Freedom of Speech

As I was studying Korihor I was struck by the fact that he was able to preach his viewpoint and no one could stop him. Several times it is mentioned that, even though they wanted to, they could not arrest him for speaking his beliefs even though they were not true, correct or in agreement with the teachings of the prophets. 

7 Now there was no law against a man’s belief; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which should bring men on to unequal grounds.

 8 For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.                                                                               
9 Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe in him there was no law to punish him.                                                                       
10 But if he murdered he was punished unto death; and if he robbed he was also punished; and if he stole he was also punished; and if he committed adultery he was also punished; yea, for all this wickedness they were punished.                     11 For there was a law that men should be judged according to their crimes. Nevertheless, there was no law against a man’s belief; therefore, a man was punished only for the crimes which he had done; therefore all men were on equal grounds. Alma 30:7-11

Freedom of speech was not something thought of by the founding fathers. It is an eternal privilege. It goes along with our freedom to choose whom we will serve. 

As I look around the world we live in I see that this freedom has come under attack. Unless you agree with the "popular" viewpoints you are shouted down and, in some cases, harmed for what you believe. What is ironic to me is that they use this very same freedom to deny others the same right. 

It is going to be interesting to see how this freedom is abused as time goes by. 

My other thought on Korihor is that he was never punished for speaking out. He was never put in prison nor did he have to answer to the legal system of the time. His judgement came from God when he pushed it just a little to far.  Alma lays it all out for him...either repent and stop or you will be struck dumb by the power of God. Still Korihor persists, "I do not deny the existence of God, but I do not believe that there is a God...except ye show me a sign, I will not believe."   God follows through and strikes him dumb. Then he is quick to say...Oh I'm sorry and please remove this curse. But God knew his heart and that he had not truly repented. He got what he wanted, a sign. 

Do we sometimes look for signs as proof that our Heavenly Father is there and listening? When going through trail do we ask for it to be lifted with the provision that we will then know, for a surety, that God loves us?  We may not be hardhearted to the extent Korihor was but we also need to be aware of the little and not so little ways we are influenced by the power of Lucifer.