By Dr. Michael Brown
America is certainly not China or North Korea when it comes to censorship and suppressing free speech. But we are not nearly as free as we thought we were. The events of the last three years have made that strikingly clear, bringing to a head a dangerous pattern that had been developing for years before that.
Jack Phillips, a Christian baker based in Lakewood, Colorado, is back in court again after a transgender woman asked his company, Masterpiece Cakeshop, to make a cake celebrating her transition to a woman, CBN reports. The shop had initially agreed to make the cake, but then changed its mind, when told about the intent of the cake. The transgender woman took the shop to the Colorado Human Rights Commission which ruled the baking company had violated the transgender woman’s rights by refusing to make the cake. Phillips, who is being represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), stated in the first court case that he did not agree with the idea that a person could change genders, After losing the initial court challenge, Phillips is appealing to Colorado’s Supreme Court arguing that people should not be forced to support or promote views that they do not agree with, calling it a violation of a person’s free speech. ADF noted: “No American should be bullied or banished from the marketplace simply for living and working consistently with …
A jury has awarded, former Southwest Airlines flight attendant, Charlene Carter, $4.5 million from the airline, which Carter alleges had fired her because of pro-life beliefs. She also won $950,000 in punitive damages from Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union. When Carter started working for Southwest Airlines in 1996, she had to join the union. In 2013, she quit her union membership because it was supporting activities, such as abortion, that violated her beliefs as a Christian. It was also using Carter’s union dues to support political causes that Carter did not support. Though no longer a member, as part of her employment with Southwest, Carter was still required to pay union dues. The problem started in 2017 when Carter found out that several members of the union, including its president, Audrey Stone, were attending a woman’s march in Washington, DC, that was sponsored by several pro-abortion groups. Seeing her union dues being used in such a manner, Carter posted comments on social media indicating her pro-life position and as well criticizing Stone and …
The US Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of a Washington high school football coach, Joe Kenney, who was fired by Bremerton School District for praying alone on the 50-yard-line after a high school football game.
There was some good news on the freedom of speech front when US President Joe Biden announced that he was putting off plans to create a disinformation board or censorship bureau that would operate under the Department of Homeland Security.
According to a poll in March 2022, since the pandemic, Americans are not only becoming less trusting of politicians but also believe their elected officials have eroded Americans’ personal freedoms.
The city of Louisville, KY just paid police officer, Matt Schrenger, $75,000 as part of a settlement after the city’s police force put the 13-year veteran on paid administrative leave, pending an investigation, for praying in front of an abortion clinic. According to CBN, in February 2021, Schrenger, who was off duty at the time, was with his dad when they bowed their heads and prayed in front of a closed abortion clinic one Saturday morning. Though in uniform, the decorated officer was wearing an overcoat that covered it up. His moment of prayer, which was caught by surveillance cameras, was condemned by pro-abortionists on social media. Though the resulting investigation by the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) resulted in Schrenger returning to work, with the help of the Thomas More Society, Schrenger sued the city and the LMPD in Oct 2021, for violating his constitutional rights. READ: Punished for Praying: Police Officer Vindicated After Bowing His Head in Front of Abortion Clinic
With most universities in North America having transformed into Soviet-style indoctrination camps for the left, a new university dedicated to preserving free speech to be set up in Austin, Texas, has professors pleading to get in. The University of Austin is being funded by Cicero Research and expects to be open for business in the fall of 2022. It was a response to universities across America banning free speech, particularly conservative views, on their campuses. Fox News recently interviewed Peter Boghossian, one of the school’s founding members, who said the school is being flooded with applicants to fill its professorships. Boghossian added, “They can’t stand the censoriousness, they can’t stand the diversity statements. They can’t stand pretending to believe something that not only do they not believe, they just know it is false, but they can’t do anything about it lest they receive accusations of bigotry or discrimination.” Boghossian cited one applicant who said, “I’m caught in an insane asylum, everybody’s gone crazy, I will work for half,” READ: University of Austin dedicated to free …
The term bellwether refers to the bells that are often attached to the lead sheep of a flock (a wether) which helps shepherds to track their movement even though they are unable to see them. In the same way, the term bellwether is an indicator of ‘future trends’ and many believe the loss of religious freedoms is warning of growing political oppression in a country. According to a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and Summit Ministries, most Americans agree, as 82% believe freedom of religion is very important (67%) or somewhat important (15%) for maintaining “a healthy American society.” Only 9% of those surveyed had a negative view of freedom of religion, stating it is “not at all important” or “not very important” for a healthy American society. What was equally curious, there was not a huge difference in opinion between Democrats and Republicans, with 79% of Democrats stating that freedom of religion is ‘very’ or ‘somewhat important’. Though this reflects the broad-based opinions of Americans, it also tells us that the attacks on …
Many believe the major social media platforms have gone rogue and are completely out of control and that governments need to break them up and allow for more competition. The Foundation of Economic Freedom (FEE) talks about Facebook’s latest ban of former American politician Ron Paul after he published an article criticizing the social media giant’s banning of US President Donal Trump.
According to CBN, Sean Feucht, a worship leader associated with Bethel Music, recently shared several social media posts that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now censoring worship and praise videos. Apparently, Feucht was going to places where there has been rioting and then posting videos of praise and worship from these locations. And while these social media corporations allowed posts of actual rioting, somehow praise and worship songs was considered insensitive or harmful and removed. Feucht tweeted: While @Facebook @instagram @Twitter promote the content of violence, rioting & destruction, they are actively CENSORING worship, prayer, peaceful protest & anything going against their fear-mongering narrative. My feed and many others is proof.#ChangeTheNarrative — Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) June 23, 2020 Feucht reports that Instagram justified the removal of his praise and worship videos because they were classified as “harmful” or containing “false information”: This is what we’ve come to in America! Instagram is now classifying my WORSHIP videos as “harmful or false information” Religious Liberty? Freedom of Speech? Big Tech censorship? pic.twitter.com/I7s6HUfKH4 — Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) June …
Facebook recently apologized for closing down Evangelist Franklin Graham’s Facebook page for 24 hours. According to a Foxnews report, a moderator (one of 15,000) working for the giant social media company pulled Graham’s page based on a post the evangelist wrote in 2016 defending North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB20 law. The state introduced the law after the city of Charlotte introduced a regulation allowing people to use public washrooms based on the sex that they identified with. This meant, that a person born a biological male, but who now identified as female, would be allowed to use a female washroom and shower. HB2 was intended to modify the Charlotte regulation. After this legislation was introduced, there was an immediate backlash from activists. In an April 9, 2016, post Graham responded to Bruce Springsteen’s decision to cancel a concert in the state because of HB2: Bruce Springsteen, a long-time gay rights activist, has cancelled his North Carolina concert. He says the NC law #HB2 to prevent men from being able to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms …
The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court issued a ruling of sanity in favor of an Evangelical couple, Daniel and Amy McArthur, who manage a family owned bakery, Ashers Baking Co. in Northern Ireland. In 2014, Northern Ireland was embroiled in a campaign to legalize gay marriage and a gay activist approached the bakery’s Netwonabbey location to have it create a cake supporting the gay marriage campaign. The activist wanted a photo of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie along with the words “Support Gay Marriage” written on the top of the cake. Though an employee in initially took the order, the McArthurs later turned it down stating that they would not be able to make the cake because of their Christian beliefs. The activists took the case to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland that ruled against the company and ordered them to produce the cake within seven days. The owners refused and have been embroiled in a series of court cases ever since, that finally ended up in the Supreme Court. The Christian Institute of England …
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