Liberty University, the ultra-conservative university founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell (the guy who pointed out that one of the Teletubbies was gay), has drawn a lot of ire in their recent decision to ban the College Democrats on campus as CNN reports.
According to the Lynchburg News & Advance, the school decided a week ago the organization "stood against the moral principles" held by the school and therefore could no longer be sanctioned.
Maria Childress, the staff adviser to the club, told the paper the school — which opposes abortion rights and gay marriage — had issues with the Democratic Party platform.
Childress says she was told by Mark Hine, the vice president of student affairs, that "'You can't be a Democrat and be a Christian and be a university representative.'"
In a conference call with reporters Friday, Terry McAuliffe — the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who is running for governor of Virginia — sharply criticized the move.
While I want to be outraged, the thing to remember is that Liberty is a private university, and they're well within their rights to ban groups that stand in stark opposition to the school's principles. If it were a public university, this would be unacceptable. But it isn't. It's a privately-funded institution.
And while I applaud the Liberty Dems for fighting it, I just can't agree with those claiming that this is unfair or unjust. The right to free speech is not guaranteed at a private university.
My friend Sibby posted a delightful rant on how Christians are such an abused minority in this country. Yes, all those poor white folks - such a plight they have. I know that as a white male who grew up in a religious, middle class household, I had it so rough. Damn the man. The world is so hard on white men.
Anyhow, Sibby goes on to link this clip of President Obama in Turkey explaining that we are not a Christian nation:
But what he fails to note is Obama's actual, full quote: "Although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
And that's worth noting. This is not a theocracy. We are not a Christian nation - never have been and hopefully never will be. The First Amendment explicitly states that "Congress shall make no act respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In that, it's important to further note that though we are a nation that is predominately Christian, we are also a nation that is predominantly white. Are we then to assume by Steve's logic that whites in America should have more rights than others? Democratically speaking, that makes sense - and a lot of neocons and regressive conservatives probably wouldn't mind that.
But thankfully, we have the Bill of Rights. As I've noted previously, the Bill of Rights is one of the most undemocratic documents in the world. It's a list of things the majority cannot do. And it keeps us safe from fascist ideologues like Sibby, like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the zealots who would like to see this become a "Christian nation." Should that ever happen, it would be an insult to the Founding Fathers - who knew the danger of religion, who explicitly outlined a wall of separation between church and state - and it would be antithetical to the principles of freedom that America was founded upon.
If you really love America, embrace the fact that our government is secular. Celebrate the diversity that has and always will make this country great. If you truly love and understand this country, you'd easily understand that we are, as President Obama put it, not a Christian nation. But I guess that's just lost on some people. Don't listen to me, though. Let the Founders explain it to you:
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)
Every man "ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." - George Washington (Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia in May, 1789)
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson(letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787)
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of... Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."- Thomas Paine(The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison(Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, 1785.)
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." - (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797 - signed by President John Adams.)
