Censorship of Conservatives

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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective.
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Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
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Today is January the 11th, 2021 and today we're going to talk about the subject of censorship.
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That is a subject which has been on the minds and hearts of many people over the last several days as it has become obvious that there are certain people in power who have the desire and who have exercised their desire to censor certain conservative voices in the world.
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One of the most prominent of those voices, of course, being President Donald Trump.
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I wonder if any one of us ever thought in their lifetime that we would see the President of the United States be banned from social media and unable to use social media to interact with people.
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But then again, we maybe go back a second and say, would we have ever thought in the past that the President would use social media to interact with people? We live in a very awkward time indeed and it's a time which causes a lot of confusion and a lot of speculation and quite frankly, a lot of theories which often feel like conspiracy theories.
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And so today I wanted to talk about some of the arguments I have heard from both sides, kind of propose to you some ways of thinking about things that I think are important, and again, try to provide a biblical, a Reformed perspective on what we see going on around us and maybe give you some thoughts to think about if you haven't already thought about them.
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First and foremost, just thinking about it from one perspective, I've heard a lot of people say that there's nothing wrong with Facebook or Twitter or any other social media platform, that there's nothing wrong with them choosing who they allow to use their product and there's nothing wrong with them determining that someone should not be able to publish on their particular media outlet because it belongs to them.
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They are a company and the company should have the right to decide who they essentially do business with and this is something that I am sensitive to this argument because of being a conservative, I do believe that companies should have the right to do business with whom they choose and should have the freedom to not do business with someone if they choose not to.
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But here's where the real issue comes for me and one that I think is important to think about.
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First of all, we have to consider the fact that it wasn't too long ago that the debate wasn't over whether or not someone was on a social media platform, but just a few years ago the debate was whether or not a private business had to be open to doing things that were opposed to that business's beliefs.
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For instance, the baking of a cake for a homosexual marriage.
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We all know about the case that occurred where a homosexual couple wanted to have a baker bake them a cake for their marriage and because he was a Christian, he did not want to bake them a cake and they took him to court, they sued, and while the...
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If I remember correctly, he ended up winning the case eventually.
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There was so many legal fees, so much outrage, it certainly was something that was terribly difficult on the business owner.
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Many of us, myself included, said that there's no reason why a cake baker should be forced to bake a cake that glorifies something that he himself is personally opposed to.
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And I remember feeling very united with this person in one sense because I used to own my own t-shirt company and I remember thinking, well what if somebody wanted me to print a t-shirt that went against something I believed in, something I was opposed to, such as homosexual marriage, how would I respond? How would I deal with it? And certainly I wouldn't print something that I think dishonored God.
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In fact, we had printed on our website that our goal, it was Precision Screen Printing, was the name of our company, and our goal was to honor God in our printing and therefore we had a disclaimer.
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We would only print things that we believed were God-honoring.
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We would not print anything that we believed would dishonor God or would oppose our faith in what the scripture says.
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And so from the outset, we sort of made that our point.
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We were not going to do that.
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So as a private business, we did believe that we had the right to essentially turn away a customer.
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If a customer wanted us to do something that was opposed to our faith, it was opposed to our values, it was opposed to what we believed in, we had the right to turn a company away or turn a person away.
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And I still believe that that right should be for private businesses.
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So now we take a step back into modern day and we look at the situation where the president has been banned from Twitter and other media outlets, social media outlets, and we say, well, Twitter's a company.
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They have the right to choose who they do business with.
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What's the difference? What is the difference between, well, say, my t-shirt company and Twitter? They're both companies.
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They both should have the right to do business with.
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And on that level, I do have a sensitivity and somewhat of an agreement.
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However, I want to take a step back now and say, I do think that we are, we're comparing two things that are slightly different because when we begin to talk about the subject of social media platforms, you begin to look at social media as not just simply a private publishing company.
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Like a book company has the right to publish whatever books they choose.
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They have the right to publish or not publish a particular book based upon what's in that book, based upon the integrity of what is written in the book and how they determine the truthfulness or non-truthfulness of what's in that book.
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So certainly a private publishing company has the right to sell or to publish whatever so they choose.
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But the question then becomes, and this is a huge question, is that what Facebook is? Is Facebook and Twitter, are these publishing companies? And are there other legitimate, functional publishing companies that are opposed to them or not opposed to them, let me say a different word, that are competitors of them that one could go to? Let's go back to the t-shirt thing just for a moment.
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If I didn't print a t-shirt for somebody, there were a hundred companies that would.
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The people that went to get their cakes, the homosexual couple that wanted their cake baked by this baker, when the baker said no, they could have gone to several different cake baking companies that would have happily baked their cake.
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So it became an issue of by turning them away, you're not taking away the only avenue for cake baking.
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You're not taking away the only avenue for t-shirt making.
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But when you get to social media, there are not other competiting groups that are really on par with Facebook and Twitter.
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They own those markets.
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In fact, a lot of devices that you get now, they have native Facebook integration on the devices because it's so expected that everyone's going to be on Facebook, that everyone's going to be on Twitter.
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They have native applications, even Sermon Audio, which I publish our sermons to Sermon Audio.
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Even Sermon Audio has a native Facebook application built into the Sermon broadcast page that I go to when I'm uploading our sermons.
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It doesn't give me the option to post to Parler.
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It doesn't give me the option to post to Mayway.
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It doesn't give me the option to post to any of these other social media sites.
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It doesn't say anything about MySpace.
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I think MySpace still exists, it may not.
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But it doesn't say anything.
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It gives me two options.
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It gives me the option to post, actually three.
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It gives me the option to post to Facebook, it gives me the option to post to Twitter, and it gives me the option to post, if I have a video, to YouTube.
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Those are the three major social media outlets in the world today.
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And when I'm posting on a sermon, those are the options that I have to connect through Sermon Audio, other than the native Sermon Audio app, which of course we use.
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But the point I'm making is, these companies hold what some might call a monopoly on social media.
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If you're going, you know, are there other video platforms out there? Sure.
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But YouTube is the king.
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YouTube comes native on a lot of devices because it's the king.
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Are there other social media sharing outlets out there? Yes.
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But Facebook is the king.
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And then of course Twitter.
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Twitter and Facebook are not the same.
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They function differently and those who use them understand the differences.
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But the point of the matter is, these companies hold a different place in the world and a different place in how information is disseminated and how it is received.
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And what we have is we have these companies saying, we're not going to allow certain voices that we disagree with to publish on our channels.
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They're not going to be allowed to publish.
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And someone says, but they're a private company.
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So because they are a private company, they should have the freedom.
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But let me just, let me take a step back and let me say, should they have the freedom? Is it right that they have the freedom to only silence one political voice? And in doing so, in doing so, are they not exercising at that point a power that is more than they should have, even though they are a private company? And somebody says, well, who gets to decide? Are you calling for bigger government? No.
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Not necessarily.
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But I am saying this.
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This becomes a very scandalous reality when we consider what the reality is.
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And that is, the places where most people are receiving information now are quieting the voices of those who they don't want to hear.
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They're quieting the voices of those who they don't agree with.
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And I have to tell you, if you're a Christian and if you're listening to this program, there's a good chance that you are a person who at least confesses to believe in Christ as you're listening to a Reformed pastor talk about current events.
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There's a good chance that one day, it's not just going to be President Donald Trump, but one day it's going to be voices like mine.
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It's going to be voices like Jeff Durbin's.
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It's going to be voices like James White.
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It's going to be voices like all of those men, Michael O'Fallon and others, who are proclaiming the truth about the gospel.
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Because if there's anything that is less popular than conservative politics, it is conservative Christianity.
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And if you support essentially the blacking out of conservative voices, then understand that one day those voices are going to belong to Christians.
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And it's already happening, but it's happening on a lower level, but it's going to come more and more.
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We've already seen it with the fact-checkers.
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And who are these magical fact-checkers that just happen to know everything about everything? Who are these people who are the ones who are ultimately the ones to arbitrate all truth on Facebook? And I've had several times that I've had friends share things and it says, no, the fact-checkers say this is wrong.
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And you go in and look at the fact-checker and it's actually not wrong.
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It's just worded differently.
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And what is on there is the fact-checker icon comes up simply to cause you to question whether or not this is accurate.
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And so, again, my question from the start of today's program was, should we be people who are encouraging or satisfied with censorship? And that's what we're seeing.
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We're seeing a form of technological censorship that is coming from one side of the political aisle and ultimately what it is doing is it is closing down the voice of those with whom they disagree.
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Now, it's not complete and it's not total because my voice is still going out on the air.
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Today I'm being broadcast on Apple.
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I'm being broadcast on Spotify.
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I'm being broadcast on Facebook.
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I'm being broadcast on several other media platforms.
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I'm not sure how you're listening.
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You may be listening on Sermon Audio.
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However it is you're listening, my voice is still out there.
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And I want to say I agree with Dr.
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James White.
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He said this, and I want to read this to you.
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He said, here's my humble suggestion.
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Don't bail out on social media.
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Now let me stop right there.
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The reason why he's saying this is because a lot of people say, well, I'm going to get off Facebook.
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I'm going to get off Twitter.
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I'm going to get off these places and I'm going to go to Parler or Mayway.
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You know what? There's nothing wrong with going to Parler.
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There's nothing wrong with going to these other companies.
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But let me tell you this.
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Don't get off Facebook and don't get off.
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And here's why.
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Here's what he says.
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He says, don't bail out of social media.
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Remain a light.
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Speak truth, tempered with grace, knowing you yourself have been redeemed from the evil of the world.
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If you are removed, go as one, knowing you left as a light in the darkness with a clear conscience.
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So basically what Dr.
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White's saying, and I agree with him, is we don't need to abandon Facebook right now.
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We need to stay on it and speak the truth.
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We don't need to abandon Twitter right now.
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We need to stay on it and speak the truth.
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Because they're closing out the conservative voices.
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And I believe that's wrong.
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I believe what they're doing is wrong.
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But as long as they allow me to continue to speak the gospel, I'm going to continue to speak the gospel on Facebook.
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I'm going to continue to use these outlets as long until they make it impossible for me.
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I'm going to continue to do so.
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Not because I want to support them, but because I want the people who are on them to hear the truth.
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If I go to Parler and I go to Mayway, which I eventually may, in there I'm liable to be speaking in an echo chamber.
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And I won't have anyone hearing the message that doesn't maybe possibly already agree or at least has heard it.
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I want to be a light in the darkness, as Dr.
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White said, and I agree with him.
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So this is a big subject.
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It's a subject that a lot of people disagree with.
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Maybe you've disagreed with some of my analogies today.
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Maybe you've disagreed with some of what I've said.
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But let me just remind you, I do think that we are facing an unprecedented time of censorship.
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And as long as we are given a voice to speak, we should speak.
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And even when our voices are tried to be silent, we should continue to speak.
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And even when the world doesn't want to hear our message, we should continue to speak.
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And even when they try to shut us up, we should continue to speak.
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So long as what we are saying is the truth.
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And most specifically, the truth about the gospel.
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So thank you for listening today.
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I hope today was an encouragement.
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I hope maybe it got you to think about some things that you haven't already on the subject of censorship.
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And I look forward to this week, this week of programs, having you listen in.
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Thank you again for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.
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May God bless you.
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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
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May God be with you.