The gospel according to Graham Greene:
“Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.”
Am I free to think of this as Heresy or Orthodoxy?
Am I free to think of this as brilliance or silliness?
I am free to think whatever I wish. I am even free to say or write whatever I think. Even now I am free to write whatever comes to my mind. That doesn’t assure any of you of its quality or thoughtfulness. I am free to type whatever keys my fingers press. This doesn’t guarantee that anything that you read will make any sense at all. I am free to write something that preaches to the choir or teaches to masses. This just means I have a microphone and a platform with a pulpit or a teleprompter.
The freedom to write my thoughts doesn’t make them worth reading.
The freedom to say my thoughts doesn’t make them worth hearing.
The freedom to think my thoughts doesn’t make them worth sharing.
If true, then so be it.
If not true, then call it what it is. Not true.
Something that is not true can be called a heresy. It isn’t necessary false to say that heresy is another word for freedom of thought. You can say it. It is true. Kind of.
It is similar to saying that a pop bottle is another word for plastic. There are a myriad of uses for plastic beyond its impression that comes in a 12oz. container of highly-processed syrups and carbonation. The same is true of freedom of thought with heresy being an impression of thought blown up with high pressures of air and containing a fizzy substance of addictive stimulates.
Feel free to drink something arguably worse than Kool-Aid.
And Mr. Greene may have had his fill.
But you don’t have to drink either.
