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by Tom Strode
March 1, 2018
NASHVILLE (BP) — A new National Religious Broadcasters initiative represents a return to its mid-1940s roots to now protect freedom of religion and speech in a digital age, NRB President Jerry A. Johnson said in his report at Proclaim 18, the association’s International Christian Media Convention.
Johnson, speaking at NRB’s 75th annual meeting in Nashville, said Internet Freedom Watch seeks to curtail discrimination against Christian and conservative content on the internet. NRB unveiled the initiative at a December news conference in Washington, calling attention to censorship by tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple.
“[I]f conservative and Christian content is taken off of social media, digital media, the Gospel will be muzzled, the Word of God will be muzzled,” Johnson told the audience Feb. 27 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.
It is the NRB’s job to protect First Amendment freedoms, and the association of Christian communicators “is uniquely positioned” to do so, Johnson said before quoting part of the U.S. Constitution’s initial amendment.
The First Amendment’s “first three elements — religion, speech and press — that’s NRB,” Johnson said. “This is our world, and I want to say to you: If not you, who? If not this, what? If not now — when we are being demonetized, blocked, taken off and censored — if not now, when will NRB stand for First Amendment principles?”
Internet Freedom Watch, Johnson said, marks a return to the reason for NRB’s founding, when Christian broadcasters met at Moody Church in Chicago in 1944 after the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches) convinced the national radio networks to adopt regulations that exiled evangelical communicators to independent stations with a limited audience.
Johnson said the NRB declared at its founding: “We’re not going to take a back seat. We want a level playing field. We want a place in the public square. Let’s go to D.C. Let’s go to the Congress. Let’s go to the FCC. And in a few years, Christian broadcasters were back on Christian radio once again.
“We have to go back to that,” Johnson said, “and we have to say, ‘The new media today is digital media. It’s social media. It’s Facebook. It’s Twitter. It’s Google. It’s YouTube.'”
The NRB campaign 75 years ago “wasn’t a political question. It was a Gospel question. It was a freedom of religion question. It was a freedom of speech question. It was a First Amendment question,” Johnson said.
“We have again private enterprise in the communications world discriminating against conservative and Christian content,” he stated, citing various examples of online censorship by private companies, some of which sparked a media flare-up and were resolved.
“Does it bother you that Dr. D. James Kennedy was taken off of the Amazon [Smile] gift program?” Johnson asked. “Does it bother you that a sitting member of the U.S. Congress, Marsha Blackburn, was taken off of Twitter when she announced her run for the U.S. Senate because she mentioned the sale of human body parts?
“Does it bother you that Dennis Prager’s videos — videos on Israel, for instance — have been blocked and taken down and demonetized by YouTube? Does it bother you that Todd Starnes has been taken off of Facebook? Marjorie Dannenfelser has been taken off of Twitter?”
The Amazon Smile program, against which the Kennedy ministry filed suit last August, enables consumers to specify the charities of their choosing to which Amazon will donate a percentage of the cost of their purchases. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., whose campaign announcement was blocked by Facebook, chaired the congressional Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives that recommended the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood as a result of evidence that the country’s largest abortion provider took part in the trade in aborted baby parts. Prager U produces educational videos with a conservative perspective, 40 of which have been restricted by YouTube. Starnes is a Fox News Radio host and Dannenfelser is president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, both of whom have had social media posts blocked.
Johnson urged NRB attendees to join him in protecting First Amendment rights. “This isn’t a pleasure cruise,” he said. “We’re running a battleship here.”
Information on NRB’s new initiative is available at InternetFreedomWatch.org.
—NRB To Resume 1940-Era Fight Against Censorship originally appeared at Baptist Press News.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin literally wrote the book on excellence. Humble yet brilliant, a man of love and compassion, with penetrating clarity he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.
The future of technology is the future of America. Rod Martin sees that future clearly, and also sees how to shape it for the betterment of all. He is firmly rooted in the traditions of faith and patriotism that have made America great. That’s why he has made, and will make, so many outstanding contributions in so many areas.
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