Freedom Uncensored: A Call to Stand for Biblical Values

The speakers at the Standing for Freedom Center’s Freedom Uncensored Conference on Nov. 12-13 brought audience members to their feet and encouraged them to stay there, standing for what they believe in. 

The conference took place in Liberty University’s Montview Ballroom over a two-day period and featured over 20 speakers. These included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, conservative author and speaker Allie Beth Stuckey and former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Their messages focused on American culture and politics and called listeners to work toward advancing freedom in their own lives and communities. 

“The secular left has brought their vision of America into the workplace, and we should bring ours,” Pompeo said. 

Stuckey spoke on the topic of culture war, saying that it is God who gives power and not the government. She touched on the vaccine mandate and the topic of abortion while explaining that our rights are not given by the government but by God.

“Our bodies are not the government’s,” Stuckey said. “They are the Lord’s; they are not ours and they are not our employer’s.”

Standing for Freedom Center Administrator Christian Lasval said that the speakers chosen for the event were selected because they were able to address each issue presented at the conference in a biblical and practical way. 

“The entire summit is about our Christian faith and how it formulates our views on every issue in life, including issues in the public square,” Lasval said. “I think every attendee will be encouraged by learning how their Christian faith does in fact have a role in the public square and hearing from our speakers about what the correct applications of our faith look like across a multitude of important cultural issues.”

Lasval believes that the conference is important for a variety of reasons. He said it distinguishes the Standing for Freedom Center from other conservative organizations because of its Christian stance, provides information on topics that might have previously been unfamiliar and “energizes and mobilizes attendees.”  

“There are an innumerable … takeaways our students and staff can gather from the conference,” Lasval said. “I think that experience will be a little different for each attendee, but they are guaranteed to get sound, biblical, rational and objective truth throughout the Summit.”

Freshman Lauren Ricci attended because she wanted to learn more about truth and speaking up for her faith.

“I just really like all the speakers that came in,” Ricci said. “I just like how they’re all really bold in what they believe and just raising up the next generation for speaking truth in politics and just for our country.”

To Ricci, the phrase “Freedom Uncensored” carries a lot of meaning.

“It means that we have to be bold about our faith and we can’t just censor out anything in scripture that a politician or anyone politically doesn’t believe in,” Ricci said. “You can’t just cancel out anything of the gospel or truth.”

Sophomore Emma Claire Burns said that the messages shared at the Freedom Uncensored Conference are beneficial to the community because they focused a lot on politics and how to incorporate a biblical worldview into that world. 

“I feel like that’s something that the Christian community is lacking,” Burns said. “We hear about the issues mainly from mainstream media and from the secular viewpoint, but we don’t know how to look at it from a biblical perspective.”

Burns was especially intrigued by Eric Metaxas’ message because the content connected directly to what she is learning in her studies. 

“He talked about how the heavens are declaring the glory of God and the more we learn about the science and discoveries, the more it just reflects God’s beauty and that’s what we’ve been studying in astronomy,” Burns said. 

The conference also incorporated live worship with John Forystek and Danny Gokey, who was a finalist on season eight of American Idol. 

Tickets sold out and additional overflow space was made available for the two-day event. 

Seiler is a news reporter.