So, Chad Hardy is in a bit of hot water with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for publishing a calendar that depicts 12 male Mormon missionaries without their shirts. Apparently, that runs afoul of some sort of dress code that requires Mormons to be modest.

Hardy says he was simply trying shake things up a bit in the faith of his youth, although he allows he hasn’t been active for the last couple of six years. Still, he’s been called to a meeting with the principal, in this case one Frank E. Davie, who oversees LDS churches in Las Vegas. He could face punishments up to and including excommunication if he’s found to have behaved in a way unbecoming a member of the faith.

“I just feel like my right to free speech is being violated,” Hardy says.

Well, no, Chad, it’s not. You see, you are perfectly free to publish your calendars, free from censorship by church or state. Mr. Davie, no matter his spiritual power, has no temporal power to order you to do anything, much less give up a sacred constitutional right.

However, with that freedom comes responsibility. We at Various Things & Stuff have free speech rights, too, but if we libel someone, we can get sued. In other words, there are consequences to the right of free speech, which we must all assume when we exercise that right. And since the LDS church is a private organization with entirely voluntary membership, we see no reason why it cannot extend its discipline and standards over those who wish to remain members in good standing.

Certainly, the meeting may serve to dissuade Hardy from exercising his free speech rights, but that, too, depends on a simple premise, one that he may have already begun to reject. And that’s this: The church only has power over you if you believe it does.

If, for example, you were to include that it’s an entirely made up system of human invention, why, you’d be perfectly free to do whatever you wished, hocus pocus and mysterious incantations notwithstanding. If you came to that conclusion, then the harshest punishment available — excommunication — would no more frighten you than a Gypsy curse or a voodoo doll. Assuming you came to that conclusion, that is.

That’s why we think free minds go better with free speech. We’re just saying.

UPDATE: The council of elders decided after 45 minutes of deliberations to excommunicate Hardy. “I really feel sorry for my family. They are going to be so sad. But I feel empowered and free and I feel like I no longer have to apologize for anything,” Hardy told the Associated Press. That’s the right attitude, we think. Plus, with nearly 10,000 calendars sold at $14.99 each, that works out to, let’s see, almost $150,000. So, there are compensations.