Blasphemy

There are religions, God forbid, and places today, where one can be brought up on a capital charge of blasphemy. America, constitutionally, is not one, though many might make it so, and the evil hate language of extremists makes speech curtailment tempting. But so far, our freedom of speech cannot reasonably be abridged. 

Alarmingly, this seems increasingly less so even in countries we think of as democracies, England and Germany where certain types of speech are illegal for good reason of public safety and of remembering history; recently and obscenely, Poland where alleging Polish complicity in the Holocaust is now a crime even as antisemitism grows and spread. 

In today's TGBC story from Acts, just as with Jesus before him, Stephen is arrested. As our story continues, he will be tried, found guilty, and executed for blasphemy. We know St. Stephen, whose Holy Day is December 26, when we are to sing the hymn which seems related to Boxing Day honored in England:

1. Good King Wenceslas look'd out,
    On the Feast of Stephen;
When the snow lay round about,
    Deep, and crisp, and even:
Brightly shone the moon that night,
    Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
    Gath'ring winter fuel.

2. "Hither page and stand by me,
    If thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
    Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence.
    Underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
    By Saint Agnes' fountain."

3. "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
    Bring me pine-logs hither:
Thou and I will see him dine,
    When we bear them thither."
Page and monarch forth they went,
    Forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament,
    And the bitter weather.

4. "Sire, the night is darker now,
    And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know now how,
    I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page;
    Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
    Freeze thy blood less coldly."

5. In his master's steps he trod,
    Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
    Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
    Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
    Shall yourselves find blessing.


Acts 6:8-15
The Arrest of Stephen

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. 

Then they secretly instigated some men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.’ They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’ And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.