Top conservative voices inspire listeners to champion biblical principles at sold-out Freedom Center event

During a Liberty University event hosted by The Standing for Freedom Center, six special speakers, including Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, and best-selling author Allie Beth Stuckey, motivated a sold-out audience to embrace God-given freedoms and to influence the next generation of Christians amidst a growing cultural divide.

The event titled “Freedom Uncensored: Winning Next Gen” was held on Friday, Oct. 25. Attendees in the Montview Alumni ballroom also heard from Virginia State Del. Nick Freitas, author Isabel Brown, and Pastor John Amanchukwu, before the event’s main speaker, Knowles, challenged audience members to pursue good ends through moral means.

“Right ends by immoral means will only make our problems worse,” Knowles said. “To win the next generation, we have to do the right things in the right way for the right reasons every single day.”

Knowles, who frequently speaks on liberal college campuses, commended Liberty University for “keeping things in order.”

“It is always great to be here at Liberty, one of the very few schools these days that hasn’t given itself to lunacy,” he said. “Liberty understands that universities are not supposed to be hotbeds of protests, disorder, and degeneracy. University education is supposed to train students to temper their passions and subordinate them to reason. The result of which is the cultivation of habits of virtue that allow us truly to be free.”

Speakers covered a variety of hot-topic issues like protecting the nuclear family and combatting progressive ideologies like gender confusion, abortion, illegal immigration, and indoctrinating the next generation to hate America.

Stuckey, who graced Liberty’s Convocation stage earlier Friday morning, addressed the five biggest lies of progressivism: Abortion is healthcare, trans women are women, love is love, no human is illegal, and social justice is justice. Stuckey delves deeper into each of these five lies in her book, “Toxic Empathy.”

Stuckey told the audience that one of the best opportunities to be salt and light in a hostile culture is by voting.

“Christians are called to be political,” she reminded listeners. “This idea that Christians are supposed to be outside of the political world, that we are supposed to be disengaged, and that we are supposed to be apathetic is a lie. … One way that we can bring God’s goodness into the world is through politics. Politics affects policy, policy affects people, and people matter.”

Dillon told the story of Twitter, now X, deplatforming the Babylon Bee for posting a satirical article about Admiral Rachel Levine, a transgender official. Twitter commanded the site of nearly 3 million followers to delete the post and write a public apology, otherwise the Babylon Bee would remain permanently suspended.

Despite major pushback, the Babylon Bee refused to cave. Eight months later, the account was reinstated after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the platform, a colossal victory for free speech in the country.

“We have to stop caring what freedom might cost us, or nothing will change,” Dillon said. “That’s the important lesson. There are bad ideas that need to be confronted and challenged because bad ideas taken seriously have catastrophic consequences.”

“A sane society laughs at absurdity,” he added. “Mock it, ridicule it, and put it in its place. Otherwise, people take it seriously, and children end up on puberty blockers at eight years old. Be bold, be courageous, be the one person in your sphere of influence who’s willing to stand for the truth, and it will encourage others to do so.”

Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center seeks to defend life, liberty, and truth to ensure the foundations of freedom exist for the next generation. Executive Director of the Freedom Center Ryan Helfenbein emphasized the center’s vital role of upholding the vision of Liberty Founder Dr. Jerry Falwell.

“Falwell recognized that theology and politics are inextricably linked,” he said. “It’s impossible to maintain biblical fidelity, theological orthodoxy, and yet hold onto some kind of political progressivism. They’re incompatible. We are here to remind ourselves not only of what is at stake in this election. … Freedom is not normal. It’s exceptional. Freedom is not complacent. It’s vigilant. Freedom isn’t cowardly. It’s courageous. Freedom isn’t free. It’s costly. And freedom isn’t censored. It’s proclaimed.”