Liberty Limited at Liberty University

Earlier this month Liberty University, the Christian Evangelical university founded by the late Jerry Falwell, informed the student Democrats Club that it is no longer recognized as a university club. In an e-mail to the Democrats Club the vice-president of student affairs stated, "I must inform you that the College democrats' club is no longer going to be recognized as a Liberty University club. We are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by Liberty University. I expressed these concerns when we met, earlier in the spring semester. The Liberty Way states, "It is the duty of every student to respect Liberty's Statement of Doctrine and Purpose. They may not engage in any activity on or off campus that would compromise the testimony or reputation of the University or cause disruption to Liberty's Christian learning environment." The Liberty University School of Law had been working on a policy to govern their clubs and organizations for quite some time. They have now completed that policy and we have adopted it for Liberty University as well. Now that it has been adopted and will apply to all clubs and organizations, it is clear that this club does not comply."

When the bigoted and self-righteous Jerry Falwell chose Liberty as the name for his university, whose liberty did he have in mind? He certainly didn't believe in liberty for his followers and university students.

As a tax exempt religious organization the university is barred from participating in politics and advocating for any political party or candidate. Banning the student Democrats Club because its parent organization is the Democratic Party violates the conditions under which the university receives its tax exemption. Liberty University students who receive federal financial aid or student loans that are guaranteed by the federal government are at risk of losing such funding.

Liberty University can advocate against abortion and same-sex marriage but it cannot advocate for or against any political party or candidate and continue to be recognized as a religious organization. Liberty University and its supporters will complain that their religious freedom is under attack by the Left, by the Democratic Party and by anti-Christians but this will simply not be true.

Separation of Church and State

The separation of church and state only bans the government from promoting or opposing any religion. For example, the government is not allowed to conduct prayer in a publicly funded school, however, the government is also prohibited from restricting a student’s right to pray in school as long as it is not disruptive to the educational process, i.e. the student could not stand and pray out loud during class. Public schools are not allowed to teach or promote religion, however, students may and often do form religious groups and hold meetings in the school, when and where such non-educational activities are held, and promote new membership.

Every citizen is allowed to take any matter important to them into consideration when deciding how to vote. It is the government that must govern only according to the Constitution. Our government is obligated to consider all citizens equally. Therefore, legislators cannot enact laws that would enforce the dogma of a religion since it would impose that dogma on citizens that hold to a different belief. Therefore, a religious wedding ceremony is outside the jurisdiction of the government. The constitution does not prohibit two people of the same sex from living together as a couple and consequently the government should guarantee all couples the right to do so. I believe in same-sex civil unions and that same-sex couples should have the same legal rights as any married couple. However, religious organizations are allowed to limit the definition of marriage as their beliefs dictate, recognize only such marriages that are conforming and deny, if they choose, membership to persons that do not comply.

Elected officials are obligated to execute their jobs without religious bias. They must decide on such matters as abortion and marriage according to the Constitution without regard for their own personal religious beliefs. A juror must do the same thing when deliberating. The juror must limit the deliberation to the evidence presented in the trial, with respect only to the applicable laws and without regard for the juror’s personal opinion. Our politicians are obligated to govern in the same way.

I believe that many of our elected officials fail to perform constitutionally and obviously many of them actually make promises to religious groups in order to get their votes. Such conduct in my opinion is unconstitutional regardless of my own religious beliefs.

School Funding and the Separation of Church and State

I found and old but interesting article about the subject of “separation of church and state”. The churches that demanded a constitutional separation of church and state now lead the effort to eliminate it. It’s all a matter of whether it is perceived as a benefit or not. I can understand why parochial schools would like to have their students’ allotment of the funding for the public schools that the parochial school students do not attend. But, I see two reasons why the educational vouchers will have a destruction effect on the public school system.

1. Vouchers were created by GW Bush to subsidize the education of students whose parents choose to transport them into a different school district or to a private school. The voucher is not enough to pay for the transportation of a student to a different school nor is it enough to pay the tuition of a private school. Therefore, most, if not all, of the students that will move to a better school district or to a private school are those whose parents can afford to move their children with or without the voucher. The school that loses the student and the funding associated with their voucher will find it increasingly harder to achieve competitive performance and the students left behind will suffer for it.

2. If the parents of school-aged children can withdraw their child’s share of the school’s funding to do with as they see fit, including home schooling. Then does the taxpayer who has no school-aged children have the right to withhold his share of the school’s funding? Why should the childless taxpayer be obligated to support a school which taxpaying parents will not support?

Schools and the education of our children are a benefit to the entire community rather than only to the students and the parents of the students. Imagine the future condition of our communities and society if we did not provide free public education to all students regardless of economic class. The English realized the need for this a couple hundred years ago when they created what became the public school. But, Bush and his elitist kind do not, in my honest opinion, care about the education of the economic underclass. They don’t care at all about the economic underclass as long as there is more than enough of them to fulfill labor needs. Labor rates, like the price of oil, can be and is manipulated to maximize the cost of oil and minimize the cost of labor. This is not done for the benefit of the masses. It is done only for the benefit of the economic upper class. McCain recently taught us who the upper class is; they earn more than $5,000,000 per year.