Freedom of speech is not a feeling. It’s not a courtesy. It’s not something a company awards you if your opinion suits you, and punishes you if it doesn’t. Freedom of expression is an important safeguard for the individual, and it is the oxygen of a free society. And right now, brothers and sisters, we are that slow-cooked frog.
I want you to understand that I am not talking about an abstract constitutional theory. I’m talking about what happens to a man when he opens his mouth and speaks the truth, and the world comes crashing down on him for it. I’m talking about the cost of saying unpopular things in a country founded on the right to say unpopular things.
I’m talking about what happened to Jaden Ivey.
You’ve probably already seen the news. The first thing I saw was the Chicago Bulls post on
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Ivey’s crime? He posted a video saying the NBA’s Pride Month celebration is “injustice.” On his Instagram post, you can hear the genuine bewilderment in his voice: “How can my behavior be harmful to the team? Because I believe in the truth? Because I know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life? How?”
That question should stop us all in our tracks.
Free speech is not just a constitutional right. It is a spiritual necessity.
What Ivey focused on was the NBA’s institutional promotion of Pride Month. He stated, “The world is proclaiming LGBTQ, right? They’re proclaiming Pride Month, and so is the NBA. They’re showing it to the world. They’re saying, ‘Come join us for Pride Month’ to celebrate injustice. They’re proclaiming it on the billboards. They’re proclaiming it in the streets. Injustice.”
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He didn’t say anything derogatory about gays. There were no insults, personal attacks or hatred towards anyone. The key word here is “injustice,” and Ivey criticized the NBA, a basketball organization, for choosing to promote certain values and morals that conflicted with his own.
In his streams, Ivey speaks of Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life,” and he speaks of the day of judgment. In this light, “unrighteousness” is a scriptural term.
This is the fundamental Christian belief that it is sin that separates people from God and that only Jesus can offer forgiveness and transformation to all who repent. For the record, Ivey extended this standard not only to Pride Month, but also to other players’ behavior and even to Catholicism as a “false religion.”
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In short, he uttered no insults. He made a public, faith-based moral judgment that the celebration of Pride Month is itself an “injustice,” just as the NBA made its own moral judgment.
The difference is that the NBA had the power. But how beautiful is this power?
Jaden Ivey of the Chicago Bulls reacts during the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center in New York City on February 9, 2026. (Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
Ivey is a young man who can play basketball. He brought in the work. He showed up. He behaved with goodness. His team didn’t penalize him for missing shots or missing practices. They rejected him because he missed the script, because he refused to practice a faith he doesn’t hold, or because he celebrates something his Bible calls unjust.
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Along the way, we’ve seen players survive much worse: domestic violence against women, gun charges, drug use and more. Somehow they keep their jerseys. Somehow they get redemption. But speaking out loud a Biblical conviction?
This censorship has caused America problems for far too long. There is no government stamp. It doesn’t announce itself. It comes dressed in the language of inclusion and belonging, and it quietly tells you: you are welcome here, as long as you think like us. The moment you don’t do that, you’re not just wrong. You are dangerous. You are harmful. You’re gone. The slow cooking made Ivey good.
I know this road personally.
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I remember being a young preacher and having to pay attention to every word that came out of your mouth, especially if you were black in a Chicago run by Rev. Jesse Jackson. When you step outside the approved script on race, culture, or faith, you risk everything: your platform, your reputation, your safety.
Why is one side allowed to speak freely, while the other side is punished only for having a conscience?
Then one day I found the courage to say what I really believed, and the death threats started pouring in. I had to ask myself the same question Jaden Ivey is asking today: Why is one side allowed to speak freely while the other is punished just for having a conscience?
I want to be clear about something. I’m not asking for the pendulum to swing the other way and crush another set of voices. I have been on the receiving end of that myself, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
What I’m asking for is something simpler and much more radical in the current climate: the same standard for everyone. Freedom of speech for all, or freedom of speech for none. There is no third option that guarantees freedom.
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That’s exactly why I’m here walking across America to finish building a community center on the South Side of Chicago. Not a place that tells young people what to think. A place where they learn to think. A place that produces free men and free women who know the difference between pressure and truth, who fear God more than the crowd, and who understand that the greatest power a man possesses is the courage to say what he believes, no matter the cost.
Jaden Ivey didn’t lose his job because he played poorly. He lost because he played by the wrong rules – the rules of a kingdom that is not of this world. And to him I say, Brother, continue to walk in that truth. The God who gave you the courage to speak will open a door that no front office can close. Proverbs 19:21 says, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s purpose prevails.” No waiver wire reaches that high.
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And for the rest of us, let this be our Rooftop Revelation:
Free speech is not just a constitutional right. It is a spiritual necessity. Without this we cannot preach the Gospel. Without this, we cannot challenge a culture that is drifting. Without this truth, we cannot raise the generation this country so desperately needs: young men and women who speak the truth, not because it is popular, but because it is true.
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