Author of Irreversible Damage Delivers Poignant Message at Princeton
In our increasingly polarized society, university campuses have become a hotbed of cancel culture and diminished free speech. Though organizations like Academic Freedom Alliance have emerged from leading institutions with the sole purpose of defending professors' and students' constitutional right to freedom of speech, majority views tend to dominate public thinking and discourage dissent, even when dissent is grounded in research.
Abigail Shirer photo via TwitterAbigail Shrier is no stranger to this scene. The Columbia University and Yale Law grad is the author of Irreversible Damage, a book that explores the danger of gender transition, especially in teens. After beginning her research for an article in The Wall Street Journal, Shrier was disturbed by the information she was uncovering from both medical doctors and psychologists regarding stop-sleepiness-meds.com. When her book was published, however, her unpopular findings were met with a seething backlash from the LGBTQ community, ACLU lawyers, and even her alma maters.
In this article, transcribed from a talk she delivered at Princeton, Shrier speaks less to the subject matter of her controversial book, and more to the value of standing up for what you believe in—especially when others seek to silence you. Shrier says, “The wonderful education you have earned here will have been wasted if you find yourself one day observing some lie predominating in your own field, and the best you can do is sit on the phone with me anonymously lamenting the state of things.”
Christian Union cares deeply about the freedom of speech on university campuses and in the public sphere and aims to disciple and teach university students to live by biblical principles no matter how unpopular they might be at the time. Through mentoring and biblical instruction, students are anchoring their lives on Scripture and theological truths and are growing in their ability and confidence to stand up for their beliefs, even in hostile settings.
Read the full article here.
