parties in Germany. But the fact is, if the government tries to shut out a particular party, it often becomes more attractive to people for that very reason. The way to defeat extremism is not by trying to shut it out, but by offering better ideas.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.