Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule of what we are to read, and what we must believe?
—Thomas Jefferson—
Five things you need to know to more fully understand Amazon’s censorship, what it represents, and its implications.
Key point: Amazon’s censorship of books that give hope to those facing unwanted same-sex attraction is a problem, but it’s also symptomatic of a larger, more ominous problem. As they speak out against Amazon’s censorship, Christians and other concerned citizens also must contend for the truth on many other levels as well. Liberty depends on it.
Our post from two weeks ago is titled “Recapture the Founders’ Wisdom.” In it, we examined numerous nuggets of truth coming from nineteen of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Last time we discussed Amazon’s decision that it no longer would carry books promoting therapy and advice to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction. That decision, we said, threatens authentic liberty.
This week’s and next week’s posts will offer something you’ll find nowhere else. We’re going to examine Amazon’s action against the backdrop of ten insights (including the one at the top) offered by six of America’s Founders. In so doing, we hope to sound an alarm and incite you to action. As we soon will see, this is about far more than Amazon’s censorship.
It’s about leftists’ plans to eliminate freedom in America!
Here are the first two of five things you need to know.
First, without free speech, debate, and discussion, no one truly is free.
Benjamin Franklin said, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know…. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.”
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.
—Benjamin Franklin—
Freedom of speech is a two-way affair. It applies to the speaker, or presenter, who wishes to declare a message; but it also applies to those who wish to hear, or not hear, what an individual or group wants to convey. If someone desires not to listen to a speaker, no one should force him or her to listen. However, when an individual or entity, whether governmental or otherwise, intervenes and prevents the speaker from connecting with those who want to hear him or her, the person, group, organization, or in this case, company, is acting as a tyrant.
It has become clear that Amazon now believes it can bully those with whom it disagrees. It and a handful of other online companies have grown to dominate the Internet. This graphic illustrates this phenomenon.
This must-see graphic illustrates the tight grip that a handful of online companies have grown to have on the Internet.
An article dated May 30, 2014 in The Atlantic is titled “Amazon Has Basically No Competition Among Online Booksellers.” That was five years ago, and Amazon has only grown more powerful since then (also go here). The article in The Atlantic states,
As of March, Amazon’s share of all new book unit purchases was 41 percent. They also dominate 65 percent of all (yes, all) new online book units, in both print and digital copies. They have the largest share of the e-book market as well, with 67 percent. As for print, Amazon controls 64 percent of sales of printed books online.
It’s true Amazon is a private company, but it and a few other players in Big Tech, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have effectively become the “public square” from which people present and receive information.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have shown that they are willing to filter and even censor ideas they don’t like (also go here, here, and here). Not coincidentally, these 
ideas almost always are conservative and/or politically incorrect. Amazon now is getting in on this act in a big way, and the actions of all these companies threaten the very liberty that fueled their own growth.
This is the way of tyrants, and if these tyrants are not stopped, American liberty will be crushed. Reread Benjamin Franklin on this point. “[T]here can be no such thing as…public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech….”
Second, Christianity makes liberty possible.
John Adams said, “Human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
Benjamin Rush said, “Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government.”
The principles of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution did not arise out of a vacuum. As we noted earlier, “Even though not all the Founders were Christians, many were.…[And] it is undeniable that on the whole they held to a biblical, or we could say a Christian, worldview. Consequently, they readily understood that certain rights are God-given, and therefore unalienable and inherent.” Therefore, they understood it was government’s responsibility to protect those rights and to maintain an environment in which people could exercise them, as they wished, as long as they did not infringe on or hinder the rights of others.
America’s Founders understood it was government’s responsibility to protect inherent rights and to maintain an environment in which people could exercise them, as they wished, as long as they did not infringe on or hinder the rights of others.
As recently as a few brief decades ago, Americans saw, felt, and even could appreciate their nation’s biblical roots. A cultural shift occurred, however, aided and fueled by several unconstitutional decisions handed down by the US Supreme Court. Relativism, the idea that everyone can make up his or her own truth and still be as right as the next person, also took hold. This means that the culture embraced the falsehood that each person can be his or her own god. This led to an unraveling of cohesiveness in society, and it ultimately will lead to chaos. We see this beginning to happen already. A nation cannot have lasting liberty without virtue. It’s just that simple.
Relativism leads, inevitably, to a dead end.
Despite relativism’s enticements, a society’s rejection of objective truth always leads to a dead end. What does that dead end look like? It’s a place where people are hesitant to state even obvious, self-evident facts. The discrepancies between reality and opinions notwithstanding, deniers will continue to refute the realities that offend them. Moreover, with the cultural shift having moved in their direction, they will raise their loud voices and wield their growing political clout. Unfortunately, these increasingly will fill the void created by citizens’ departure from a shared belief in objective truth. The tyrannical group then will act to force its ideology and agenda on the rest of society—get this—in the name of tolerance! We have seen this happen with the LGBT lobby. Amazon’s capitulation to LGBT whims is merely the latest manifestation of gay activists’ iron fist and their willingness to pound people with it unrelentingly.
Thus, Christians should be aware that while they are fighting and should be fighting Amazon’s censorship, the company’s censorship also is a symptom of a larger problem. The stark reality is that militant LGBT activists are upholding sodomy as normal when it is a clear violation of, as our Founders put it, “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
America needs to repent of her sins and return, not just to objective truth, but to the Author of truth and reality—God Himself. Christians need to be praying that this would occur, and they need to be contending for the truth in many different arenas. We’ll discuss one of those arenas next time.
Pray for a spiritual awakening in America.
Christianity makes liberty possible; therefore, when a nation rejects Christianity and the God of the Bible, liberty cannot remain long-term. Any effective call opposing tyranny will, at least at some point, include a call to embrace biblical truth.
To Be Continued…
There’s more! Be sure to return next week, when we’ll highlight three additional principles from the Founders and shed even more light on Amazon’s tyrannical behavior, the larger picture of which it is a part, and action steps concerned individuals need to take.
Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet signed the petition urging Amazon to reverse course, you can do that here.
Copyright 2019 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: a book burning in Nazi Germany
Additional resource: Check out this video from Prager University!
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