Sean Feucht, Freedom of Speech, and Persecution

I have been following the adventures of Sean Feucht with his attempt at a Canadian tour and the opposition that he has faced.

Feucht has been clear on his interpretation of the events. Canadian authorities are persecuting him and this is part of a wider persecution against the church in Canada.

I find this of great interest as I am a pastor in Canada and I do not feel persecuted in the least. I am fairly confident that I could rent a public space, share a Christian message, and include Christian music.

So what is happening?

It is much more complex than what Feucht is claiming and even more complex than what many of his critics are saying.

Feucht shares short videos of Christian worship and asks why this should be banned.

He knows, as well as everyone else, that his venues have not cancelled because he wanted to play Christian music. Christian concerts have been happening in Canada for a long time and they will continue to happen.

The issue was his MAGA-alignment while visiting a country that President Trump has called the “51st state.” The other issue was the ways he has spoken about members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

Public venues that welcome people of all backgrounds originally did not know Feucht’s views and when the discovered them, they felt it would not reflect the values they want at those sites.

We need to be clear, the popularity of Feucht is not in his musical talent but in his ability to communicate a certain conservative message and to criticize his liberal opponents. He is able to rally certain people with certain views.

But what about that church in Montreal that was fined for hosting him? Was that persecution?

I will admit that this one bothered me. I can understand why parks and other public settings that are for a wider audience might not want him but why stop him from having an event in a church that wants him?

For clarification, the fine was for having a speaker and musician who was preaching the gospel. The fine was for having a concert without a permit. In Quebec, even a church needs to have a permit to have a concert and that was what this was.

Having said that, they were not going to give a permit because of Feucht’s message or at least the messages that he has gone on record as stating.

Is this persecution? Feucht would think so and some American and Canadian Christians would agree.

This brings us to the issue of free speech. Do we or do we not have freedom of speech?

Yes and no.

We are free to saw whatever we want. However, we are never free to say whatever we want without consequences. Even if what we say is not illegal, that does not mean there are no consequences. We have to decide if communicating our message is worth the consequences.

The MAGA movement has said a lot about freedom of speech. They claim to promote it. And yet if you listen carefully, you can see that there are certain messages that they think should be silenced.

This is not an attack on conservatives. Both liberals and conservatives support “cancel culture.” They just disagree on what messages need to be cancelled.

What do I think of all this?

I tend to support a wide view of free speech. I do not like Feucht’s message but I think others should be free to hear it. I can see the wisdom in keeping public locations free from messages that attack certain groups. But I do think churches who want him should be able to host him.

But the most important thing I want to get across is that this is NOT persecution. If white people were not allowed to say hateful things about black people, that is not persecution of white people.

Feucht is not cancelled because he is a Christian. Feucht is getting events cancelled because of the nature of his message. The reason that he is both loved and hated is not that he sticks to the bare message of Jesus.

Feucht has a certain brand of conservative evangelicalism that is heavily intertwined with conservative politics, one that goes against the kind of diversity that many (although not all) Canadians value.

Finally, I want to say that Feucht’s Canadian tour has been a complete success. What has happened and how he has shaped the narrative is exactly what he wanted. It was never about just wanting a place to preach the gospel.