GUNTER: Don't go if you don't like Christian rocker, but he has a right to perform
I will not attend Feucht’s concert. That’s how free people demonstrate their disagreement. They don’t go.
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Pro-Trump Christian rocker Sean Feucht must be allowed to perform a concert in August on the Alberta legislature grounds, even if it means extra police have to be assigned to keep protesters from stopping the event.
I don’t like Feucht’s pro-Trump stance. I’m not a fan of Christian rock, the genre of music Feucht performs.
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But I am a fan of freedom of expression, even for people I disagree with.
I listened to Feucht’s music on a popular streaming service once the weekend after controversy over his concerts caused several to be banned from public spaces in Atlantic Canada.
It’s not very good, even by the mediocre standards of Christian rock. I’m sorry if you’re a fan of Christian rock, but it’s even more formulaic and musically vapid than most pop music. To make matters worse, the Feucht singles online sound as if they were recorded with a single microphone, at a live concert by someone sitting far from the stage.
But this newspaper didn’t hire me to be its music critic.
I’m not concerned about Feucht’s politics. If political intrusions in artistic performance were enough to get an artist banned, then most lefty musicians, artists and actors would need to be kicked off public stages.
Have we forgotten that old axiom from the French writer Voltaire, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?”
Free expression is a two-way street. Those who would not see their ideas and words banned must agree not to ban the words and ideas of those they disagree with. That applies equally to both sides.
The CBC insisted during its coverage of Feucht’s Atlantic Canadian tour that the Montana-born singer is “anti-diversity, anti-2SLGBTQ+ and anti-women’s rights.”
By whose say-so? Who gets to sit in judgment of what does and does not constitute sufficient tolerance?
It’s not the Christian right who are most often guilty of censorship, although some of course seek to bar pro-LGBTQ and pro-choice messages. For instance, it’s Canada’s “progressive” left behind the push for internet laws banning online “misinformation,” then placing themselves in charge of deciding what is and isn’t misinformation.
Nice trick.
I will not attend Feucht’s concert. That’s how free people demonstrate their disagreement. They don’t go. They change the channel. They don’t buy the book.
I understand it’s tempting to sign up to be a foot soldier in the culture wars. After years of elites telling everyone what to think, what to eat, what cars to drive, what opinions are and aren’t acceptable, an increasing number of Canadians are picking up MAGA habits, from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again. They seek to counterbalance the constant drumbeat of “progressive” elitism that has dominated cultural institutions, media, academia, the judiciary and politics for the past 30 years.
But from a freedom of expression point of view, it is intellectually preferable to try to convince the “progressives” to safeguard opinions than their own (like Feucht’s) rather than attempting to grab power so one side can dictate to the other, and vice versa. That’s a vicious cycle.
As for the police and local authorities who banned Feucht’s Atlantic performances on grounds of “security,” they simply played into the hands of those who would violate free expression, perhaps even with threats of violence.
They, in effect, sided with those intolerant, self-anointed censors.
We have a vested interest as a society to stand up for others’ opinions, even when — especially when — we disagree with them.
That doesn’t mean we have to abide by the blockading of streets or destruction of property. But free expression needs defending.
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