From Erika Kirk’s moving Q&A to insights from Dr. Ben Carson, Riley Gaines, and other leading voices, the Standing for Freedom Center’s annual summit delivered an unfiltered call for Gen Z to reclaim America’s Christian foundations.
Dozens of Christian and conservative influencers converged on Liberty University’s campus this past weekend for the Standing for Freedom Center’s sixth annual Freedom Uncensored conference, where they encouraged and equipped the next generation to strengthen the Church and defend life, liberty, and truth.
The event welcomed over 1,000 guests on Friday and Saturday inside Liberty’s newest campus building, the Champion Center, and featured some of the nation’s most influential conservative voices weighing in on “Why America is Worth Saving.” They included Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk and CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA); Dr. Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon and presidential candidate; Daily Wire personality Isabel Brown; women’s advocate and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines; conservative pundit Benny Johnson; former Virginia Del. Nick Freitas; and many other notable guests.
“Seven years ago, Charlie Kirk came to Liberty with a vision to start what would become the Standing for Freedom Center,” Executive Director Ryan Helfenbein explained in his opening remarks on Friday evening. “He said, ‘We must defend the Christian heritage and the institutions that gave birth to America.’ Christianity is the key irreplaceable element. If we lose Christianity, America is lost.”
Charlie Kirk, the founder of TPUSA, was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. He was a regular Convocation speaker at Liberty and developed a close relationship with the university, laying the groundwork for establishment of the Standing for Freedom Center, which is the only national conservative think tank that is explicitly Christian.
“Charlie wanted (Gen Z) to know that if you would pursue faith in Christ, if you would not give in to the siren song of the left, if you would reject the black-pill mindset that all hope is lost … if you would choose truth over lies, gratitude over grievance, courage over cowardice, and responsibility over apathy, then you could be the generation that leads America into the greatest renewal of the century,” Helfenbein added.
Main sessions were held in The Champion Center Ballroom, with breakout sessions and a meet-and-greet hosted in the new Flames Theater and the adjacent Hancock Welcome Center.
Freedom Uncensored 2026 also featured a vendor and sponsor showcase that allowed attendees to visit with organizations who champion and support conservative Christian values. Platinum sponsors included Real Life Network and Equipping the Persecuted, with additional sponsorships provided by Seven Weeks Coffee, Patriot Academy, EveryLife, Revelation Gold Group, The Leadership Institute, Brave Books, and TPUSA Faith.
During Friday evening’s session, Helfenbein sat down with Erika Kirk for a Q&A. She reflected on the importance of Liberty University to her and her late husband, sharing memories of exploring campus together, playing basketball, throwing a football inside Williams Stadium, and walking the grounds.
In response to the question of how in the face of overwhelming loss, she was able to carry the burden of running an organization as large as TPUSA, she replied, “I consider the burden light because I don’t carry it alone….With Charlie no longer here on earth, God has stepped in and filled that void for me and so that’s why the burden does not feel as heavy because He is carrying me through it all, and there is no other way to explain it. Aside from the immense amount of prayer that we feel in our family, it is just the Lord and I can’t explain it any other way.”
She also discussed Charlie Kirk’s influential leadership at TPUSA, his deep appreciation for Liberty, and the qualities that made him a devoted leader, father, husband, and stalwart Christian leader. “Charlie was beautifully self-controlled, meaning that he was so intentional with his time,” she said. “He was so fixated on making sure that he was always improving to be the best version of himself… He inspired me to be the best version of myself so I could be the best wife for him….and that’s even bled into Turning Point, where all of us are so fixated on excellence.”
Following the Q&A, Liberty President Dondi E. Costin presented Erika Kirk with an honorary doctorate of humanities, the same honor Charlie Kirk received in 2019 when he spoke at the university’s Commencement.
Shane Winnings, a preacher and the CEO and chairman of the national men’s ministry Promise Keepers, told the audience that they are living in one of the most critical times in American history and dealing with the highest of stakes. As such, this generation must turn back to Christ and stand up for the founding values, principles, and ideas that made our nation free and prosperous.
“This is not left versus right; this is tradition versus the death of tradition,” he stated. “The progressive movement is a direct assault on patriotism, morality, and Christianity…. We are one nation under God, nationalistically Christian. Our abandonment of this founding value will be our downfall if we do not right the ship.”
Isabel Brown, who has spoken at the past three Freedom Uncensored events, encouraged Gen Z attendees to let their Christian convictions guide their voting decisions.
“A society is made up of people, families, communities, churches, schools, friendships, tradition, and the shared commitments that allow all of us to live together, despite our differences, united in our identity as one nation under God,” she said. “And when those institutions begin to disintegrate in a culture of lukewarm, noncommittal Christianity, no election alone could ever begin to restore them.”
Freedom Uncensored concluded with a gala dinner in the Montview Student Union, Alumni Ballroom, with keynotes from Dr. Ben Carson and Tim Barton, an author and the president of WallBuilders.
Carson rose to prominence in the 1980s, first when he was named the youngest ever head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in 1984; three years later, he led the first successful separation of occipital craniopagus conjoined twins (twins joined at the back of the head). In 2016, he ran for President before serving as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump administration.
During his remarks, he spoke about the American dream, including his own rise to success, and how antithetical it is to the progressive, secular left’s goal to fundamentally change the United States into a “Marxist utopia.”
“Before 1776, before the beginning of the rise of America, the vast majority of the world lived in dire poverty,” said Carson. “But this country, with its belief (in a) capitalist society … has raised the standard of living not only in this country but in other countries around the world. And what leftists try to do is to convince people that you’re worse off.”
Every society is characterized by the good, the bad, and the ugly, but in America, he said, “there’s a lot more good than there is bad and ugly, and we should be proud of that.”
He pointed to Alexis de Tocqueville’s finding in On Democracy, his landmark analysis of American institutions, that it was America’s churches and the fiery sermons delivered from its pulpits that had instilled a sense of morality and hope in the American people. The French aristocrat and sociologist concluded, “America is great because it is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
To which Carson responded in concluding his own speech, “Our job is to make sure that she remains good and therefore great.”
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