Religious freedom without freedom of speech?

A negative trend at European universities

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that the labeling of Christian beliefs on controversial issues as “offensive” or “hate speech” has a chilling effect on freedom of expression and religion. Building on these findings and on recent studies of free speech at universities, the present paper examines Christian self-censorship in the university context and confirms that Christian students are particularly prone to censor their views out of fear of negative consequences or being seen as offensive. One cause of this problem is secular intolerance at universities, which has far-reaching consequences for society as a whole and requires effective remedies.