By Jeff Fecke | May 22, 2009 • For those of you unfamiliar with Liberty University, here’s all you need to know about it: it was founded by Jerry Falwell. That said, I’m not sure what the weirdest part of this story is, but I think it’s the fact that there were actual Democrats attending Liberty University:
| Jeff Fecke is a freelance writer who lives in Eagan, Minnesota.In addition to his own blog, Blog of the Moderate Left, he also contributes to Alas, a Blog, Minnesota Campaign Report, and AlterNet. Fecke has appeared as a guest on the “Today” show, the Alan Colmes radio show, and the Mark Heaney Show. Fecke is divorced, and the father of one really terrific daughter. His debut novel, The Valkyrie’s Tale, is now available. |
Liberty University has revoked its recognition of the campus Democratic Party club, saying “we are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by” the university.
“It kind of happened out of nowhere,” said Brian Diaz, president of LU’s student Democratic Party organization, which LU formally recognized in October.
Diaz said he was notified of the school’s decision May 15 in an e-mail from Mark Hine, vice president of student affairs.
According to the e-mail, the club must stop using the university’s name, holding meetings on campus, or advertising events. Violators could incur one or more reprimands under the school’s Liberty Way conduct code, and anyone who accumulates 30 reprimands is subject to expulsion.
Hine said late Thursday that the university could not sanction an official club that supported Democratic candidates.
“We are in no way attempting to stifle free speech.”
Of course not! They’re simply punishing people for supporting the majority party in America.
Jerry Falwell, Jr., says that he wishes the students no ill, saying, “They are good, Christian kids who sit with me at ball games. I just hope they find a pro-life family organization to affiliate with so they can be endorsed by Liberty again.” And that, of course, is the nub of it: you are free to support any organization you want, so long as Jerry Falwell’s kid agrees with it.
This is conservatism in a nutshell. For all the whining about the PC culture on college campuses, I defy anyone to show me a school that shut down the College Republicans. Liberals, by and large, like dissent, like argumentation, like the idea that we can all muddle through things together. Conservatives fear that dissent, and move to stifle it wherever it is. Liberty University is a joke of an institution, but so is conservatism in general these days.
(Via P. Zeddily Zing Zong Zoofus)
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