Published: October 31, 2024

Why the Babylon bee does not back down from its beliefs

By a Movieguide® contributor

Kyle Mann and Joel Berry of The Babylon Bee discussed how their satirical site became involved in the fight for free speech and why they believe Christians should apply their beliefs in all areas of their lives.

“This was never a fight we intended to get into, and I think you see that with a lot of people standing up now…” Mann said Alisa Childers. “In a certain sense, I’m not a great political scientist myself and I don’t want to fight this battle, I wanted to write jokes on the Internet; we just wanted to have fun and spread good things into the world.

“But there comes a time, I think, where God calls each of us, you know, like if you don’t stand up now, there won’t be an opportunity – especially when you’re talking about the right to speak. your mind – if we don’t stand up for this now, you won’t have the right and you won’t be able to fight at all,” Mann continued. “So I always think of us as these accidental champions of free speech because we were just writing jokes.”

READ MORE: BABYLON BEE EDITOR EXPLAINS WHY SATIRE IS A POWERFUL TOOL FOR EXAMINING CULTURE

For Babylon Bee, the fight for free speech is a fight for their very existence; even when not publicly censored, most social media sites work behind the scenes to limit their reach. However, for their business, they rely on reaching the masses.

“Originally, you know, the censorship was quite open and quite brutal and funny…” Berry explain. “A lot of what we’re seeing now, as opposed to banning and suspending certain things, a lot of these big tech companies will kind of take away your reach invisibly, in a way that you can’t really prove or establish. your finger, and that sort of thing is sometimes a little harder to combat.

While some Christians might argue that fighting for free speech – or for government in general – is not an area to which Christianity applies, Mann and Berry both argue that Christians must fight for their beliefs in all areas of their lives.

“Christians are meant to be in the world, and we are meant to be salt and light,” Berry said. “Our presence here is meant to have a very real impact on the world around us, you know. We are not doing it for selfish reasons, in order to gain power.”

Seth Dillon, CEO of Babylon Bee, previously explained the philosophy behind each satirical title.

“We literally wake up every day and ask ourselves, ‘What would be a fun take on what’s happening in the news today?’ What would be a fun version of this? What would be funny? What would be true? How can we tell the truth in a culture so often attracted to subjectivism? How can we (communicate) objective truth in a subjective world?’ said Desert News.

“We do this because we love our neighbor, you know, good policy, good political policy is good for our neighbor, good immigration policy is good for our neighbor, good tax policy is good for our neighbor, and so there is no need for Christians must be shy about it,” Berry added.

LEARN MORE: BABYLON BEE PUBLISHER DISCUSS SATIRE: “WE COMMUNICATE THE TRUTH TO A POST-TRUTH CULTURE”

The bee recently brand a legal victory in California after the state’s governor “signed two laws (earlier this year)…that censor free speech by using vague standards to punish people who post certain political content online, including including political memes and parodies of politicians. »