One of Donald Trump's closest Christian allies throughout his campaign and presidency so far
has been Jerry Falwell, Jr., the president of Liberty University.
And while we can assume most of the conservative Christian students who attend Liberty
have no problem with that,
Falwell rubbed a lot of people the wrong way
after the recent events in Charlottesville.
Remember Trump's speech where he blamed "both sides" for causing violence?
And then his bizarre press conference when he doubled down on those words?
Falwell tweeted that he was proud of Trump for his "bold and truthful" statement.
In response,
a few dozen graduates of Liberty got together in a private Facebook group
and decided they would protest by sending Falwell their diplomas.
Here. Take it back. We don't want it.
That's a powerful symbolic move,
but it won't make one damn bit of difference.
Let's talk about why.
First of all,
the last student protest over Falwell's support of Trump
went nowhere.
Back in October of 2016, not long after the Access Hollywood tape came out and
Trump was caught talking about grabbing women without consent,
Falwell defended him.
In fact, he said the tape must have been leaked by "establishment Republicans."
-- As if the leaker's identity was the real issue --
At the time, an ad hoc group of students
-- not graduates, but current students --
calling themselves Liberty United Against Trump,
issued a statement saying
they didn't share Falwell's political views.
-- at least not this particular endorsement --
and they were frankly embarrassed that he was using the school's credibility
to boost Trump's campaign.
Or should I say "credibility."
And then what happened?
Nothing.
Hell, a week later, when a student wanted to publish an article denouncing Trump in the school's newspaper,
Falwell personally nixed it.
Life went on.
Falwell has backed Trump ever since.
He even said he was being considered to run the Department of Education,
but he couldn't accept the offer, because he didn't want to leave Liberty for that long.
In other words, the student's protests before the election
changed nothing.
So, why would this gesture by alumni move Falwell in a different direction now?
Another problem I have with this:
Why would Charlottesville be the final straw for the people sending back their diplomas?
The graduates said to the media:
"The Chancellors recent comments on the attack upon our neighbors in Charlottesville
have brought our outrage and our sorrow to a boiling point."
This is incompatible
with Liberty University's stated values,
and incompatible with a Christian witness.
I'm glad they're condemning Falwell over what he said,
but why is THIS the tipping point?
There's a long, long list of horrible things Trump has done
that contradicts Liberty's, and Christianity's, supposed values.
Trump has torn apart tight-knit families.
He's blocked Muslims from entering the country, contradicting the idea of religious freedom.
He's defunding programs that reduce teen pregnancy,
which means more teens will get pregnant, which means they will have more abortions.
He bragged about sexual assault. And there has always been evidence
that Trump is racist.
These graduates could have sent back their diplomas years ago.
They didn't.
Were they not bothered enough by any of those other things?
Also,
why would Jerry Falwell care about diplomas from graduates?
These students have already paid their tuition.
Their résumés still say Liberty on them.
And if they don't, maybe that's because they have a job and where they graduated from is now irrelevant.
They're statistics to Falwell now.
Now, if those alums were making large donations to Liberty, and now they're not,
that's a different story.
But just sending Falwell a piece of paper?
Who cares?
If they really wanted to do something big,
they could stop giving money to their conservative Christian churches
since those churches lend support to Trump's agenda
and Falwell's complicity.
What's happening at Liberty
is a symptom of a larger problem among conservative Christians.
Rebuking Falwell
won't make as big of a difference as turning your back on the entire conservative Christian bubble.
You know what else would make a difference?
If current students did more.
They're the ones paying the bills.
Imagine if they transferred schools.
Kick Falwell right in the bank account.
That might get him to reconsider his allegiance to Trump.
But it won't happen.
It's tough to get people to change schools in protest,
but if they don't like the reputation of the school, I don't see the point in staying there.
Either they still see value in their Liberty education,
their parents are making them go there,
or they're not really bothered by Falwell's comments.
None of those options are ideal.
And none of them put any pressure on Falwell to reverse course.
And finally, look,
those degrees were worthless anyway.
Seriously, have you seen Liberty's science courses?
As Bill Maher once joked,
this is a school you flunk out of when you get the answers right.
Falwell may not like the negative publicity from the diploma story,
but I promise you he's not going to lose sleep over it.
His Twitter timeline continues to be a steady stream of Trump talking points
and words of praise for the President.
Unless students push back more effectively,
their gestures are hollow and Falwell won't change.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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