The 3 - April 15, 2018

This week on The 3, focusing in on three stories of relevance to the Christian community, the attempt to shut down free speech was in evidence this week at a California university, as there were threats to "disrupt" a speech by a pro-life leader.  Also, students exercised their free speech rights in a pro-life walkout at schools across the country, with seemingly little support by school officials.  And, a leading U.S. Senator confronted the founder of Facebook about its bias toward certain points of view - namely, conservative and Christian content.

3 - Pro-life speaker makes presentation at CA university, despite threat of disruption

There was concern over a speech scheduled for Cal State-Fullerton this past week featuring Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America.  The Stream reported that: "Antifa is planning to disrupt April speeches," scheduled by Hawkins.  The organization referred to her as a “Christian-fascist” who " spews 'anti-women poison.'"

The site reported:

The Antifa group Refuse Fascism, particularly its Orange County, San Diego, Bay Area and Los Angeles chapters in California, scheduled protests for April 10 and April 11, reported Campus Reform.

“The anti-choice agenda being pushed by Trump/Pence and their fascist movement is nothing less than preparing for the ground for a real-life Handmaid’s Tale, with women completely enslaved and subordinated to a patriarchal order,” insists Refuse Fascism.

The Students for Life Pacific Southwest Regional Coordinator Camille Rodriguez told Campus Reform: “The protest consists of people telling women they’re anti-themselves,” adding, “I’m intrigued to hear what else they have to say!”

Students for Life spokeswoman Kristi Hamrick told The Daily Caller News Foundation that:“[Hawkins] clearly advocates for female empowerment and respect for human beings, from conception to natural death,” adding, “The Handmaid’s Tale is a work of fiction, but in reality, women deserve support so that they never have to choose between their education and their child. Our society should be strong enough to support conversations on college campuses about how best to address the human rights issues of our day.”

The Daily Titan, the student newspaper at the school reported that over 40 people attended and that...

...An organized protest by Refuse Fascism Orange County prompted event coordinators to switch the event’s location from McCarthy Hall to the Titan Student Union.

Hawkins arrived to a round of applause from the audience after her introduction and went straight into the topic.

“I should never have to pay somebody to commit a violent act against another human being in order for me to have freedom. Abortion is the opposite of empowerment,” Hawkins said.

2 - Students participate in pro-life walkout to tepid support from school officials

This was also the week for the Pro-Life Walkout. WORLD Magazine reported that:

The event was initiated by Brandon Gillespie, a student at Rocklin High School near Sacramento, Calif. One of Gillespie’s teachers was placed on a two-day, paid administrative leave in March over a class discussion about whether school administrators would show equal deference to various student walkouts. Pro-Life Walkout student organizers at Rocklin asked their principal and the Rocklin Unified School District for the same accommodations as were given to students for the March 14 National School Walkout to protest gun violence—which included no scheduled tests and the use of the school’s amphitheater and sound system—but on Wednesday morning, the district sent a letter to the students saying they would not make those accommodations, according to Alexandra Snyder, executive director of the California-based Life Legal Defense Foundation.

WORLD had reported that the Foundation had sent the principal "a letter on Monday, requesting equal treatment for Gillespie at Wednesday’s pro-life walkout."  Allison K. Aranda, senior staff counsel, stated, “RHS may wish to review its policies regarding expressive activity like student walkouts, but Brandon Gillespie is going to conduct his activity in the same manner as the previous walkout and expects to be treated in the exact same manner as the students who participated in the gun walkout..." Another WORLD story cited the involvement of Students for Life of America, noting:

Students for Life of America (SFLA) said it received numerous reports of poor administrative support for Wednesday’s pro-life student walkouts at schools across the country. Though students have not reported being disciplined at school for participating in the walkouts, many said their principals and teachers discouraged the demonstrations and threatened consequences in advance.

According to Townhall.com,"The walkout boasted 191 high schools and 81 colleges participating across the country." The piece said that, "According to Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins, more than 300 students or student groups participated in the event."

1 - Facebook founder faces Congressional hearing, called out for censorship of certain viewpoints

The testimony on Capitol Hill by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg included a key point of confrontation with Sen. Ted Cruz.  According to LifeSiteNews.com:

Cruz began by asking whether Facebook considers itself a neutral forum, to which Zuckerberg said Facebook views itself as “a platform for all ideas." Cruz followed up by noting that online services are not held liable for their content so long as they are a “neutral public forum.”

He then asked again whether Facebook considers itself a neutral public forum, or if it engages in political speech.

Zuckerberg answered that Facebook’s “goal” was “certainly not to engage in political speech.” Pressing further, Cruz told him that “a great many Americans” were “deeply concerned” that Facebook was engaged in a “pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship."

Zuckerberg described that as a "fair" concern, considering that Facebook was headquartered in what he called the "extremely left-leaning" Silicon Valley.  He then said that he tried to "root out" bias.

The story goes on to say that Cruz...

...cited several examples of Facebook suppressing conservative views from its trending news stories, such as stories on the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Lois Lerner IRS scandal, and others. He also highlighted Facebook shutting down a Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day page, blocking more than two dozen Catholic pages, and classifying conservative video bloggers Diamond and Silk as “unsafe for the community.”

At NRB.org, the website for National Religious Broadcasters, Jerry Johnson, President and CEO, is quoted as saying: “I am grateful a number of Senators and Representatives used their limited time at this week’s hearings to press Mr. Zuckerberg on clear examples of viewpoint censorship,” adding, “Why does religious and conservative content seem to fall in the cross-hairs? Is it algorithmic or human discrimination? What is being done to correct this problem in either case? We need more answers, and we need more hearings with all the big players.”  NRB has launched Internet Freedom Watch, which was formed "to draw attention to the censorship of Christian and conservative speech by companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Apple."