Standing for Freedom Center Hosts Freedom Uncensored Event
The Standing for Freedom Center hosted its Freedom Uncensored: Winning Next Gen event Oct. 25 in the Montview Alumni Ballroom, which brought together a large audience to hear from leading conservative speakers.
About 950 people crowded the Alumni Ballroom to listen to the wisdom of Allie Beth Stuckey, Nick Freitas, Seth Dillon, Isabel Brown, John Amanchukwu and Michael Knowles. President Dondi Costin opened the event with prayer and was followed by a word from Ryan Helfenbein, the vice president of communications and public engagement.
“We recognize that we gather together around common ideas and common principles to remind ourselves as to what is at stake in this moment, in this hour, in our country,” Helfenbein said.
Stuckey, author of “Toxic Empathy,” took the stage first to discuss how “progressivism exploits Christian compassion.” She primarily focused on debunking her list of the five biggest lies of progressivism, though she was only able to go in-depth about three of those lies during the time she was given to speak.
The first lie she spoke on was the idea that abortion is health care. Stuckey told the audience that media, specifically NPR, tells the stories of women who believe they are in need of abortion in a way that makes the audience feel an overwhelming sense of empathy toward the life of the mother, with little to no regard to the child.
“There is one person who’s conveniently left out of the story, and that’s the baby. … They want the reader to feel so empathetic towards this mother that you forget who was on the other side of this moral equation: Their child that NPR thinks should have been discarded like toxic waste,” Stuckey said.
The second lie Stuckey spoke on was the idea that transgender women are women. She told the story of two women who went through life-altering surgeries to change their gender, but they were left with the same emptiness that they believed would disappear after transitioning. These two women eventually gave their lives to Christ and were left to face the consequences of their actions, which ranged from being unable to breastfeed to being unable to have a child at all.
“She ended up getting a hysterectomy, and every time she made a step towards becoming a man, she felt, ‘This is going to be it. Finally, I will finally be happy,’” Stuckey said. “… And yet, every time she would look in the mirror, it was never enough. … She had removed almost everything that made her a woman, and she still couldn’t convince herself a man.”
The final issue Stuckey addressed was the issue of immigration. Stuckey argued that in regard to the issue of illegal immigration, there are people on both sides of the moral equation. She discussed the 2015 murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco to make the point that a crime committed by “an illegal alien who had been deported five times” could have been prevented.
“That is the difference between crimes committed by aliens and crimes committed by citizens. Every crime committed by an illegal alien is preventable,” Stuckey said.
Freitas, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, spoke next on how the modern gospel is falsely taught in the way that it portrays Jesus to be a “nice guy.” By this, he meant that Christians, who are striving to be Christ-like, have been taught to not speak truth to those involved in sinful doings, rather than guiding those individuals on the right path through gentleness and respect. Freitas argued that Jesus was not afraid to call individuals out for their sins because he did not want them to be deceived anymore.
“We’ve been robbed of our authentic Jesus. … Christ met a lot of people in the midst of their sin, but he didn’t leave them that way,” Freitas said.
Dillon, CEO of Babylon Bee, spoke primarily on how Christians speaking truth comes across as hate speech to the modern world. He provided an example of how he and his colleagues tweeted “The Babylon Bee’s Man of the Year is Rachel Levine,” which resulted in them being locked out of their Babylon Bee X account, formerly Twitter. Dillon said they all hesitated to post originally because they feared the result, but they realized their hesitation would have prevented truth from being spread.
“Jokes that they don’t want you to tell are the ones you should tell because it’s speaking truth to a post-truth world,” Dillon said.
Brown, the author of “The End of the Alphabet: How Gen Z Can Save America,” also spoke on how spreading truth results in backlash from the secular world. Brown argued that because of how far the lies have gone in the world, women hardly even exist.
“Women don’t even exist anymore. … You’re birthing people or people who menstruate or people who use tampons, which are now marketed directly to men,” Brown said.
Brown said that because of how far the lies have gone, no matter how comical they seem, the lies “have replaced truth to degrade human life itself,” and have made it into Protestant Christianity. She said that the lies have resulted in one-third of Generation Z not being here today because these lies have destroyed marriages and have led to the censorship of Bibles in order to “resolve interpretive ambiguity and prevent potential homophobic misinterpretation.”
“When you dare to tell the truth to a world rejecting that concept, it’s not going to be easy. And you’re not going to have the approval and adoration of the world for doing so,” Brown said.
Next, Amanchukwu, youth pastor and first assistant at Upper Room Church of God in Christ, drew from 2 Timothy 3 to tell the audience that Christians are called to stand boldly for Jesus Christ in today’s culture despite the threat of persecution.He gave a personal example of how he showed up to speak at a school board meeting in Wake County, North Carolina to defend the children and found himself handcuffed. Amanchukwu selflessly sacrificed his image and faced persecution for the glory of God, and he said that all Christians should be doing the same.
“I know what it’s like to be called everything but a child of God. … Everyone is focused on self-preservation, and because we are more consumed with protecting our image, we are losing the image of God,” Amanchukwu said.
Knowles, the author of “Reasons to Vote for Democrats,” described matters relating to family and the way in which we address immoral issues. One point he made had to do with achieving the preferable result of a conflict but through righteous means. Knowles argued that pursuing the right ends is not enough if they are pursued by immoral means.
“You want to win the next generation, follow your morals and traditions and do the things that we all know that you’re supposed to do,” Knowles said. “That is the only way that any of us will be happy because that is the only way to be happy.”
Another topic Knowles focused on was family. Knowles claimed that the left seeks to destroy the role of family in individuals’ lives, and they have attempted to do so by allowing no-fault divorce and by expanding marriage to be inclusive, ultimately “gutting the essence, which is the difference between the sexes.” Knowles said that family plays a pivotal role in individuals’ lives because it is the institution that first trains us.
“The left simply cannot break our faith and freedom without first breaking family,” Knowles said.
The speakers instilled confidence in Emeri Glen, a senior, in facing adversity when speaking the truth.
“Just because people (are) saying you’re unkind doesn’t mean you aren’t in the right. … Kindness doesn’t equal wisdom or love or truth. It is a nicety often and culturally acceptable, and the truth is not a lot of the time,” Glen said. “So, I think the biggest take away (is) don’t be afraid to stand your ground.”
To learn more about the Standing for Freedom Center or to learn about future events, visit www.standingforfreedom.com.
Sturek is the campus news editor for the Liberty Champion.