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Dear John,
Last Wednesday the news broke: Paivi Rasanen has been acquitted!
For months we have prayerfully watched this trial of Finnish member of parliament facing three counts of "ethnic agitation"--a hate speech provision in Finland's criminal code--simply for expressing widely held biblical beliefs regarding marriage and sexuality.
Facing up to two years in prison in this shocking case--dubbed by even secular European media outlets as the "Bible Trial"--Paivi dared to continue standing for the freedom of religion and speech.
Despite the prosecutors' outrageous arguments, the court finally decided in her favor!
While the outcome is a victory for free speech in Finland and beyond, it is also a warning of the rising authoritarianism in the West as governments are increasingly attempting to silence Christian's whose biblical view differ from the government's policies.
We thank God and celebrate with Paivi, but we cannot let our guard down.
The far Left has revealed time and again that they will not relent in their attempts to marginalize and muzzle Christian conservative viewpoints. They know that the only way their progressive agenda can succeed is if they silence the truth.
Will you stand with FRC today to defend our God-given rights of religious freedom and free speech? The special $150,000 Challenge Match put forward by generous friends of FRC has been extended this week to DOUBLE the IMPACT of your vital gift.
You'll also receive our new Stand for Freedom bumper sticker as a small token of our appreciation.
Stand for Freedom
Cancel culture has become far too common in the last few years. These days, it's easier to list the tech giants who have NOT de-platformed conservatives than those who have.
At the National Religious Broadcasters convention earlier this month, leaders like Washington Times President Chris Dolan and Dennis Prager joined me on a panel I moderated to share how their content is being suppressed online.
"If you're a legitimate outlet with information that they don't want out, then they find ways to silence you" Dolan explained. "I have lost, in the last eight months, 90 percent of my Google traffic."
Thus, the Washington Times joins other conservative news websites like Breitbart.com, The Federalist, and Western Journal, in experiencing deliberate suppression in Google search results.
Dennis Prager also survived Google's business assassination. YouTube (which Google owns) labeled hundreds of PragerU videos, including one on the Ten Commandments, as restricted, a category reserved for inappropriate content. The reason given for this censorship? "Because it mentions murder."
Silicon Valley, Corporate America, and the legacy media display increasing intolerance to anyone voicing conservative values.
Private crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe are also jumping on board by blocking contributions for political causes they dislike. Earlier this year, GoFundMe cancelled a fundraiser for the Canadian Freedom Convoy, alleging violence, although they raised millions for BLM rioters and Seattle's "Autonomous Zone" during the summer of 2020.
Even some government officials are being targeted with cancelation. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) was suspended from Twitter for daring to tweet: "Women's sports are for women, not men pretending to be women."
This message was deemed too dangerous and divisive by the woke Twitter moderators. Meanwhile the Kremlin was allowed to continue freely tweeting Putin's propaganda supporting his invasion of Ukraine where countless civilians have been harmed or killed.
Just two weeks ago, the king of conservative censorship, Twitter did it again. Big Tech's thought police locked the Babylon Bee's account for recognizing basic biology. The offending post sarcastically mocked USA Today's decision to name a female-identifying man, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Service's Rachel Levine, as one of the newspaper's "Women of the Year."
In a message to fans, Bee CEO Seth Dillon vowed, "We're not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it."
Dillon is right, we cannot stay silent in the face of cancel culture. Will you partner with FRC to amplify our voice in defense of free speech?
Stand for Freedom
FRC is no stranger to big tech censorship.
In September 2020, text message vendor MobileCause abruptly terminated our contract one hour before a critical Pray Vote Stand broadcast, preventing us from reaching thousands of Christian voters with information about the 2020 election.
This incident emboldened us to strategically expand our broadcast capabilities so that we can continue communicating truth no matter how hard the Left tries to silence us.
Thanks to investments from FRC's supporters, our flagship Washington Watch program can now be viewed as a television program online and on LiftableTV, NRBTV, DirecTV, and HisChannel--in addition to being broadcast on almost 800 radio stations nationwide. Simply put: you can now catch our experts' biblical analysis of today's news anywhere in the world!
We will continue to use every available channel to inspire more Americans with a vision of a prevailing culture in which all human life is valued, families flourish, and religious liberty thrives.
Your vital donation today--doubled by the $150,000 Challenge Match--will ensure we are positioned and prepared for whenever the far Left tries to push us once and for all out of the public square. You'll also help us have the resources and reach to rally thousands of Americans to stand with believers like Paivi when they come under fire for their faith.
Thank you for standing with us in defense of our God-given rights of religious freedom and free speech.
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2022 Family Research Council.