OMG, these folks really would be at home in Gilead

Roxxsmom · Sep 17, 2019

Liberty Universtity--Jerry Falwell Sr's legacy--is not only the antithesis of everything a university is supposed to be, it is a hotbed of corruption. His namesake son is essentially running amok, and no one can dissent. Shouldn't surprise me, I suppose.

“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”

Liberty employees detailed other instances of Falwell’s behavior that they see as falling short of the standard of conduct they expect from conservative Christian leaders, from partying at nightclubs, to graphically discussing his sex life with employees, to electioneering that makes uneasy even those who fondly remember the heyday of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the school’s founder and Falwell Jr.’s father, and his Moral Majority.

What is going on when Jerry Falwell Sr., one of the people who inspired Margaret Atwood to write The Handmaid's Tale, is fondly remembered as a paragon of moderation?

It also reminds me of why academic freedom is so precious and is something we shouldn't take for granted, even at public schools or schools with a more liberal bent.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...versity-loans-227914?utm_source=pocket-newtab

And political machinations and corruption aside, what kind of joke education are the students getting at this school?

PiaSophia · Sep 17, 2019

Is it April Fool's yet? Did I miss something?

Roxxsmom · Sep 17, 2019

PiaSophia said:
Is it April Fool's yet? Did I miss something?

I know I check the date on articles regularly, hoping (usually in vain) that the articles are satirical.

It's getting almost impossible for satirical sites like the Onion to write articles that are more bizarre than the world we are living in. Poe's Law is in full force.

MaeZe · Sep 17, 2019

Liberty University has a nursing school that teaches evolution denial.

And then there is Pat Robertson's Regent's law school, affiliated with Falwell's Liberty U, that GW Bush used to stuff his Justice Department when he was using it to influence elections. Surprise, tRump wasn't the first person to trash our Democracy.

Slate, 2007: How Pat Robertson’s law school is changing America.

We may agree or disagree on that proposition, but it certainly explains how Goodling came to confuse working to advance Gonzales’ agenda with working to advance God’s. But while God may well want more prayer in the public schools, it’s not clear He wanted David Iglesias fired on a pretext. In an excellent 2005 article about Regent in the American Prospect Online, Christopher Hayes points out that more than two-thirds of the students at Regent identified as Republicans, and only 9 percent identified as Democrats. As he concludes, “what students are taught at a place like Regent, or even Calvin and Wheaton, is to live out a Christ-centered existence in all facets of their lives. But what they learn is to become Republicans.”

Is there anything wrong with legal scholarship from a Christian perspective? Not that I see. Is there anything wrong with a Bush administration that disproportionately uses graduates from such Christian law schools to fill its staffing needs? Not that I see. It’s a shorthand, not better or worse than cherry-picking the Federalist Society or the bar association. I can’t even get exercised over the fact that Gonzales, Rove, and Miers had their baby lawyers making critical staffing decisions for them. The baby lawyers had extremely clear marching orders.

No, the real concern here is that Goodling and her ilk somehow began to conflate God’s work with the president’s. Probably not a lesson she learned in law school. The dream of Regent and its counterparts, like Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, is to redress perceived wrongs to Christians, to reclaim the public square, and reassert Christian political authority. And while that may have been a part of the Bush/Rove plan, it was, in the end, only a small part. Their real zeal was for earthly power. And Goodling was left holding the earthly bag.

MaeZe · Sep 17, 2019

We have our own nightmare brewing here in WA State complete with a legislator who advocates killing non-believers.

Daily Kos: 'Liberty State' secessionists peddle their far-right vision to eastern Washington voters

The people promoting the creation of a “Christianity-based” 51st state carved out of what is currently eastern Washington have begun moving beyond just talking about it and planning for it. Now they are promoting it to the voters they need to convince to secede from Washington state—talking to local reporters, setting up booths at county fairs, and adamantly denying their extremism....

...Earlier this year, reporters exposed Shea’s ruminations about what the new state would look like, and how it would behave, in a document titled “Biblical Basis for War” that was essentially an outline for war against its fellow states. Under “Rules of War,” it stipulates that “war is not waged against nations but against man,” and that one should “make an offer of peace before declaring war.” However: “If they do not yield—kill all males.”

Of course when asked by reporters they deny they said/meant anything re killing.

CWatts · Sep 17, 2019

MaeZe said:
We have our own nightmare brewing here in WA State complete with a legislator who advocates killing non-believers.

Daily Kos: 'Liberty State' secessionists peddle their far-right vision to eastern Washington votersOf course when asked by reporters they deny they said/meant anything re killing.

"Kill all males" as in even little babies, just like King Herod?

The irony, it burns us....

ElaineA · Sep 17, 2019

An all-female Western Washington? *thinky face emoji*

Does he think women can't shoot guns? Plus, we have a joint military base, a naval station, and a nuclear sub base over here. I wouldn't want to nuke "Cascadia" because that's a lot of good farmland, but war is hell.

(I'm kiddddding. My menfolk would not appreciate my cavalier attitude toward their well being.) :gone:

Marian Perera · Sep 17, 2019

CWatts said:
"Kill all males" as in even little babies, just like King Herod?

I wonder what happens to a woman who's pregnant with a male fetus.

OMG, these folks really would be at home in Gilead

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

PiaSophia

Balkan writer of feminist horror stories

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

MaeZe

MaeZe

CWatts

down the rabbit hole of research...

ElaineA

All about that action, boss.

Marian Perera

starting over