In a recent blog, the blogger writes:

 During the morning announcements, I heard that some sort of "Love Winnipeg" group was doing a BBQ in the parking and giving away free hot dogs. I figured they were some sort of civic responsibility/anti-littering group, so I went. While in line for the hot dogs (there's obviously a line whenever people give away free hot dogs),

For brevity's sake, I will fill in the blanks for those of you who haven't read the post. The gist of it was, the group handing out the hot dogs was from a local church, and handed out tracts to the people standing in line.

Here, however, is what they DIDN'T do. They didn't preach a sermon. They didn't ask anyone in line to "receive Christ". They didn't take down the names of the individuals who received the hot dogs. They simply handed out hot dogs and tracts to the students. Heck, they didn't even quiz the students on the tracts' contents to receive the hot dogs. The tracts could simply have been tossed in the nearest dumpster and no harm, no foul.

But instead, the blogger uses this as his personal platform for railing against the rights of Christians to speak or hand out literature in a public school.

What struck me, though, is there was no problem with the hot dogs. This person apparently didn't have a problem with eating the weenies, although they had undoubtedly been touched by the (hopefully gloved) hands of the despised Christians. So, basically, they ate the food and spat on the one giving the food. There's gratitude for you.

We live in a society that has sadly confused "freedom of religion" with "freedom to stifle the religion of all those who oppose you" and "freedom of speech" with "freedom of speech that agrees with MINE". Thankfully, the founding fathers were wise enough to have not included such verbiage in our constitution, although I cannot speak to the Canadian constitution, where this unspeakable atrocity occurred.

What the liberals in this country and around the world need to understand, though, is that my freedom of speech is inextricably linked with yours. Denial of my rights could well mean a future suppression of your rights when and if political opinion shifts against you.

To be fair, though, the liberals are not alone in their misconception. The rather valid question was asked if we would feel the same if it was a Muslim group. Let me use this illustration from my own experience to answer.

Some years back, a Wiccan group wanted to put up a cemetary in our county. I am not Wiccan, do not particularly care for their faith, but I knew that what they were trying to do could potentially affect the religious liberties of us ALL. So I signed my name to their petitions and spoke as a staunch supporter of their rights, knowing well that what I did to protect their rights could later affect my own. It was not an endorsement of Wiccan that prompted my actions, but a love of liberty and a desire to see that liberty protected for my children to know.

So, be careful, folks. The rights you save, could be your own.