The pope has spoken out in support of Islamic violence and against freedom of speech, declaring that insulting people’s faith should not be permitted, and that if religion is insulted, violence should be expected as a reasonable response. In this, as in nearly everything else he comments on, the pope is wrong.

God has asked us not to take his name in vain. Jesus has advised us to treat other people as we would like to be treated. But nowhere in the Bible does it say that ridiculing people’s beliefs is off-limits.

In fact, the very opposite is true. Jesus stood first and foremost for speaking the truth, regardless of the personal cost. He would never have glossed over the truth (in other words, lied) in order to spare someone’s feelings.

This is truth: the world’s organized religions are based on “doctrines of man” that are for the most part ridiculous lies. These lies need to be exposed as such, so that those who are confined and shackled by them can be set free to embrace the truth, as revealed by Jesus.

Thank God for freedom of speech. Those who wish to limit free speech wish to control us for their own purposes.

Never let them control you.

Give your free will solely and entirely to God.

Jesus fearlessly spoke out against those who pretended to speak with God’s authority but were in fact (like the pope) mouthpieces of the devil. Like Jesus, we must also speak out against lies.

God gave us the right to speak our minds freely (it falls under the auspice of free will), but the pope wants to one-up God by limiting our free speech. Don’t let him. Speak your mind freely and fearlessly, especially in matters concerning faith.