Recently, Facebook suspended my account for 24 hours for sharing a video of a respected doctor who has had success with a treatment for COVID-19. The video that supposedly does not follow Facebook’s community standards had 1.5 million views in one week, and at the time of this writing has not been banned on YouTube.

What’s going on here? Obviously, this is about the ongoing threat of my willingness to speak the truth openly. Such behavior is not allowed by the mob who is clearly in power now. This action by Facebook is an example of the classic chilling effect meant to place fear in anyone who does not stay within the lines of the mob’s agenda. “Chilling effect” is a term in law and communication that describes a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed by fear of penalization at the interests of an individual or group.

The problem right now is that this chilling effect is proving to be remarkably effective. Most people are cowering in fear. Even religious leaders are kowtowing to the mob. Why? Because speaking the truth openly is considered “divisive.” In other words, because those who oppose the Holy Spirit aggressively express their offense of divine revelation (Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition), we must remain silent on these teachings. For the sake of unity, we are expected to silently sit by and allow the normalization of killing babies, the demise of the nuclear family, sodomy, gender dysphoria (grown men sharing a bathroom with little girls), Marxism, etc.

These growing calls for silence, amid the mounting aggression of the mob, have turned an incrementalism of evil into a bum-rush of everything that betrays the will of God.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

Jesus did not prescribe this silent acquiescence to evil as a way to avoid division. We are not to kowtow to any chilling effect from the mob. Instead, we must be willing to boldly speak the truth with love, despite the backlash that is sure to come. We were told, “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21-22).

There it is — “but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” Therefore, I must ask myself, “What if I get hit by a car today and must stand before the judgment throne of God?” Will I be eternally condemned for speaking truth that might have been divisive or offended people? Or will I be saved because I stood with Christ and His truth, endured in fortitude, and was unafraid to thwart the advancement of evil in our times, regardless of what the consequences were?

What will YOU choose…courage or cowardice? (From “Let Freedom Ring“)