Efforts to protect people from harm and error now marginalize and even demonize others for unpopular opinions, warns a new statement urging a revival of civil engagement and conscientious respects for the convictions of others
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More than 40 prominent scholars, freedom advocates, and policy experts released a public statement Tuesday affirming the necessity of free speech and civil discourse, while denouncing cancel culture, "hate speech" labelling, and other forms of ideological blacklisting.
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With its president John Stonestreet joining the list of initial signatories, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview promoted The Philadelphia Statement to its network starting Wednesday. “With ideological opponents cancelling one another,” the Colson Center wrote online, “the time has come to remember our culture’s first principles.” Focus on the Family is also promoting the Statement and calling on viewers to join the growing list of signers.
Read the Colson Center statement in full here.
Read the Focus on the Family article in full here.
Writing at The College Fix on Wednesday, associate editor Greg Piper underscored The Philadelphia Statement’s denunciation of “self-appointed speech arbiters” that make up the foundations of today’s cancel culture. Piper’s piece also highlights signatories Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay, whose “grievance studies” publishing project exposed a preference for ideological conformity over academic rigor within the academy.
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Though cancel culture extends well beyond the boundaries of religious belief, there’s no shortage of examples where anti-religious bigotry has led to the bullying and censorship of people of faith. Coverage of The Philadelphia Statement by the Catholic News Agency highlighted this alarming trend, pointing to three specific examples, including one that has taken place this summer.
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Asserting that cancel culture has put freedom of expression in crisis, a statement initially signed by 46 prominent individuals from universities, think tanks, and other organizations asserts that expressing "ideas we find offensive is not an act of violence."
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Marking the official launch of a renewed, ongoing movement committed to free speech and civil discourse, Newsweek published in full The Philadelphia Statement on Tuesday morning. As a call to all Americans to preserve the freedom of speech and open discourse and debate, the Statement debuted with more than 40 prominent scholars, legal experts and religious leaders representing a wide spectrum of beliefs. The Statement affirms the necessity of free speech and civil discourse, while denouncing cancel culture, hate-speech labelling, and other forms of ideological blacklisting.
Read the statement at Newsweek here.
Review the list of initial signatories here.
At National Review, Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, calls on readers to join initial signatories like he and fellow National Review writer Kevin Williamson in standing for free expression by signing The Philadelphia Statement.
Read the article in full at National Review here.
Writing at The Washington Times on Tuesday, scholars Peter Wood and Pete Peterson explain why they both decided to sign on to The Philadelphia Statement. As Dr. Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, and Mr. Peterson, dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, explain, “threats to free and civil discourse now mar almost every American institution.”
A return to the key principles of free speech is both timely and necessary:
As two people engaged in the defense of the basic principles of Western civilization in higher education — one through a national organization, and the other at a graduate policy school — we are signatories to a new declaration of the importance of robust but civilized debate in our society: the “Philadelphia Statement: On Civil Discourse and the Strengthening of Liberal Democracy.” We support this statement because we believe that, despite its faults, American higher education can still help to restore America’s center of gravity. As a nation we need to re-learn how to tolerate views we dislike and how to debate people with whom we disagree. The “Philadelphia Statement” points the way.
Read the article in full at The Washington Times here.
“There’s an old maxim,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco told Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday morning. “‘I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’” Summing up the concerns of “cancel culture” addressed by The Philadelphia Statement, Tedesco cited a recent poll from the Cato Institute that found 62 percent of Americans are afraid to share their own political views. Tedesco called upon viewers to sign onto the Statement, which calls on all Americans to recommit to the free speech and robust civil discourse.
Watch the clip in full here.
Read and sign the Statement here.
