Miley Cyrus: Offensive but not indecent? How about Jesus?

“It is offensive, but indecent? Doesn’t seem to be indecent,” argued Michael Overing, a censorship and legal communications professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. “Offensive conduct alone isn’t outside the First Amendment.”  Mr. Overing was commenting on the recent, and apparently raunchy, Miley Cyrus show broadcast by NBC.

Hmm.  Miley Cyrus can apparently perform all kinds of outrageous antics on stage, in front of a prime time television audience on NBC, and an “expert” explains that even if her conduct is offensive it “isn’t outside the First Amendment.”  The implications for this go well beyond Miley Cyrus and her marijuana induced nonsense.

The First Amendment, as widely, though improperly understood, doesn’t call for “freedom of speech” as such.  The First Amendment states that Congress “shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.”  This doesn’t mean Congress (or the states via the 14^th Amendment) can’t regulate speech at all, only that it cannot ultimately put an end to free speech.  Moreover, the First Amendment applies only to governmental restrictions on speech, not private restrictions.  Too often I see people complaining about censorship when a private organization decides to limit, curtail, or minimize speech.

Nonetheless, given governmental intrusion into so many places via regulation, for instance, the line becomes more blurred.  One of the reasons the Miley Cyrus episode sparked any reporting at all is because NBC aired it at 9:00 PM during the summer.  The FCC has regulations that prevent “indecent” material from being aired at that time since it is likely young children might be watching.  Any parent with any sense of contemporary culture should insure Miley Cyrus does not invade the home at any time of day!  If a parent is not sure about what’s going on, a casual perusal of You-Tube will often suffice to get some sense of where things are.  Regulations are utterly unable to stop anyone from watching anything – they only serve as a modest, after-the-fact deterrent.  Moreover, as our expert explained, it wasn’t indecent for crying out loud, it was just offensive and offensive is okay.

Yet, time after time, street preachers, who are in places where they have a legal right to be, get accosted by the police for . . . offending people.  I’ve observed street preaching first hand, and I understand the up front and personal nature of that kind of gospel presentation can often unsettle people.  Nonetheless, it isn’t indecent.  Naturally, none of us expect the police to show up at the Miley Cyrus show just because some of us might find her antics offensive.  Sensible human beings simply don’t watch her, or if they happen to be surfing past the channel that is showing her, they just keep going.  We don’t go rushing out to get Officer Friendly down to the Miley Cyrus show.

So why do people think it’s acceptable to complain to the police about street preachers?  More importantly, why do police officer so often think they have any right to involve themselves by asking street preachers to stop or move, or face arrest?  While I am sure some street preachers go overboard, many simply preach the gospel message of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (or something similar).  Of course, people don’t like being told they have sinned and require a savior.  So?  How are these words any more offensive than what Miley Cyrus does?  Even non-Christians can find her conduct disturbing and offensive.  I find it stunning that more women’s groups don’t complain about her (maybe they do, and I just don’t know about it).

My point here isn’t that we should ban Miley Cyrus.  Part of me wants to say let everyone see her so all people shall know how messed up this young woman really is.  My point is that almost anything anyone says or does is likely to offend somebody.  If the tolerance and diversity crowd really mean what they say, then shouldn’t that mean non-indecent but offensive speech and conduct are something we must accept as reality in a pluralistic society?

Yes, the gospel message offends people.  But if Miley Cyrus gets a pass, doesn’t Jesus get one, too?