Curses Left and Right: Hate Speech and Biblical Tradition

Hate speech has been defined as “words that wound, ” but legal argu-ments to restrict such words have been unable to show how language in itself can have power. Such power is inconsistent with secularist ideas of language that consider words to be mere tools of human com-munication and expression. Instead, current debates over hate speech reflect biblical traditions of cursing and powerful words. Yet arguments against the use of racist and sexist speech depend mainly on modern, secular notions of language, equality, and justice. Meanwhile, in defi-ance of secular law and theories of language, some religious groups have used inflammatory words to provoke public outrage and advance their agendas. The curse of the pulsa denura (Israel) and the execra-tions of the Westboro Baptist Church (United States) exploit a “curse loophole ” in law and society that doubts the power of words. An approach to language and tradition that avoids the simplistic dichot-omy of “religion ” and “secularity ” can lead to a more robust and pro-ductive debate on words that wound. EFFORTS TO CONTROL “hate speech ” in the United States have been largely unsuccessful, because the prevailing view in jurisprudence and secular culture is that words by themselves do not have power. Meanwhile, some religious groups have begun to test the limits o