Evangelical preacher permanently banned from Liberty University for criticizing Jerry Falwell's coziness with Donald Trump.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

An evangelical pastor claimed he was kicked out of and permanently banned from Virginia’s Liberty University after he criticized Jerry Falwell Jr., the Christian school’s president, for aligning “with the darkest contours of Trumpism.” 

Jonathan Martin, an author and preacher from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said he was at the univeristy Monday night attending a concert by musical group Johnnyswim, when campus police came to take him away. 

Martin had expressed a desire on social media days before to organize a prayer session on Liberty’s campus. On Monday, he said he was told by police that if he ever returned to the university’s campus, he would face arrest. 

"What does it mean for a college administration to be this afraid of free speech? What precisely do they fear?” Martin wrote on Instagram. ”[Jerry Falwell] openly encourages his students to carry guns, but fears public prayer from Christians who openly embrace nonviolence.”

Tonight after the @JOHNNYSWIM show, 3 armed @LibertyU police officers (& I think 2 not in uniform)came & escorted me out of their green room pic.twitter.com/eigyE1LjaG

— Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) October 31, 2017

Jerry Falwell Jr. was one of the first well known evangelicals to embrace Donald Trump the candidate, and continues to support him despite everything that has been revealed about him before the election and since he moved into the White House.

You know I keep wondering how ANY of these so called Christians can continue to support Donald Trump, and now it looks like not all of them can.

Some Liberty University graduates returning their diplomas because of their school's support for the Nazi sympathizer in the White House.

White House Nazi with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr..

Courtesy of NPR: 

A group of alumni from one of the country's most influential evangelical Christian universities is condemning their school's president for his continued alignment with President Trump. 

A small but growing number of Liberty University graduates are preparing to return diplomas to their school. The graduates are protesting university President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s ongoing support for Trump. They began organizing after Trump's divisive remarks about the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va. 

Chris Gaumer, a former Student Government Association president and 2006 graduate, said it was a simple decision. 

"I'm sending my diploma back because the president of the United States is defending Nazis and white supremacists," Gaumer said. "And in defending the president's comments, Jerry Falwell Jr. is making himself and, it seems to me, the university he represents, complicit."

I believe this marks the first time that I have EVER supported a decision made by a graduate of Liberty University, EVER.

BTW this was Falwell's tweet after Trump made those disastrous comments concerning there being "fine people on both sides" of those protests in Charlottesville.

Finally a leader in WH. Jobs returning, N Korea backing down, bold truthful stmt about #charlottesville tragedy.So proud of @realdonaldtrump

— Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) August 16, 2017

Perhaps now is a good time to remember that Falwell Sr. founded the Moral Majority to fight against desegregation, not to fight abortion as is it is often remembered today.

Donald Trump bitches about his critics during commencement speech at Liberty University.

Courtesy of ABC News: 

President Trump in a commencement address at Liberty University both went after his critics and emphasized the role faith plays in America. 

“The fact is, no one has achieved anything significant without a chorus of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why it can't be done,” Trump told the crowd in Lynchburg, Virginia, in what was his first commencement speech as president. “Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic...The future belongs to the people who follow their heart no matter what the critics say because they truly believe in their vision.”

It should be noted that virtually NOTHING that Donald Trump promised during his campaign has actual been accomplished, and that it is very unlikely that any of it WILL be accomplished.

It should also be pointed out that Liberty University is probably one of the VERY few universities where Trump could speak without being drowned out by the boos, much like the ones that shut down his Secretary of Education when she tried to deliver a commencement speech to a group not handpicked to stay silent.

After Trump's October visit to Liberty University there was a protest letter issued by some of the students, however verbally protesting a speaker is simply not tolerated in that environment.

However Liberty would seem overall to be the perfect conservative bubble in which Trump can lie to his heart's content, because after all these students have just been lied to for the past four years anyhow. 

Of course Trump advises these students to ignore their critics, because he himself simply cannot handle protests or criticism, that is why he has protesters removed from his rallies, and almost daily attacks his critics on Twitter.

The Fake Media is working overtime today!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

And his advice to these students is of course terrible, because often your critics are simply pointing out that something you are doing is dangerous, foolish, or reckless.

Which I think sums up the Trump presidency in a nutshell.

Liberty University to install nation's first on campus firing range. Jesus would be so proud.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

Liberty University is seeking a permit to build an on-campus shooting range, less than a year after the school’s board of trustees also approved a policy that allows students to carry concealed weapons in dorms. According to the proposal, the shooting range would be the first National Rifle Association-approved facility on a U.S. campus. 

A proposal filed earlier this week for a special use permit from the Campbell County Planning Commission states that Liberty wants to construct a “nationally recognized, full-scale shooting, training and competition center” on its Lynchburg, Va., campus. The outdoor space will include a pistol range, a rifle range, an instructional area, and a 3-gun competition range, with future plans for an indoor firing range. 

“The project was introduced to the NRA during [Executive Vice President] Wayne LaPierre’s visit to campus last spring,” Len Stevens, spokesperson for the university, told Yahoo News. “They have generously offered their expertise to help us develop it.

I'll bet they did. In fact I bet they were falling all over themselves to help set up a gun range on campus.

You may remember that it was just last year that University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was encouraging his students to conceal carry on campus, so it stands to reason that he would like his students to get a little practice in before they get stressed out and mow down a bunch of their peers.

You know I think I am going to have to go back and read that Bible again, because I totally missed the part where it said "Thou shall lock and load, and return fire until the infidel twitcheth at your feet."

Do you think that might be in Deuteronomy?  

Is Donald Trump seriously considering Jerry Falwell Jr. for Secretary of Education? Because that simply cannot happen.

Courtesy of Alternet:  

Liberty University President, Jerry Falwell Jr. is under consideration for Secretary of Education. Yes, the president of an Evangelical university, who believes that evolution is a lie, who is president of a university that was founded in opposition to school integration, may be dictating the educational agenda of America's public school children. Falwell Jr. confirmed to the Associated Press on Friday that he had met with Trump at Trump Tower. 

Falwell told Virginia's Richmond Times-Dispatch last week that he's let the administration know that "one of my passions is reforming higher education and education in general." When pressed by other outlets, including the Associated Press, whether that role would be as Secretary of Education, Falwell would not, "confirm or deny whether he was being vetted as secretary of education, but says he will 'definitely play a role' in the administration.'

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Okay I just had to get that off of my chest before I attempted to respond to this news in anything resembling actual English.

This blog is called "The Immoral Minority" directly because of this guy's father, and I have long been predicting that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Religious Right in this country.

However if Trump actually puts this anti-intellectual, creationism believing buffoon in office as the man in charge of education in this country, there is no telling the amount of damage that he could do.

Liberty University was founded because Jerry Fallwell Sr. could not stomach the idea of the little white Christian snowflakes having to share dorms, cafeterias, or "gasp" locker rooms with African Americans.

That's right the school is a monument to racism. 

The school is notoriously anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ, and Fallwell Jr. suggested this last year: 

“I’ve always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.” 

So yes it is also Anti-Muslim. (You can see why Donald Trump probably likes this POS so much.)

I swear that virtually all of Trump's possible cabinet choices read like a "Who's Who of No Fucking Way." But this one, this one might be the worst so far.

President of Liberty University urges students to get their conceal carry permits so that they can "end those Muslims before they walk in and kill us."

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Falwell criticized President Obama for urging gun control in the wake of recent shootings, and made it clear he was armed during his speech at a convocation Friday night. 

“It just blows my mind when I see the President of the United States say that the answer to [San Bernardino] is more gun control,” Falwell said. “If some of those people in that community center had had what I’ve got in my back pocket right now…” 

He encouraged people to carry guns so they could ” end those Muslims before they walk in and kill us,” Falwell said. 

He then said the university offers a free course to help get a concealed carry permit. 

“I just wanted to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit. We offer a free course. Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here,” he said.

Wow! And here I thought Jerry Falwell Sr. was a dangerous son-of-a-bitch.

His son is even worse!

I'm assuming that this only applies to Muslim terrorists and that Christian terrorists will simply get a stern talking to, or since this IS Liberty University a ticker tape parade?

Bernie Sanders tells an audience of Liberty University students that on the pro-life issue Republicans are hypocrites.

So as you can hear the moderator ask Sanders this student's question "You've talked in your campaign about how it's immoral to protect the billionaire class at the expense of the most vulnerable in society-children.  A majority of Christians would agree with you but would also go further and say children in the womb need out protection even more. How do you reconcile the two in your mind?"

You then hear the heavily indoctrinated audience go wild at this question, however Sanders response not only challenges their thinking, but seems to have earned more than a few converts to his point of view.

Here it is in its entirety:

“I do understand that. but I do also understand this is an area where we disagree. I do understand and I do believe that it is improper for the United States government, or state government to tell every woman in this country the very painful and difficult choice that she has to make on that issue.” 

Just listen to the applause and voices raised in agreement, most of it sounding female, in response to that statement.

“And I honestly don’t want to be too provocative here, but very often conservatives say, ‘Well, you know, get the government out of my life! I don’t want the government telling me what to do.” 

“But on this very sensitive issue on which this nation is divided. A lot of people agree with you, a lot of people agree with me.  But my view is I respect absolutely a family that says, ‘No, we are not going to have an abortion,’ I understand that, I respect that. But I would hope that other people respect the very painful and difficult choice that many women feel they have to make and don’t want the government telling them what to they have to do.” 

More applause, and female voices raised in agreement. 

“ But...but..I want to take that question a step further David. We do disagree on that issue no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  I respect your point of view I hope you respect my point of view. But here's where I hope we have common ground."

"Now I'm not trying to be partisan. During my remarks, I have not. But I'm going to be partisan for a moment, because I want to lay this on your shoulders."

"I am the ranking member of the US Senate Budget Committee.  That means I lead the Democrats in opposition. Republicans control the House and the Senate."

"Now I want to tell you what was in the Republican budget that passed a number of months ago months ago.” Check it out if you think I'm not telling you the truth. When you talk about issues of children, understand the Republican budget threw 27 million people off of health care, including many children, at a time when many families cannot afford to send their kids to college."

"And I am running on a program by the way that says every public college and university in America should be tuition free."

More applause.

"But at a time when families cannot afford to send their kids to college Republican's budget cut 90 million  dollars in Pell grants over a ten year period. At a time when children in America are going hungry, the Republican budget cut billions of dollars in nutrition programs, including money for the WIC program, which goes to low income pregnant women and their babies. And to add insult to injury in that budget, the Republicans provided over $250 billion over a 10-year period in tax breaks to the top two tenths of one percent."

"I don't think that is a moral budget." 

Now remember that Sanders made these remarks in front of an audience of conservative Christians, at the university founded by freaking Jerry Falwell.

And not only did he make these remarks unflinching, but he got far more than a tepid response from the crowd.

I have to say that after seeing this my advice to the Clinton campaign is that they better bring their A game, because Bernie is knocking it out of the park.

(H/T to Raw Story.)

Bernie Sanders to speak at Liberty University. Wait, did I read that right? Update!

Courtesy of Salon: 

Wednesday night, the Bernie Sanders campaign announced that he will be giving a speech in September to an unexpected venue: Liberty University, the evangelical university founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell. In a statement, Sanders explained that the invitation came from the school itself and he views it as a way to talk to an audience whose views on many issues may differ from his: 

"Liberty University was kind enough to invite me to address a convocation and I decided to accept. It goes without saying that my views on many issues — women’s rights, gay rights, education and many other issues — are very different from the opinions of some in the Liberty University community. I think it is important, however, to see if we can reach consensus regarding the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality in our country, about the collapse of the middle class, about the high level of childhood poverty, about climate change and other issues. It is very easy for a candidate to speak to people who hold the same views. It’s harder but important to reach out to others who look at the world differently. I look forward to meeting with the students and faculty of Liberty University."

I'm sure a number of you remember that Liberty is where Ted Cruz launched his presidential campaign not just because he shares their ideology but perhaps also because it was the one place where the audience was not allowed to leave until he was finished.

As we have seen from recent news reports Sanders certainly does not require that the doors be locked in order to keep his audiences engaged. (Though it does help when the "Black Lives Matter" folks don't interrupt him.)

In the Salon article it points out that Sanders is not the only prominent liberal to speak at Liberty as Ted Kennedy also spoke there in 1983.

However one has to admit it still takes a lot of guts to wander into the lion's den of Jerry Falwell's design and stand in front of an audience whose every lesson is ideological opposed to your own, and attempt to find common ground.

Just another way in which Bernie Sanders impresses us all.

Update: Well this is interesting. 

Is somebody trying to sabotage Black Lives Matter? Of the Bernie Sanders campaign?

Jeb Bush goes to Liberty University to pander his pants off for that sweet, sweet evangelical vote.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Jeb Bush on Saturday made a major overture to evangelical voters, seeking to reassure a skeptical voting bloc that when it comes to core beliefs about religious freedom and Christianity’s role in the world, he’s with them. 

The former Florida governor and likely presidential candidate made his pitch at a commencement address at Liberty University, a prominent symbol of evangelical Christianity in Lynchburg, Va., that has become a routine campaign stop for presidential hopefuls. Bush aimed to connect with evangelical voters — many of whom have been wary of his potential candidacy — by decrying progressives who, in his characterization, see no role for religion in public life.

“I am asked sometimes whether I would ever allow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian faith,” Bush said, building on a spirited defense of the First Amendment and the importance of free exercise of religion. “Whenever I hear this, I know what they want me to say. The simple and safe reply is, ‘No. Never. Of course not.’ If the game is political correctness, that’s the answer that moves you to the next round. The endpoint is a certain kind of politician we’ve all heard before – the guy whose moral convictions are so private, so deeply personal, that he even refuses to impose them on himself.” 

Holy crap! It almost sounds as if Bush has been possessed by the spirit of Ted Cruz.

But wait, there's more:  

“The stories vary, year after year, but the storyline is getting familiar: The progressive political agenda is ready for its next great leap forward, and religious people or churches are getting in the way. Our friends on the left like to view themselves as the agents of change and reform, and you and I are supposed to just get with the program.” 

And do you know why those of us on the Left view ourselves as "agents of change and reform?" 

Because we are.

And the reason that that we see Fundamentalist Christians diametrically opposed to that kind of change, or the acceptance of all people despite their sexuality, religion, or lack of religion, is because they are.

If religious people did not demand that their ability to discriminate against gay people while hiding behind their faith be protected, or attempt to indoctrinate public school children in science classes by promoting the teaching of Creationism, or freak out because a child sits during the Pledge of Allegiance rather than pay homage to their God, then I don't see too many liberals having a problem with them.

After all it is not their right to worship that we object to, it's their constant need to impose their primitive religious beliefs on all of the rest of us that chaps our ass.

You know we openly mocked Sarah Palin just the other day for going full televangelist, but now it's clear that she is simply jumping on a bandwagon already bulging with potential presidential candidates who seem poised to reanimate the social conservative values of the Moral Majority.

And this in the era of gay marriage, a dramatic decline in church attendance, and the rapid growth of non-theism.

Well as one of those political progressives that Jebbie is bitching about all I have to say is, "Sounds like a plan to me."

I completely support the Republican party going back in time and embracing the values espoused by Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggert, and Pat Robertson.  Good luck with that.

Ted Cruz announces he is running for President and is immediately mocked. How do they mock him? By comparing him to Sarah Palin of course.

Courtesy of Salon: 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared that he will be running for president Sunday night on Twitter, so it’s only appropriate that the people of Twitter are now coming out in droves to help the first major candidate in the race write a slogan. Kind of. 

Cruz noted in the video uploaded with his tweet, “I believe in America and her people, and I believe we can stand up and restore our promise.” Let’s just say, if the Twitter trending topic #TedCruzCampaignSlogans is an accurate metric, people are having a much more challenging time returning that same belief to the champion of local control.

Here are a few tweets "celebrating" Cruz's announcement:

Ted Cruz is the Abraham Lincoln of Sarah Palins. #TedCruzCampaignSlogans
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) March 23, 2015

"Stop Laughing You Guys, I'm Serious!" #TedCruzCampaignSlogans
— Ed Cates (@EdCates) March 23, 2015

Cuban dad. Canadian born. Harvard educated. Hate immigrants. Despise healthcare. Champion stupidity. I need therapy #TedCruzCampaignSlogans
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) March 23, 2015

Like Sarah Palin's annoying younger brother #TedCruzCampaignSlogans pic.twitter.com/eaRnSs4ZMZ
— Blue DuPage (@BlueDuPage) March 23, 2015

For those with the stomach, and I have to admit I am not among them, here is video of Cruz's announcement today at Liberty University.

By the way apparently attendance for this announcement was mandatory for the students, because you know announcing you want to be President to an empty auditorium is just awkward.

Mocked on Twitter, constantly compared to Sarah Palin, and having your audience threatened into listening to you. Yep the Cruz campaign is off to a rollicking start.

Update: Oh yeah people are really running with this:

Update: Wait, there's more:

Okay, THAT'S pretty funny.

Sarah Palin demonstrating her ignorance about Thomas Jefferson in her own words.

The above is from Palin's visit to Liberty University last Thursday. Where Palin did her best to lower the IQ of the already logic averse student body that attends the "school."

Here is how the Washington Monthly covered this portion of her speech: 

Palin said Jefferson would likely agree that secularists had set their sights on destroying the religious themes in Christmas celebrations. 

“He would recognize those who would want to try to ignore that Jesus is the reason for the season, those who would want to try to abort Christ from Christmas,” she said. “He would recognize that, for the most part, these are angry atheists armed with an attorney. They are not the majority of Americans.” 

Palin said there was a double standard that protected atheists at the expense of the religious. 

“Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn - a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is right?” she said. “Oh, they take such offense, though. They say that it physically even can hurt them and mentally it distresses them so they sue, right?” 

“But heaven forbid we claim any type of offense when we say, ‘Wait, you’re stripping Jesus from the reason, as the reason for the season,’ but heaven forbid we claim any type of offense,” Palin said. “So that double standard, I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it and stand up and he wouldn’t let anybody tell him to sit down and shut up.”

The Washington Monthly then went on to provide a couple of Jefferson quotes that indicate Palin's complete lack of knowledge or understanding of the Founding Father.  

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802 

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

What's more, Jefferson was famously so unimpressed with  the New Testament that he took a razor and cut out all of the miracles attributed to Jesus, and the parts that he considered pure BS, and put together the Jefferson Bible dedicated to the philosophy of Jesus.

No birth in a manger, no wise men, no walking on water, no healing the sick, no bringing the dead back to life, and no resurrection after the crucifixion.

So exactly HOW does Palin imagine that Jefferson would get his panties in a wad over people celebrating a holiday that does not fall anywhere near the birthday of Jesus, without saying the words "Merry Christmas?"

P.S. This is how the Washington Monthly began their arcticle:

If you could turn stupid into a fuel, you could use Sarah Palin to leave the Solar System.

That about sums it up, don't you think?

The pro-life movement has its roots, not in fighting abortion, but fighting desegregation.

Courtesy of Salon:  

As the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wadepassed, evangelical leaders marked the occasion with histories of how their community took up the anti-abortion cause. Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, has suggested the movement formed out of grassroots reflection on “the terrible and inevitable consequences of legalized abortion.” Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, insisted it arose from moral outrage triggered by Roe v. Wade. 

Both histories provide pristine portraits of the origins of the evangelical right, suggesting its founders based their advocacy on scholarly assessments and aspired to noble political ends. But a history can be told that is significantly less flattering. 

The right-wing evangelical movement was not an immediate backlash to Roe v. Wade. The evangelical community, unlike Roman Catholicism, showed little interest in combating abortion until almost 1980. As Jerry Falwell lamented in 1979, “The Roman Catholic Church for many years has stood virtually alone against abortion. I think it’s an indictment against the rest of us that we’ve allowed them to stand alone.” 

Although evangelicals were mostly silent on abortion after Roe v. Wade, they were not silent on other political issues. Paul Weyrich, one of the evangelical right’s most influential founders, recalls that the movement initially emerged to defend racially segregated Christian schools from government intrusion: 

[W]hat galvanized the Christian community was not abortion, school prayer, or the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment]. I am living witness to that because I was trying to get those people interested in those issues and I utterly failed. What changed their minds was Jimmy Carter’s intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation. 

In other words, as Randall Balmer has succinctly put it: “the religious right of the late twentieth century organized to perpetuate racial discrimination.” 

Only after the movement was underway did it begin advocacy on abortion. It did so, in large part, based on highly dubious arguments advanced by the popular writer Francis Schaeffer.

You know I started to write something about this very thing about a year ago, but I had trouble finding the information online that I needed.

Liberty University's Dean of Law claims that gay marriage might cause another Civil War. WTF?

"I mean this is the thing that revolutions literally are made of. I mean this would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and Christians around the country, than anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing." 

Worse than what the people fighting during the Revolution had to face? Could he exaggerate this issue any more?

Yes having Supreme Court Justices help define marriage is SO much worse than having it defined by a bunch of individuals who lived thousands of years ago during a time when they believed the earth was flat, sickness was caused by demons, and the sky above us was actually the Ocean of Heaven which held within it the Firmament of the Stars.

Yeah how dare modern day jurists pit their puny intellect and modern day perspective against THOSE Bronze Age geniuses!

Bill Maher on Mitt Romney's visit to Liberty University: "A guy in magic gym shorts talking to virgin Baptists. Clown, meet college."

Courtesy of the Huffington Post:

 "You can't expect me to believe anything Mitt Romney said last week at Liberty University, because a) he's a liar and b) Liberty University isn't really a university," Maher began. "It's not like an actual statesman visited a real college. It's more like the Tupac hologram visited Disneyland and said what he would do as president during the Main Street Electrical Parade."

I loved this part of Maher's New Rules on Saturday, because it has long irritated me that these religious schools are allowed to teach bullshit to their students and pass it off as an "education." Because the University meets the requirements of  accreditation the students, at least on paper, appear to be as knowledgeable as students from any other university.

Of course what they really are is little Fundie soldiers who are supposed to go out into the world and change law, politics, and even entertainment in this country to meet Jerry Falwell's extraordinarily narrow Biblical world view.

But Mitt Romney, who KNOWS he must get the Evangelicals to support him or he is as dead in the water politically as his wife is in the marital bed, sucked it and actually pretended that he was talking to a group of people who respected him. Which of course they didn't, as evidenced by the fact that one of the classes offered is called Theology 678—Western and New Religions.

Here is the description of that class's curriculum:

"The history, doctrines, and present state of the major cults such as Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventism. The course will also include a study of the Occult Movement. Emphasis is placed on the errors of these groups and on methods and materials for confronting them effectively."

 Oh yeah I'm sure they hung on his every word.