Lucy Rogers on Liberation Theology

we often hear about bad countries in this country and we often uh take selective users to which countries are bad and good and we should protest a good example would be Gaza um Russia and the Ukraine would be another uh at bad countries who we like to protest about but you've actually suggested that we've forgotten one and the reason that you've suggested we've forgotten one is because ockland University or at least academic staff at ockland University have a hosting a particular Man by the name of Professor Miguel dor is it a Cuban academic specializing and liberation theology um and he's going to be holding a lecture as I understand at McLaren Chapel at ockland University why have you taken last Friday he did that last Friday he's done the lecture yeah why did you take Umbridge with the fact that he'd been invited um to ockland University okay so I I I'll answer that question for sure but I I'll just provide a quick caveat um and that is that I'm not seeking to employ the power of the state to prevent this man from speaking I'm I don't like in that sense as I've said on Ki blog um I'm trying to differentiate myself from many many people in the 21st century who seem to um try to prevent people that they don't like from speaking at public functions or public events that's not what I'm saying here I I believe in his right to free speech um but what I am saying is that I think that it was morally wrong to invite him to speak which is a slightly different thing it's there's Nuance here um but why did I take umage um well this man is a Cuban academic although he moved to the United States fairly early on in his life um he says on his website that he has taken immersion courses to Cuba where he takes students on tours of Cuba he has spoken at Cuban universities in his capacity as an academic and he specializes in a field known as Liberation theology which is essentially communism with a leftwing sorry communism was a religious flavor was religious language um and and I take um I take umber all of these things because actually Cuba is a brutal dictatorship where freedom of speech freedom of conscience uh all of these other Great Western freedoms are actually unknown where in 2021 there were Mass public protests against the Cuban government by its own people which were brutally suppressed by the Cuban government many people received uh linky sentences of imprisonment for nonviolent peaceful protests and I here is this man who you know for contrast imagine if we had an academic who have been invited to speak at Nazi universities um speaking at at Orland University there would be there would be an uproar but um people seem to ignore the many crimes of the Cuban government both in the modern day and historically I mean Fidel cestra's um regime following the revolution in 1959 resulted in the murder of thousands of people and the imprisonment of thousands more there were there was the mass arrest of lgbtqi people who were sent to concentration camps um none of this and and Professor dor who is a vocal critic of the United States which is Cuba's great opponent uh has has not criticized any of this um and I think that it's inconsistent and hypocritical of him to be touring the world giving um giving lectures on the many failings of the United States when the United States for all of its many problems um does have freedom of speech does have uh an elected government uh and where far less serious human rights abuses are committed um so let so let me get this right um Professor delor resident in the United States of America is essentially in your view a communist um Embraces S as a communist yeah BRAC communist ideology um would seem to be an apologist for the Cuban uh totalitarian or Communist Regime uh and the Castro um entities in particular um so he's definitely a fellow traveler over there he gets invited to New Zealand by an ockland academic to give a lecture on Liberation theology which was very important uh popular in Latin Americas I remember during the 1970s um and uh you're saying that there is a moral absolute that Oakland University you have to deny him a platform um I I'm saying that it's morally wrong but that he should be legally permitted to that there should be no legal obstruction to him doing so can I ask you I would a flipp it let's make him um oh God who's an apologist not Gobles that's too someone like strizer uh somebody who wrote some of the propaganda for the Nazi party and the lead up to the second world war would it be similarly do you think ockland University would take a similar view if someone like that was invited uh or do you think it's because this person comes from such an extreme regime was an apologist for such extreme regime on the left that he's given a free purse oh well I can't speak to the inconsistencies I I think that the mysteds of the Cuban government aren't as well known but I also think that um there are certain people in this country who don't want the atrocities of the Cuban regime to be well known and one of them is the academic Michael who invited Professor deor to Orland University who when I pointed out um on his Facebook page when he made a post uh about this academic visiting and I pointed out the uh the problems with Cuba that actually it's a brutal dictatorship um a and that Liberation theology was invented by the KGB during the Cold War is a device of ideological Warfare against the West um and that the KGB a Joseph were Joseph Stalin's secret police that Joseph Stalin murdered 20 million people when I pointed out all of this uh rather than engaging with me Michael morson B sorry blocked me on Facebook um no of course that's his that's his right I'm not saying in any way that that's a violation of free speech um but what I am saying is that it goes to show that he doesn't want people to know about uh the issues with the Cuban government and I would very much like to know why that is okay all right um but can I just go back to the morally wrong concept here sure it's fair enough that you think that a inviting uh Professor delator um to ockland University was was wrong and that you believe that those who have invited him have not told necessarily the full truth about his past or his particular views and what they have implications for but I'm presuming that you could have gone to that particular lecture yourself Lucy and posed exactly the issues that you're raising with me now um as it so happened I had another engagement at the exact time that that um lecture was going ahead or I might have attended um all right well given that um the you think though that that Free Speech should be contrained constrained in any way by morality because morality seems to be it depends which side of the mountain you're sitting or standing doesn't it we all have a different moral view um I completely disagree I mean um I actually did a major in philosophy at Orland University when I when I did my ba LLB and I deeply believe that there is such thing as objective morality um um I don't think that the idea that there is no such thing as objective morality is at all universally held within the academy or by um people who've studied ethics or philosophy that is just there is simply no consensus on that but AB no I'm not suggesting there is a consensus I'm just saying that the problem with it would seem that you're going to have different moral views expressed I guess particularly on matters of politics and and certainly geopol itics at ockland University the idea would have to go through some sort of moral lens before somebody comes is invited on to is is problematic isn't it at all if you accept that there is such thing as objective morality um then but there isn't I think it is I absolutely do believe that there is such thing as objective morality I think that Nazi atrocities were objectively morally wrong and I think that Cuban atrocity is are objectively morally wrong