To Liberty University Students (and their peers at similar institutions): It’s Not Your Fault

It’s not your fault that you were born into an Evangelical or fundamentalist family

It’s not your fault that 81% of Evangelicals (including your Liberty University president) chose this time to align themselves with Donald Trump and all he represents.

It’s not your fault that for the rest of your life, your Liberty degree will have reduced value in all settings except those where Trump and his racism, misogyny, climate denialism, and rude arrogance are celebrated.

These things aren’t your fault.

You had the energy and intelligence to seek a college education, and you should get the best education you can. But you’re caught in this strange predicament, and you have some important choices to make.

You could let yourself be massaged into complicity with Trumpism, either by active collaboration or silent complicity. Just by going with the flow, you will get used to things being considered normal that shouldn’t be, especially:

A. A US President who routinely lies, who displays shocking ignorance and arrogance (along with the opposite of most other biblical virtues), who is careless about violence, who has an unflattering sexual and business history, and who loves money like no other president in history.

B. A University President who is willing to risk your University’s reputation, and thus yours, on this man.

You could have a long talk with your parents this summer and tell them that you don’t want to be part of a school that is associated with Trump. There are several other Christian colleges and universities that take faith seriously but that haven’t put their train on Trump’s track. To name just one not too far from you, consider Eastern Mennonite.

If that’s impossible, you could plan to come back to Liberty next year as an organizer for a different kind of Christian faith, one that …

Promotes character over “wealth and winning,” recalling that Jesus spoke “The Beatitudes” and not “The Art of the Deal.”

Promotes equality for all people, no exceptions, keeping in mind Jesus’ words about doing for others as you’d have them do for you, and loving neighbors as yourself.

Promotes nonviolence and reconciliation, keeping in mind Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Protects the earth, believing that “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fulness.”

If that interests you, I hope you’ll contact me through my website. I would like to be of help.